Hydra Songs Ranked
Hydra is the second studio album by American rock band Toto, released in 1979. It reached #37 on the Billboard Pop Albums. While most of the album’s singles failed to make any impact in the charts, “99“, a song inspired by the 1971 science fiction movie THX 1138, reached #26 on the Billboard Hot 100. Though a commercial success, Hydra was a far less popular album than the band’s top-selling debut. AllMusic suggested this was due to Toto’s failure to establish a distinctive, recognizable sound on either Hydra or their debut, which would have allowed listeners to immediately identify Toto’s major hits with the band themselves. They also speculated that most listeners were not familiar with the film (namely, THX 1138) on which the song “99” was based, and thus found the lyrics hopelessly cryptic, preventing the single from becoming as big a hit as it might have been. Here are all of Hydra songs ranked.
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8. A Secret Love
“‘A secret love’ ends the album and is awash with nice keyboard work and good vocals by Steve Lukather. It is a restrained effort, without much of the bombast Toto can use.”
7. Lorraine
“Lorraine” also has its poppy sections, but it remains most notable for the other parts–the beautifully melodic parts. Much has been made of whether or not this album is better or worse than other Toto albums.”
6. White Sister
“White Sister is a scorching heavy metal fest that drag the record almost to a show-stopping close with a whiplash climax and guitar solos that actually burn white hot.”
See more: Toto Albums Ranked
5. 99
“.The song ’99’ I have never truly embraced, only because I think it just goes on and on! In bands I really like, I try and find something good in every track they do, because face it, there’s good in everything. ’99’ I liked when I first heard it, but after repeated listenings, its a song I skip. “
4. Mama
“My favorite tune on the album has to be “Mama”,which not only emphasizes Toto’s jazz backround but it sure would sound great right alongside Steely Dan’s “Babylon Sisters” from about the same time.”
See more: Toto Songs Ranked
3. St. George and the Dragon
“St George And The Dragon features bright shuffling piano but as a song is curiously distant and empty. In my opinion, this is an exercise in futility – the musicianship of the band on this recording is as superb as any other album they’ve released – it’s just different than anything else they’ve done.”
2. All Us Boys
“All Us Boys is a wild glam rock pillaging of a certain Elton John song about Saturdays except with the most insanely inane lyrics about blowing minds with rowdy, smoking and drinking, rock and roll behaviour.”
1. Hydra
“Second effort from the totes fantastic Toto troupe. Whereas their debut dabbled benignly in dancier, poppier disco sounds, Hydra paints with a murkier palette to produce a moodier, heavier, slightly more sullen portrait. The album slowly settles with the suspenseful progtastic title track opener. The tune is a daunting maze of spidery riffage and sinister story telling and sets the scene for the rest of the album fantastically.”