Toyah "Desire" (1987)

Desire

release date: Jun. 1, 1987

format: digital (11 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3 / 5] [2,88]

producer: Mike Hedges

label: E.G. Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Echo Beach" - 2. "Moonlight Dancing" - 3. "Revive the World" - 8. "Deadly as a Woman" - 11. "Desire"

2nd solo album by Toyah following two years after Minx (Jul. 1985) and now with new wave and post-punk producer Mike Hedges. The album consists of songs by Wilcox and former members of the band Toyah - two songs co-composed by Simon Darlow, one with Adrian Lee and one with long-time associate Joel Bogen. Apart from these, Toyah wrote two songs with Nick Graham, one with Bruce Wooley, and the title track with husband Robert Fripp. The album also features two covers: track #1 originally a 1980 song by Martha and the Muffins, and track #6 originally a '77 single by Donna Summer.

Desire appears as an attempt to regain some of the aura but also the sound from the heydays with the band Toyah instead of being a natural follow-up to the poppier Minx. In that way the new album sounds more as something stemming from the early 80s with a stronger new wave appeal. "Echo Beach" preceded the album as a minor single hit reaching number #54 on the singles chart. The second single was "Moonlight Dancing", which doesn't reflect any chart entries, and despite I find it the best song here, it might have fitted better on the band's 1982 album The Changeling - and fact is, the song was co-written by two other band members and also contains the lyrics from the song "Dawn Chorus" from that very album.

The album didn't perform too well and basically didn't enter the albums chart, and it mostly sounds as a bit of a dated release when thinking 1987, and Toyah issues this album that sounds more like 1983-ish. Some of the songs are filled with keyboards and a drum sound that makes me think 'early Nena' or 'Toyah 1980s', and I wonder if some of the tracks are outtakes or alternative versions of older songs, because that's mostly what the sound yells. A few songs take up a tone from Love Is the Law (1983) or Minx but the overall sensation goes back to another time - also underlined in the lyrics. It's the pale imitation of a well-documented period and therefore not recommended.

Toyah "Minx" (1985)

Minx
release date: Jul. 25, 1985
format: digital
[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,72]
producer: Christopher Neil
label: Portrait Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Soldier of Fortune, Terrorist of Love" - 2. "Don't Fall in Love (I Said)" - 3. "Soul Passing Through Soul" - 11. "America for Beginners"

Studio solo debut by Toyah Wilcox, although it's also the sixth album credited Toyah. After Love Is the Law (Oct. 1983) the band faced declining sales figures and interest, and most of the band members became engaged in other acts, basically, leaving Wilcox and Joel Bogen alone - once again. Except this time, Toyah Wilcox now signed a contract with CBS subsidiary Portrait as a solo artist. Songwriting duo Wilcox / Bogen is here credited a single song (track #7), while most of the other tracks are credited Wilcox and keyboardist Simon Darlow. The album also feature a total of four covers - songs originally released by Rare Bird (track #4), DATA (track #6), Alice Cooper (track #9), and Latin Quarter (track #11).

Alledgedly, the money men of the label had much to say in terms of details about the sound and style of the album, and also regarding what specific tracks they wanted on an album that appears to have been produced with an American market in mind, i.e. with clear focus on a mainstream style within a pop / rock bubble at a time when synthpop and the contemporary soft version of new wave with toned-down art pop was state-of-the-art. The arrangements show bold use of vocal harmonies, keyboards, and the typical '80s drum sound, as well as the use of strings. Even the front cover highlights a shift towards a different audience in mind with a Toyah Wilcox [in a Sheena Easton / Frida / Tina Turner look-a-like] style and definitely not meant for punk rock associations.

The album actually performed quite well, peaking at number #24 on the national albums chart, and the first single "Don't Fall in Love (I Said)" peaked as number #22. Tracks #3 and #10 were also issued as singles and landed as No. #57 and #93, respectively.

Both musically and stylistically, Toyah simply ceased to appeal to me after Love Is the Law, and this very album just cemented my lack of interest. I believe much of the relatively significant commercial success that she faced after all is largely due to her background as an actor in a number of British films, TV series, and in roles as TV presenter on various BBC-productions. From a musical historical perspective, the band Toyah and soloist Toyah Wilcox released only a few really substantial albums, where Anthem (1981) is the only truly outstanding original.

One year following Minx, Wilcox married guitarist Robert Fripp, and she continued to release solo albums up until '96, after which the pace of new releases slowed considerably. The 2008 album In the Court of the Crimson Queen - paying tribute to husband Fripp's band King Crimson's acclaimed debut In the Court of the Crimson King from 1969 - from the beginning of 2021, is Wilcox's most recent studio album.

Not recommended.

Toyah "Love Is the Law" (1983)

Love Is the Law
release date: Oct. 24, 1983
format: vinyl (HOTLP 83003) / digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,38]
producer: Nick Tauber
label: Safari Records / Hot Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 2. "I Explode" - 4. "Rebel Run" - 5. "Martian Cowboy" - 6. "Dreamscape" - 7. "Time Is Ours" - 10. "The Vow"

5th studio album by Toyah [band name] following Changeling (1982) originally released on Safari Records is the final album by the band Toyah. After this, Toyah Wilcox released her first solo album Minx (1985) under the same name. The majority of the songs here are written by Toyah and composed by guitarist Joel Bogen, just as they had shared credits on previous releases, and perhaps there is some kind of hidden sign of an imminent breakup of the band in the fact that the members had come and gone - bass players, keyboardists, and drummers were often different individuals on the band's first four albums. This is also the final album with one of the founding musicians of Toyah: guitarist and main composer Joel Bogen, with whom Wilcox wrote and composed the majority of the band's music. Bassist Phil Spalding (in the band from '81) appears on only three out of a total of ten tracks on the original album. On the remaining songs he has been replaced by Brad Lang, who here is one of three new members only appearing on this. The other two are: keyboardist Simon Darlow, and new drummer Andy Duncan. However, Darlow would later, from around 2007, again assist Wilcox.

In terms of style, it's clear that the band here has taken a significant step into the world of synthpop mixing that with a richly orchestrated art pop à la Kate Bush, and somewhat with the same inspiration as you may hear on the band's most recent two albums - just listen to "The Vow", and here it's most obvious how much synthesisers have come to fill the soundscape. The connection to the '70s is minimized, and the album introduces a new path, which is not quite pure neo-romantic but which may still be classified as synthpop. On Toyah's first two albums, the inspiration blatantly came from German Nina Hagen, and Toyah most of all sounded like an English clone of Nina Hagen Band. And with this new album, I can't quite shake the thought that a new German artist might have been a big inspiration. Nena, or perhaps you may think of Toyah Wilcox as the slightly outlandish image of Kate Bush trying to be Nena - or vice versa.

Love Is the Law was the only release by Toyah that I purchased when it had only just come out and I've completely forgotten why I found it interesting in the first place. I wasn't a big fan but had listened to some of their hits, such as "I Want to Be Free" and "It's a Mystery" from the fine Anthem from 81, which I purchased much later, but I probably just came across the album in the local music store and noticed the cover and having the familiar songs in mind, and then upon listening through it, I may possibly have been impressed by the fine change in production sound. Also, I may have even listened to "Dreamscape" as the first track on the B-side, which is quite a magnificent cut when comparing to other new wave releases from that year. However, I do remember that I rather quickly tired of / was fed up with Wilcox's vocal and the pompous arrangements, which still reminded me of 1970s progressive pop / rock, although, Wilcox herself with her singing style appeared with the 'right profile' - i.e. a punk rock attitude, which on the one hand linked her with contemporary artists such as Hazel O'Connor and Nina Hagen, and on the other hand also with Debbie Harry and especially Kate Bush, who was actually a form of guarantee that it couldn't be all bad. And Love Is the Law is by no means a poor or mediocre album, even if time has not made it easier to listen to. Back then, I think, it was seen as something innovative and quite modern, but it's also an album that simply doesn't reach the same original quality as Anthem, which imho clearly is Toyah's all-time best.

[ Pop Rescue 3 / 5 stars ]

Toyah "The Changeling" (1982)

The Changeling
release date: Jun. 30, 1982
format: digital (1999 reissue)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,12]
producer: Steve Lillywhite
label: Connoisseur Collection - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Creepy Room" - 2. "Street Creature" (tv performance) - 5. "Angel and Me" - 7. "Life in the Trees" - 8. "Dawn Chorus" - 10. "Brave New World"

4th studio album by Toyah following the band's most successful album Anthem (May 1981) and now together with one of rock music's new star producers, Steve Lillywhite, who had only just worked with XTC, Peter Gabriel, Thompson Twins, and U2. Originally released on Safari Records, the album contains ten songs nearly all written and composed by Toyah Wilcox and Joel Bogen - with one track co-written with bassist Phil Spalding. The '99 Enhanced CD edition contains an additional six tracks. As an almost entirely natural development, the band's line-up has changed once more in two positions: keyboardist Adrian Lee and drummer Nigel Glockler, who both only appeared on the '81 album are here replaced by Andy Clark and Simon Phillips, respectively.

Stylistically, it's as if the band is trying hard to stay on the same musical path with its own mix of orchestrated new wave and art pop combo, which at the same time appears to lend from 1970s symphonic rock and progressive rock with a more contemporary uptempo smartness. With this, Toyah produced another top-10 album and the band's second-highest charting album, peaking at No. #6 on the national albums chart, and the only single from the album, "Brave New World" peaked at No. #21.

Although the artistic distance from the band's most recent album is quite small, The Changeling still sounds more like a collection of outtakes from the stronger album, and at the same time you may assume that the success of the '81 release also has had something to do with the good sales figures with which the album was met here, because The Changeling as such, didn't produce any notable hits. Both lyrics and music deal with the mysterious and a fantasy world, which is suggested by the front cover. On the songs, Wilcox narrates about "Gladiators", "War", "Warriors", "Breaking free", "New destinations", " Mysterious world", etc. - something that she should cling to on the successor - and she hangs on to topics related to the future and science - and not really about alienation (as contemporaries like Siouxsie & the Banshees or Nina Hagen), but more like a kind of welcoming towards the new and unknown, and in that way you could point out that in relation to the trends, Toyah went her own way.

The band tries hard to produce a worthy sequel to their fine Anthem but ultimately fails to repeat the success - perhaps because the attempt appears too obvious. The formula and the style are more or less from the same area but the songs are not, and it's reasonable to ask if this album really deserves a reissue edition with six bonus tracks.

Not recommended.

Toyah "Anthem" (1981)

Anthem

release date: May 22, 1981
format: vinyl (VOOR 1) / cd (1999 enhanced reissue)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,82]
producer: Nick Tauber
label: Safari Records / Connoisseur Collection - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: A) 1. "I Want to Be Free" (4 / 5) (live) - 2. "Obsolete" - 3. "Pop Star" - 5. "Jungles of Jupiter" - - B) 1. "It's a Mystery" (4,5 / 5) - 2. "Masai Boy" - 3. "Marionette"

3rd studio album by Toyah [the band] following The Blue Meaning (Jun. 1980) originally released on Safari Records. Here the band again showcases one of its ever-changing line-ups as only lead vocalist and songwriter Toyah Wilcox and main musical composer Joel Bogen on guitar took part in the making of the predecessor, and here they constitute Toyah together with three new members: Phil Spalding on bass, Adrian Lee on keyboards and Nigel Glockler on drums.
Musically, the album is not only Toyah's best charting album (and only album to reach 'Gold' status) but also the band's most famous studio release. Despite only following The Blue Meaning (1980) by some 11 months, this is quite a different tonal experience. The '80 album was made with other band members, and although, the songs were also primarily by Wilcox and Bogen, the songs on Anthem introduce a completely new approach and style, but more importantly: the songs are simply better on every level. The Nina Hagen / Siouxsie Sioux influences are gone, and instead some would argue that Wilcox here instead loans (too) much from songs and the singing style of Kate Bush.
The album spawned Toyah's biggest hit song, the non-single cover song "It's a Mystery" (released on the Four From Toyah ep) - written and composed by Keith Hale (originally for his band Blood Donor), who also co-wrote two songs for Toyah on the debut album, Sheep Farming in Barnet (1979), and the album itself peaked at #2 on the albums chart list only surpassed by Kings of the Wild Frontier by Adam & The Ants [which is a bit of a paradox as that was released in Nov. 1980, hence only featured on the successive year's list]. Also the single "I Want to Be Free" was a commercial success peaking at #8 on the singles chart list.
Anthem may owe much to Kate Bush, David Bowie, Blondie and Patti Smith, but it's still an original mix and a most coherent whole that belongs to the list of truly fine and important albums of the early 1980s, and imho, it should be included in any list compiling the best of new wave.
The 1999 'enhanced' cd issue contains an additional six bonus tracks.
Recommended.

1999 enhanced CD issue

Toyah "The Blue Meaning" (1980)

The Blue Meaning
release date: Jun. 6, 1980
format: digital (2002 reissue)
[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,52]
producer: Steve James, Toyah
label: Safari Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Ieya" - 7. "Visions" - 9. "Love Me"

2nd studio album by Toyah succeeding Sheep Farming in Barnet by less than three months. Here the band already demonstrates its ever-changing line-ups as bassist Mark Henry has been replaced by Charlie Francis.

Apart from the line-up change, The Blue Meaning is very much like the other side of the coin to the debut with ten new pompous arrangements and a little more screaming - Wilcox is credited for "verbals & unusual sounds"... [sic], and she has taken an even stronger theatrical sound, which may have seemed avantgarde and experimental at the time. By doing so, she may have looked to both appearances by Kate Bush and Siouxsie Sioux, but in retrospect it only seems rather forced - to put it mildly.

The album was a minor success as it went as high as #40 on the UK albums chart list - at a time when the public in Britain became familiar with her through her acting career. Wilcox appeared in two movies by Derek Jarman: "Jubilee" (1978) and "The Tempest" (1979), she played a minor role in The Who's "Quadrophenia" (1979), and then she also appeared in several TV-series from the late '70s including "Quatermass" (1979), "Minder" (1980) and she was TV-presenter on the BBC programme "Look! Here!".

Had Wilcox not been such a familiar face, it is doubtful that this album would have entered the albums chart list in 1980.

Is it any better or worse than the debut? That's hard to say, really. But as an original piece of music it's not recommended.

[ Smash Hits 1,5 / 5 stars ]

Toyah "Sheep Farming in Barnet" (1980)

Sheep Farming in Barnet
release date: Feb. 22, 1980
format: digital (2002 reissue)
[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,48]
producer: Steve James, Keith Hale
label: Safari Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Neon Womb" - 2. "Indecision" - 5. "Victims of the Riddle" - 8. "Danced"

Studio album debut by British band Toyah - named after the band's lead vocalist Toyah Ann Wilcox. The album was originally released as a 6-track ep in '79, which six months later was expanded to an 11-track album. Already as of '80 it was released as a compilation with the band's second album The Blue Meaning (Jun. 1980). The band consists of vocalist Toyah Wilcox, guitarist and main composer Joel Bogen, bassist Mark Henry, keyboardist Peter Bush, and drummer Steve Bray.

Toyah began as a punk rock band and quickly combined all sorts of contemporary influences from post punk, art punk, art pop and new wave with Toyah Wilcox, to a large extent, impersonating German punk queen, Nina Hagen.

I didn't came across this album until the early '00s, and being familiar with Anthem (1981), Changeling (1982) and Love Is the Law (1983) it is a strange experience to go through the band's first two albums. Sheep Farming in Barnet, to me, sounds pretty much like a British version of Nina Hagen Band in a bizarre cocktail with synthesizer inputs from Brian Eno.

The band was probably given a great deal more attention than their music deserved, and it's likely that the band's initial success was linked with Wilcox participating in national TV-series. Imho, the first two albums by Toyah are not more than historical artefacts and only serve to show us from what they spawned.

Not recommended.

[ 👎NME 3 / 5 stars ]