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.
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.
Reception
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.
Critical response to the album was mixed. AllMusic'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
Steve Lukather – guitars, lead and backing vocals
Steve Porcaro – synthesizers, electronics, synthesizer programming
David Paich – piano, keyboards, lead and backing vocals
David Hungate – bass guitar, 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 Management – The Fitzgerald Hartley Co.
Singles
"99" / "Hydra" "St George and the Dragon" / "A Secret Love" "All Us Boys" / "Hydra" (released in US)