I generally prefer Bowie's more organic, straight ahead rock albums to his genre experiments. In that context, I love Toy - the songs are melodic and the band is punchy and energized ("Let Me Sleep Beside You", with its Byrdsian jangles, is a real highlight). No, the songs themselves aren't among Bowie's better ones, but not too much from the period in which most of them were written can stand up against his later achievements. This was a solid band gathering for a couple weeks and bashing out an album without a whole lot of fuss or overthinking. Bowie does a Dylan! As for BTWN, it's my least favorite from the BA box by some distance. I just don't think the songs are up to the level of those on the later albums and the production/arrangements are, as you say, straight 1992 but not in a good way. If Bowie was going to stray from organic instrumentation, I much prefer the electronica dabbling on 1. Outside and Earthling to the New Jack Swing-inspired R&B inflections of BTWN. The album is too long and too bereft of strong melodies for me to get through it in one sitting (I don't have that problem with the lengthier 1. Outside due to the interesting narrative concept and stronger lyrics). But you are absolutely right about the big tent of Bowie fandom. I love that BTWN is one of your favorites, irrespective of what I think of it.
I'm mostly with you, but I also love the first two Berlin period albums. I think Lodger and SM(ASCs) are both...well, less good than their reputations. I just never developed an appreciation for a lot of the material on those two LPs. I actually do enjoy the two Tin Machine albums, at least in spots (other spots on them are rather dire). I found Hours... refreshing in its simplicity after the electronic excursions of the previous two albums. It's not all great, but a lot of it is and I think his later albums are even better. The only thing I don't like about Toy is Bowie's singing, which seems rather "first takey" and lacks the commitment he usually brings to his studio recordings. I guess it was hard for him to get inside singing words he had written 30 years earlier. Musically, I love it.
We like what we like. To me, the acoustic guitars on "Survive" and "Seven" and the melodic rock of "Thursday's Child" and some of the other cuts on ...Hours will always win out over drum programs and New Jack Swing style R&B. I just vastly prefer that style of music overall. On BTWN, I do really like "Jump They Say" and, especially, "Nite Flights", but the only other track on the album that makes the grade for me is "Don't Let Me Down & Down". The rest just blurs into a sonic mush of 1992 hipster bar cocktail hour music - to my ears. I'm glad you and others like it though.
When I bought the BA box I wasn't overly fussed about Toy - thought it was a pretty lame idea for Bowie to re-do some of his old 60s stuff which I don't listen to much anyway. Have to say six months on it's an album I put on a lot and find myself humming along to regularly. Really glad I got the 3 CD set which I routinely shuffle - the 10" set is still a step too far! I think there are some really good songs in there and "The London Boys" is just brilliant.
Since we're talking about Toy retrospectively............. I have the 3CD version, and to say it's not become a mainstay is an under-statement. And that cover.... seriously, I don't even like seeing it in my "to play" pile. I don't think the music is bad at all, but it's just not stuck for me.
Just broke down and got the 3cd box from Amazon for ~$30 -- and am listening to the first disc now. I'd had the leaked-download version of Toy for 5+ years, so I'm fairly familiar with the tunes, generally. I'm an absolute diehard 90's & 2000's Bowie fanatic (I've said many times around here, 90% of my favorite Bowie all comes from his post-'Tin Machine' years). And I probably will (and already do) rank all this Toy stuff near the bottom of my own personal 'top-10 all-time favorite' Bowie releases -- maybe down around #8 or #9 or so (with everything above it also 2000's and 90's Bowie). That said, I totally get why some folks feel like Toy is a bit of a mixed bag. But I also expect the whole thing to grow on me a bit more over time (I guess 'even more'), now that I'm actually listening to it in better fidelity (and on my main system, as I tend to only listen to downloads from my phone, thru earbuds). His slinky, not-entirely-intuitive melody lines (of which there are more than a few here) are definitely something I love, but not instantly. I love 'left turns' in music, but even I have to warm to then over a dozen listens. I get that the 3rd disc is sort of half-'unplugged'-ish (haven't heard it yet) -- but still not sure what to expect with disc two. Planning to spin each disc over the next 3 days, first disc twice today -- 2nd disc twice tomorrow, and the 3rd disc twice on Thursday.
Re: my previous post (right above this one), I cheated and listened to disc 1 and disc 2 twice each yesterday. While I enjoyed the 2nd disc too, and I did seem to notice some of the songs were somewhat different — the experience of listening to the 2nd disc wasn’t all that different from the 1st disc. On to disc 3 today.
And for the nay-sayers who months ago insisted Toy was not going to have a regular LP release, here you have it: David Bowie - Toy (2 VINYL LP)
Wow, I did NOT care much for Disc 3, at all. I was looking forward to it, and expected to like it just fine — but most of it left me absolutely cold. Maybe the quality of Bowie’s voice (being originally recorded for a fuller and more electric and often higher-energy context) just did NOT work for me with the more stripped-down backing tracks. The whole experience of listening to Disc 3 specifically — and I did listen to it twice — reminded me of all the bad songs on Hours, an album I just can’t stand 75% of (despite totally loving two Hours tracks: “If I’m Dreaming My Life” and “The Dreamers” — and quite liking specifically the Marius De Vries mix of “Survive” and “New Angels of Promise” — and the Hours b-side “We All Go Through”). Seriously, the production on Disc 3 of Toy just doesn’t work for me at all — except maybe on “Shadow Man” and “Toy (Your Turn to Drive)” — which were at least ‘ok’. Kind of shocked I had such a bad reaction to it (Disc 3), but I sure did!! I do like Toy overall, but now I kinda wish they’d released a single CD edition separately, and that would have been just fine with me — despite my being obsessive and a near-completist about 90’s and 2000’s Bowie otherwise.
Late to the party but I finally gave in and ordered the Toy: Boxset after seeing it for just 41€ on German amazon: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B09C57P829?ref=ppx_pt2_dt_b_prod_image I already had the 12inch Version from the brilliant adventure boxset but since I quite enjoy the album (It's not great but solid) - I couldn't say no to this prize,
Nice to read some people embracing Toy. Personally it's not found its way to my stereo. I bought the damn thing, but whenever I go to play it I see the cover and choose something else. First play through (via the last box) was okay, but not anything truly special. Time will tell, I guess.
I've been really enjoying my listens with Toy and so glad it's been officially released. As a rather new Bowie fan it's one of my favorites now. The production and instrumentation are amazing.
For a fella who brought A to art to rocknroll he certainly had some miserable album covers over the decades. Lookin at you Next Day.
I would be surprised if we don't get a Ziggy box. It just won't be on the 50th anniversary. We didn't get a Hunky Dory box on the 50th anniversary either.
