TRACK LIST
- Ophelia's Shadow
- The Shaman Says
- Brilliant Day
- Prospect
- Turning Tide
- Take What You Will
- Ghost Light
- The Woman Who Had An Affair With Herself
- Homeward
- Lords Of The Never Known
Produced by Toyah
FORMATS
1991 UK LP: EG Records / EGLP78
1991 UK cassette: EG Records / EGMC78
1991 UK CD: EG Records / EGCD78
2003 UK reissue CD: Vertical Species / VSR002CD
2015 Available digitally from 2 October 2015 > see news item
> DOWNLOAD 2015 Digital Booklet
Robert Fripp plays uncredited guitars on Brilliant Day and Lords of the Never Known. Both tracks were originally performed live as part of Toyah & Fripp’s band Fripp Fripp, later known as Sunday All Over the World.
TOYAH ON OPHELIA’S SHADOW
If I were to be asked which of my albums were my favourites, my answer would be Sheep Farming In Barnet because of its youthful naivety, Love Is The Law because it has a freedom about it’s style of writing, but above those I would rate Ophelia’s Shadow as the one album I made that truly represents me. It was planned as part two of a trilogy, Prostitute being number one, and was made during a more settled period in my life.
Prostitute had proved it’s self a small critical hit which gave me a lot of freedom as a solo artist and producer to call the shots on a larger album using a full band. It was recorded at the same time l as I was writing and performing for the band that I had with my husband Robert Fripp, Sunday All Over The World. Creatively I felt I had escaped the tag of being an Eighties pop star and was dawning on a new future as a true musician/songwriter. At the same time I was appearing in the Christmas show Whale at the National Theatre, so life felt good and on track. Because of that O.S. is not such an angry album, which believe it or not I had complaints about from professors in the USA who thought they had found a new raging feminist after the release of Prostitute, instead O.S. is more feminine, touching deeply the truth of who I am, more so than any other project I have ever embarked on. I am fiercely proud of this album and want it to be the one I am remembered for as I think it has never found its audience.
The title for the album came from my love of the spurned character Ophelia, in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Ophelia is driven mad and kills herself because of unrequited love. The Shadow is a reference to Jung’s Shadow, the dark alter ego we all have that plays our demons out, inside our heads. The idea is about the old femininity, the one that is capable of self sacrifice and unconditional love meeting up with a new mind set, the woman who is free of her romantic heart and capable of uncompassionate actions. There is also direct reference to the transience of beauty and a celebration of decay, but that is just perversity on my part, I love the idea that a person can carry a bible of dreams, whether they have been realised or not. The Shaman Says is about lust and the gentleness of fingers upon acoustic guitar strings is part of its sensuality. Prospect is about digging to find yourself, your gold, your soul. Take What You Will is very much in the Prostitute vein that most men feel they own their women lock, stock and barrel. The final piece of music on the album is played out by the legendary jazz pianist Keith Tippet, who I have been a fan of for years. It leaves the album without closure and a feeling of suspense. How can you have any closure on an autobiographical piece when you are only 28yrs old?