“Africa” is one of music fans’ guiltiest pleasures. Rock critic Steve Almond courageously breaks it down.

We all know Toto sucks. If you don’t know that, we automatically dismiss anything you have to say about 1. music, 2. pop culture, and 3. pretty much everything else. No hesitation allowed. Toto sucks. Period. But we also know that we’re not in a big hurry to change the station when “Africa” comes on the radio. This is a phenomenon—it applies not just to Toto, but to Journey and others best left unmentioned—that most music fans dare not discuss in any company, and certainly not in the company of other music fans. But rock critic and Good Men Project contributor Steve Almond is a brave guy, and in this clip, he breaks it down.

Almond was a contributor to the Good Men Project: Real Stories From the Front Lines of Modern Manhood (excerpted here), and has a new book: Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life. On July 8, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Steve will debut Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life: The Musical, with readings like this one, and music by Danya Kurtz.

[The editors’ claim that “Toto sucks” was later retracted, in a post by Matthew Frawley, titled, “Toto, Defended“]