The Toms – The Toms (2023 Reissue) | Album Review
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Feel It Records
When Paul McCartney released his self-titled debut in 1970, formalizing the breakup of the biggest band in the world and foraying into solo stardom, the prevailing sentiment was one of resounding disappointment. While still reeling from John Lennon’s request to break up their songwriting partnership and leave the group, Paul had begun experimenting with home-recording equipment, eventually tracking a whole album in secret from his flat on which he played every instrument. Contemporaneous reviews were skeptical of the concept, to say the least; Melody Maker went so far as to suggest that Paul’s “debt to [Beatles’ producer] George Martin [was becoming] increasingly clear…” after hearing the record.
Not even a decade later, a devout disciple of the Fab Four named Tommy Marolda was earning a living recording artists using a similar home studio setup from his basement in suburban New Jersey. And not just friends and small fish–Richie Sambora (of Bon Jovi, with whom Marolda works to this day), members of the E Street Band, Earth Wind & Fire, and The Smithereens were all clients. In fact, it was the latter who canceled a session with Marolda at the last minute one fateful weekend in 1979, leaving him with equipment primed for use and three to four days of uninterrupted time. Marolda took an acoustic guitar and a notebook full of lyrics and ideas out to his back porch, where he began fleshing out full songs before putting them to tape, recording every instrument and singing every harmony into his trusty Tascam 16-track recorder. By the end of the weekend, he had roughly 40 songs, packaging the 12 he deemed most “commercial” into the self-titled debut of The Toms.
The Toms was a minor masterpiece, bouncing from minor-key Beatles worship to raucous new wave and back, finding inspiration everywhere from Motown to Boston. Take the standout “You Must Have Crossed My Mind,” a harmonious marriage of blissful pop melody and universal sentiment (“Flowers need the rain / As much as I need you”) that could have topped charts in an alternate universe. Every second sounds carefully considered, the drums keeping steady time under a chiming haze of guitar. A lumbering bassline pushes the song forward (Marolda tracked bass last in these sessions, scrapping any song for which he couldn’t write a line he liked) and provides a counterweight to keep the sugary melodies from ever becoming cloying.
Guitars on the opening track “Let’s Be Friends Again” chime like horn stabs as Marolda splits the difference between rekindling a friendship with an old flame and engaging in a sly bit of dirty-macking. Later, on “Hook,” he folds the act of songwriting in on itself, marrying a gleaming refrain to the lyrics “Repeat this hook line / over and over / til you’ve got it memorized.” And while power pop often appears regionless by nature, an amorphous genre defined by influence more than sound, The Toms feels decidedly of New Jersey–Marolda’s soul-inspired vamping at the end of “You Must Have Crossed My Mind” and “Wasn’t That Love in Your Eyes” shares more than a little bit of DNA with Springsteen.
Eventually, Marolda moved out to California looking to get The Toms signed, but labels proved wary of the whole “one-man band” thing when not helmed by a Paul McCartney or a Stevie Wonder. He found work as a songwriter in the studio system, and The Toms quietly ascended to “cult classic” status in the ensuing decades, its distinct red and white cover becoming a kind of secret handshake amongst power pop fans with the rise of Web 1.0 and forum culture. This renewed interest culminated in a slew of reissues, including this latest one by Feel It Records.
The original 12 songs, newly remastered here by Caufield Schnug of Sweeping Promises, crackle with renewed intensity. Every component instrument is rendered crisper than before, emphasizing the astonishing feats of Marolda’s imagination and musicianship. It’s perhaps never more apparent than on “Other Boys Do,” where a resurfaced guitar lead soars above the mix in glorious fashion. The reissue also features 12 bonus tracks, including seven more songs recorded during that weekend session in 1979 which were included in prior reissues beginning as early as 1997.
A few of these session tracks feel like standout additions: the bluesy rave “You Put Me Up to This” is propelled forward by an excellent falsetto hook, and the lightly psychedelic “If I Am Dreaming” would have slotted in perfectly on the original LP. Others feel less essential, never quite reaching the giddy thrills of The Toms or even the further-out ideas from that weekend that have since been released. Several of those ended up on 2020’s The 1979 Sessions, such as “She’s So Lovely,” which stretches a single chord into something resembling the late David Crosby’s compositions with The Byrds. Of the five other bonus tracks, the most interesting is a demo of “It’s Needless.” The blown-out snare hits on the demo are a fascinating glimpse into Marolda’s creative process, a direct contrast with the pop sheen applied to the album version. The only brand new inclusion is Peter Noone’s cover of “The Flame,” which mostly serves to emphasize just how compelling of an on-record presence Marolda is.
Ultimately it’s difficult to come away from this expanded track listing anything less than excited by the chance to celebrate an unheralded masterwork anew. Marolda made the right choice in culling the original release down to a tight 12 tracks, but what better way to put The Toms in conversation with its influences than reissues that show off what got left on the cutting room floor? The Toms, in any form, is a testament to restless creativity; one man, whirling around his basement, fueled only by boundless possibility and dedication to craft.
