Toto: Toto IV, 1982

The first album (on cassette) I ever owned!

Sure, they’re professional; we can’t all, nor should we want to, be what Robert Christgau referred to as “scruffy rumors.” In fact, I’ll argue that professionalism this shiny never sounded so good. There’s no doubt here, no rough edges (hi Doobies!), no neuroses (hi Fagen and Becker!): this is all gleaming LA studio surfaces made by guys who were such pros that Quincy Jones hired them to play on Thriller — Toto was basically MJ’s backing band. And you can hear precisely why on this six-time-Grammy-winning, unassuming monster: the ’70s Chicago-isms of “Good for You,” the Doobies-isms of “Make Believe,” the smoother-than-smooth #1 single “Africa,” even the poppy AOR of “Lovers in the Night.” They didn’t hit these heights before or after this behemoth, but what studio perfection, the essence of El Lay in the early ’80s.