Toy

About

Toy (also known as Toy (Toy:Box)) is a studio album by the English musician David Bowie, posthumously released in November 2021. It was recorded from July to October 2000 in New York City and featured re-recordings of songs Bowie recorded between 1964 and 1971, along with a couple of new track. The project was co-produced by Bowie and Mark Plati and featured musicians from Bowie's then-touring band—Plati, Earl Slick, Gail Ann Dorsey, Mike Garson and Sterling Campbell—with overdubs from Lisa Germano, Gerry Leonard and Cuong Vu. Bowie's intention for the project was to rehearse the track, record them live and release them as quickly as possible, predating the idea of the surprise album. Intended for release in March 2001, the album was shelved by EMI/Virgin, leading Bowie to depart the label and begin work on his next album Heathen (2002). Various Toy tracks saw release as B-sides and bonus tracks in the ensuing years; two were remade for Heathen and two appeared on the Nothing Has Changed compilation in 2014. Different mixes of the Toy tracks leaked onto the Internet in 2011, which caught media attention. Ten years later, Warner Music Group announced in September 2021 that Toy would get an official release as part of the box set Brilliant Adventure (1992–2001) on 26 November, through Bowie's own ISO label and Parlophone. A separate deluxe edition, featuring previously unseen photograph, alternate mixe, proposed B-sides and 13 new remixes of the track, was released on 7 January 2022. The official release received positive reviews from music critic, with many highlighting Bowie's vocal performance. The album was a commercial succe, debuting at number five on the UK Albums Chart, becoming Bowie's 35th UK top 10 album. In March 2011, 14 tracks from the Toy session, excluding "Karma Man" and "Can't Help Thinking About Me", were leaked onto the Internet, attracting media attention. The leaked tracks are different mixes compared to the officially released B-sides and bonus track. According to the biographer Nicholas Pegg, the edits suggest that they are not final master recording, rather tracks at an earlier stage of mixing. When asked about the leak, Plati denied any involvement, stating, "I think someone got a rough mix on CD somehow." Regarding the leak overall, Pegg comments that it is "fascinating, thrilling and beautiful – and, as is so often the case with Bowie's work, an obvious creative stepping-stone between the previous album and the next." Ten years later, on 29 September 2021, Warner Music Group announced that Toy would get an official release on 26 November as part of the box set Brilliant Adventure (1992–2001) through ISO and Parlophone. "You've Got a Habit of Leaving" was released as a digital single the same day. "Karma Man" and an "alternative ending mix" of "Silly Boy Blue" were released as the next single on 15 October, while "Can't Help Thinking About Me" followed on 19 November. Plati, who assisted in the mixing of the Toy material for the box set, said in a statement: "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 u." .

via Last.fm

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