Played "Toy" - 12" vinyl from the box - again and it's constantly getting better. It's a really great album. I'll have to admit I really like the artwork on this: David Robert Jones – Toy (The Lost And Unreleased Album) (2020, Purple vinyl, Vinyl)
You know, I was really taken aback when "Karma Man" was released - Bowie's vocal choice in the verse is odd (to put it kindly - and it sounds like it's treated in some weird way, too?) and the mix is 100% in your face - all of the faders are UP - when a little subtlety could have gone a long way. It really rubbed me the wrong way. But a month later, I find the chorus is one of the catchiest things on Toy, and even my kids (not huge fans of "my" music in general) will sing along when they hear it. It's catchy! It's grown on me, weird vocal and all. I might prefer the stripped-back mix on CD3 - time will tell. I wish we also had an alternate mix on CD2 - I'd be curious to hear a more restrained mix of it - and it's the only Toy song not represented on that disc. (And, finally, while I wish we got a legit release of "Uncle Floyd" on this set, it's weird thinking about how it would have sat next to the rest of the Toy songs in a hypothetical legit release back in 2001. To your point about "it deserved a better home than Toy", I agree - it would be like finding "Big Brother" on Pin Ups).
This is a really good point. A while back, someone pointed out to me how Bowie loses his distinctive eyes on Heathen, is represented by a cartoon on Reality, is obscured on The Next Day, and completely absent from the cover on Blackstar. The Toy cover is IMO jarring in a bad way - one of the very few Bowie albums I'd never want to frame/display - but I guess it fits his 2000s-era album cover theme.
En masse, you people aren't quite moving me off the fence to purchase the 10" set. Almost tho! After two listens, the Toy in the Brilliant Adventures box is a nice 3-star Bowie album. But I need to stream these acoustic-ish versions to see if it's worth the $110 US and deserves my shelf space. And count me among the admirers here of ...hours and Black Tie White Noise. The only crap I believe Bowie produced was Labyrinth and a few of the other 80s soundtrack one-offs. His proper albums, including ...hours, Never Let Me Down, and Tonight range from 3 to 5 on a 5-star rating scale. I stumbled across a homemade cassette with Changesonebowie and Changestwobowie as a high school sophomore and then jumped in with both feet when Let's Dance dropped and got the lead record review in Rolling Stone. With those starting points, I ate up every new album as it was released, having cobbled together the back catalog in a few short, voracious years after college. But as is often said on the Hoffman Forums, "your mileage may vary."
Just to throw some more fuel onto the fire, I think the best version of "Toy" will be the playlist I put together as a hybrid of all three disks in the Toy:Box set. I just prefer some of them in all their glory and some in a more stripped-back version. If you're not a consumer of digital, that just makes it harder I guess - but hey, that's what mixtapes are for if you want to stay analogue Same experience here (but starting with Scary Monsters in late '80). The albums it took me the longest to find a copy of (due to them being "deleted" - out of print - at the time I was trying to finish my collection) were TMWSTW and YA. Although I guess I would have loved it to have just been able to dial everything up on a whim like you can today, the albums had more worth to me for having to wait. In the UK in the early 80's before Let's Dance, most of the main catalogue (HD through "Heroes") was available in the Woolworths £2.99 section - all original RCA vinyl (obviously). Those were the days
A Bowie/Kravitz pairing at that time would have been interesting. I confess that I wished that Slash would have played on at least one Bowie track.
This 10" box is really doing my head in. As much as I love the three sided album from the big "Brilliant Adventure" set: Do I really want to keep up with six slabs of 10" vinyl? I guess I'm going to stream the alternative versions today!
Just streaming 'em and they are really good. What is everybody's take on the mastering differences between the "Toy" box and the 12" in "Brilliant Adventure" set?
The intro (like the intro to Too Dizzy) sounds like the theme tune to an 80s mid-morning, sofa-chat show. Truly horrible. The female backing vocals are also very saccharine, to the point of actual nausea
I'd never heard "Toy" before this official CD box issue and I'm really enjoying it. The great thing about this box is if you don't like a track there are 1 or 2 other versions to choose from. I'll probably end up making a hybrid disc of all my favourites as well.
I finally broke down and ordered the vinyl box (Knew I probably would). I’m a bit disappointed to see in the unboxing videos that the LPs come in paper sleeeves. Does anyone know of a source for 10” rice paper inner sleeves? They seem to be scarce.
I always enjoyed early pre SO DB songs. They certainly fit in with the times and with groups like the DC5 and Herman`s Hermits. I wonder often if Bowie hit it big then, would he not have been regulated to nostalgia status like so many of his peers in subsequent years. Probably not, for he was never satisfied with the status quo and he strived to keep changing ahead of his times. These Toy redo`s are fantastic...a true tip of the proverbial hat to his musical beginnings , the roots of his genius!
Gave it a listen via streaming last night and I'm with you. Either way I think it's a great release....ordered the CD version today.
Surprised that the pop up stores are closing in a few days time. The music week interview had the Rhino/Warner rep stating that they would be going for 75 days following DB`s birthday/ or Passing anniversary. Covid is probably the reason they are closing earlier rather than later. That frigging virus and its restrictions made it impossible for me to go...and believe I would have loved to have gone!
