Toy (Toy:Box)

by David Bowie

Overview

Heavily bootlegged over the years, Toy is an album David Bowie recorded in 2000, right between Hours and Heathen. The concept was simple: Bowie took his touring band into the studio to revisit a bunch of songs he wrote and recorded prior to becoming a superstar. Although "Shadow Man" comes from the Ziggy Stardust sessions, most of the songs date from the days before "Space Oddity," so they're grounded in British rock & roll and mod R&B -- a far cry from both his glam rock of the 1970s and the electronic-inflected art rock of the 1990s. It isn't too far from the classy classicism of Hours, though, yet it carries a looser, lighter feel. Hearing Bowie apply the overly polished aesthetics of Hours to swinging, moddish material is odd but appealing. He and his band have fun with the material, diminishing some of the stilted tweeness of the originals and revealing the nice compositional bones underneath. It's a record out of time, with the songs clearly from the swinging '60s and the production being very much a product of the slick Y2K era, yet that's also its charm: it's Bowie revisiting his past from a particular perspective that is as of its time as the original songs. Toy is a slight record but it was given a weighty official release in 2022 after first being unveiled as part of the 2021 box Brilliant Adventure. Along with the proper album, there's a disc of alternative mixes and extras -- here, the main attraction is a version of "Liza Jane," his first single -- then a disc of "Unplugged & Somewhat Slightly Electric" mixes. All the alternate mixes, including those unplugged versions on the third, are only slightly different than the original mixes, making the deluxe set somewhat monotonous. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	08/05/2022
Label:	Parlophone / Rhino
UPC:	0190295253257
Rank:	54899

Album Credits

Performance Credits

David Bowie   Primary Artist,Vocals,Harmonica,Keyboards,Stylophone,Tambourine,Synthesizer,Handclapping,Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric),Vocals (Background)
Sterling Campbell   Drums,Handclapping
Cuong Vu   Trumpet
Earl Slick   Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric)
Tony Visconti   Bass,Guitar (Bass)
Gail Ann Dorsey   Bass,Clarinet,Guitar (Bass),Vocals (Background)
Emm Gryner   Clarinet,Vocals (Background)
Lisa Germano   Violin,Mandolin,Accordion,Vocals (Background)
Mike Garson   Organ,Piano,Keyboards,Harpsichord,Synthesizer,Fender Rhodes,Synthesizer Strings
Moby   Guitar (Electric)
Holly Palmer   Percussion,Finger Cymbals,Vocals (Background)
Mark Plati   Mellotron,Handclapping,Slide Guitar,Guitar (Bass),Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric),Guitar (12 String),Vocals (Background)
Philip Glass   Piano
Gerry Leonard   Guitar (Electric)
The Scorchio Quartet   Strings

Technical Credits

Hector Castillo   Assistant,Mixing Assistant
Tony Visconti   Mixing,Arranger,Producer
Lisa Germano   Recording
David Bowie   Composer,Producer
Darren Moore   Mixing Assistant
Mark Plati   Mixing,Engineer,Producer
Todd Parker   Assistant,Track Engineer,Mixing Assistant,Assistant Engineer
Leslie Conn   Composer
Pete Keppler   Engineer
Steve Mazur   Assistant,Mixing Assistant