Hydra (Toto album)

The album received television promotion through Musikmarkt's Hitparade series.^[10] In 1980, CBS had also created a 24-minute four-song video that was filmed over the course of three days. The video, which cost $500,000 to make, included a recreation of a New York sewer to emulate the imagery found on the cover of Hydra.^[11]

In 2013, Toto's guitarist Steve Lukather 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 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.^[12]

More information Review scores, Source ...

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[13]
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide	[14]
Record Mirror	[15]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[16]

Close

Though a commercial success, Hydra was a far less popular album than the band's top-selling debut. Record World felt that that the album possessed "an even broader range" than their debut album with "some prime pop and rock material".^[17] Cashbox described it as "more adventuresome than the first album" with "some fine excursions into progressive rock."^[18] Billboard said that the album had a "professional yet energetic, rock sound" and highlighted Lukather's guitar playing as "breathtaking".^[19]

Robin Smith of Record Mirror referred to Hydra as "another fine album" from Toto, adding that the song was "big on everything" with "escapism into a storybook world of knights and dragons".^[15] Record Business thought that Hydra demonstrated the band's ability to make "superb music", which they said was best showcased on "St. George and the Dragon", "All Us Boys", and the title track.^[20]

In a retrospective review 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.^[13]

Toto

• Bobby Kimball – vocals
• Steve Lukather – guitars, vocals
• Steve Porcaro – keyboards, electronics
• David Paich – keyboards, vocals
• David Hungate – bass, guitars
• Jeff Porcaro – drums, percussion

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

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