In 2000, David Bowie started re-recording some of his older, more obscure songs for an album called Toy. The project was set for release in 2001, but ultimately, due to issues with his label, the album was never released (save for an internet leak in 2011). Now, though, the album is finally getting an official release, both as a standalone release and as part of the box set David Bowie 5: Brilliant Adventure (1992 — 2001).
Mark Plati, who co-produced the album with Bowie, says:
“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.”
In 2000, Bowie, following a Glastonbury performance, wrote of the album in a message to fans, “I hate to waste the energy of a show-honed band so I’ve asked one and all if they would like to make an album immediately when we get back to New York. All are in full agreement that they’d like that very much, so I’ve pulled together a selection of songs from a somewhat unusual reservoir and booked time in a studio. I still get really elated by the spontaneous event and cannot wait to sit in a claustrophobic space with seven other energetic people and sing till my tits drop off.”