David Bowie’s album Toy from 2001 is finally receiving a commercial release after 20 years. The album is set to be released as part of a box set Brilliant Adventure (1992 – 2001), due out on November 26th, before receiving a standalone release as a multi-disc set called TOY:BOX on January 7th. According to consequence.net: “Toy was recorded in the aftermath of Bowie’s 2000 performance at Glastonbury, as the Thin White Duke sought to reimagine some of his earliest recordings with a live backing band, and then release it in a surprise manner. But after EMI/Virgin put the kibosh on those plans, Bowie lost interest in the project, moved to Columbia Records, and recorded the album Heathen. Several tracks from Toy appeared on Heathen or released as B-sides, and the album eventually leaked online in 2011, but this marks the first time the full album is receiving a commercial release.”
Bowie producer Mark Plati said about the release: “Toy is like a moment in time captured in an amber of joy, fire and energy.It’s the sound of people happy to be playing music. David revisited and re-examined his work from decades prior through prisms of experience and fresh perspective – a parallel not lost on me as I now revisit it twenty years later. From time to time, he used to say ‘Mark, this is our album’ – I think because he knew I was so deeply in the trenches with him on that journey. I’m happy to finally be able to say it now belongs to all of us”
The coming box set also includes a number of other songs and album’s, including a newly remastered versions of 1993’s Black Tie White Noise, 1993’s The Buddha Of Suburbia (available on vinyl for the first time in nearly 30 years), 1995’s 1.Outside, 1997’s Earthing, and 1999’s hours…, along with the expanded live album BBC Radio Theatre, London, June 27, 2000 and the non-album/alternative version/B-sides and soundtrack music compilation and Re:Call 5.
TOY:BOX Tracklist:
1. I Dig Everything
2. You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving
3. The London Boys
4. Karma Man
5. Conversation Piece
6. Shadow Man
7. Let Me Sleep Beside You
8. Hole In The Ground
9. Baby Loves That Way
10. Can’t Help Thinking About Me
11. Silly Boy Blue
12. Toy (Your Turn To Drive)