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.
Photos: David Bowie
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.
Back at the turn of the century, David Bowie re-recorded a number of his lesser-known songs, and planned to release them along with some new material on an album called Toy. The album was slated for a mid-2001 release, but due to problems with Virgin, Bowie’s record label at the time, it never saw the light of day. A number of the songs from Toy were included on Bowie’s 2002 album Heathen and as B-sides to its various singles, but a large portion of Toy still remained unreleased.
Until now, that is.
Sunday afternoon, a decade after its planned release, a 256 kbps quality torrent of the full-length album was leaked online. Consisting of 14 tracks, and running a little over an hour long, the album is the closest we can get to “new” Bowie material.