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March 22, 2011

David Bowie's Toy, an album that was originally intended to be released in 2001, has leaked online.

A high-quality rip of the full 14-track record surfaced on bit torrent sites on Sunday, much to the delight of Bowie completists around the world.

The album – a set featuring re-recorded and significantly revamped versions of some of Bowie's earliest and most obscure songs – was shelved due to a dispute with Virgin, his label at the time. Though two tracks on Toy – "Uncle Floyd" and "Afraid" – were eventually reworked for his 2002 album Heathen and three others – "Baby Loves That Way," "Shadow Man" and "You've Got A Habit of Leaving" – were released as B-sides for that album's singles, the majority of the record has not been available until now.

It is unclear how this music leaked, or if Bowie has any intention of ever giving the album an official release. Bowie's office has declined to comment on this leak.

Link

BoWikiLeaks

Now I know how I'm going to spend the rest of the day. Fuck work.

Got it yesterday, it's pretty damn good.

[Edited 3/23/11 2:54am]

novabrkr said:

so, does mean: a) you are shocked that it's been "released"! b) i can't believe my good fortune to have it and boy Toy is terrific or God awful.

It's hard to put into words how much I've wanted to have a new Bowie album in my hands after "Reality" came out. This works as a partial remedy to that.

The album is good, but not excellent. It's easy to see why it was shelved, although it also has early versions of two really great tracks from Heathen. The versions of "Uncle Floyd" / "Slip Away" and "Afraid" are better in their final form, but the versions on "Toy" are interesting as well. "Conversation Piece" was also available on the "Heathen" deluxe edition, several of the tracks have been available as B-sides and many of these cuts were of course available as early recordings. There's just no denying that this is a real David Bowie album. It's not just a fanmade collection of rarities or something like that.

In any case, I like the overall feel and it's likely that I will be playing it a lot.

[Edited 3/23/11 3:49am]

It's very nice to finally be able to hear this all the way through. It was an interesting project, but I think ultimately Heathen is a much much better album.

It would be nice for a deluxe edition of Heathen to come out including a bonus disc incorporating all of "Toy" as the sound quality of this leak is good, but not CD quality.

The tracklist for Toy is as follows:

"Uncle Floyd"
" Afraid"
"Baby Loves That Way"
"I Dig Everything"
"Conversation Piece"
" Let Me Sleep Beside You"
"Toy (Your Turn To Drive)"
"Hole In The Ground"
"Shadow Man"
"In The Heat Of The Morning"
"You’ve Got a Habit Of Leaving"
"Silly Boy Blue"
"Liza Jane"
"The London Boys"