''Hydra'' is the second studio album by

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

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. In 2013, Toto's guitarist

Steve Lukather Steven Lee Lukather (born October 21, 1957) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer, best known as the sole continuous founding member of the rock band Toto. His reputation as a skilled guitarist led to a stea ...

said of the album:

You get successful with something, it’s always the whole thing where you don’t want to repeat it. So we tried something a little different with ''Hydra'', and it sold well, although it might have been a little bit rushed for us. And here's some irony for you -- ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' beat up on the first album, and then when they reviewed ''Hydra'', the opening line of the review is something like, "It doesn’t have the magic of the first album." We're immediately pissing ourselves on the floor with laughter. Who are these cats? Do they think we have amnesia? We were just following our muses, man. We were following our own rules and we didn't want to listen to anybody.

Reception

Though a commercial success, ''Hydra'' was a far less popular album than the band's top-selling debut.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

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. Critical response to the album was mixed.

's retrospective review made little judgment on the quality (noting only as an aside that the songs were "well-played"), instead discussing why it had failed to match the commercial success of their debut.

Track listing

Personnel

Toto

* Bobby Kimball – lead and backing vocals *

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

s, lead and backing vocals *

Steve Porcaro Steven Maxwell Porcaro (born September 2, 1957) is an American keyboardist, songwriter, and film composer, known as one of the founding members of the rock band Toto and the last surviving Porcaro brother (after the deaths of Jeff in 1992 and M ...

–

synthesizers A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

, electronics, synthesizer programming *

David Paich David Frank Paich (born June 25, 1954) is an American musician, best known as the co-founder, principal songwriter, keyboardist and singer of the rock band Toto since 1977. He wrote or co-wrote much of Toto's original material, including the ba ...

– piano, keyboards, lead and backing vocals * David Hungate –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, guitars *

Jeff Porcaro Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro (; April 1, 1954 – August 5, 1992) was an American drummer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work with the rock band Toto but is one of the most recorded session musicians in history, working o ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

Additional musicians

* Lenny Castro – percussion * Michael Boddicker – synthesizer samples * Roger Linn – assistant synthesizer programming * Marty Paich – string arrangements

Production

* Produced by Tom Knox, Reggie Fisher and Toto. * Engineered and Mixed by Tom Knox and Dana Latham. * Assistant Engineer – Stephen McManus * Mastered by David Donnelly * Art Direction – Jim Hagopian, Tony Lane and Jeff Porcaro. * Design – Philip Garris * Photography – Jim Hagopian * Calligraphy – Mike Manoogian * Management – The Fitzgerald Hartley Co.

Singles

* " 99" / "Hydra" * "St George and the Dragon" / "A Secret Love" * "All Us Boys" / "Hydra" ''(released in US)''

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

External links

"Hydra" at discogs

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hydra (Album) 1979 albums Toto (band) albums Columbia Records albums Albums recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders Funk rock albums by American artists Hard rock albums by American artists Rhythm and blues albums by American artists