Long deleted and never available on any digital platforms, toyahwillcox.com is delighted to announce an October digital release of the catalogue albums Desire, Prostitute and Ophelia’s Shadow.
Whilst the latter two have been deleted for over a decade, Desire has been unavailable since the early 1990s. The three catalogue titles are released digitally on Friday 2 October 2015.
1987’s Desire was produced by Mike Hedges and engineered by Haydn Bendall at Abbey Road Studios where Bendall (at the time) had recently engineered Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love. Although uncredited Ronnie Wood from The Rolling Stones and Robert Fripp play guitar on the album. The album’s lead single was a sparkling pop re-craft of the new wave hit Echo Beach, originally released by Martha and The Muffins.
1988’s acclaimed album Prostitute is an uncompromising work which was composed by Toyah and drummer Steve Sidelnyk who would later to play on Madonna’s Ray of Light album. Themes of disempowerment and exploitation are the album’s overriding lyrical concerns. Toyah elaborates in her sleevenote: “I decided that for the first time in my career I was going to compose and produce an album where I would not compromise my ideas for anyone.”
1991’s Ophelia’s Shadow is the album which Toyah feels most represents her personally. Recorded in 1990 it utilises the same band line-up of the Toyah/Fripp-helmed band Sunday All Over The World save for Fripp swapping places with Tony Geballe. The album touches on themes of environment (Turning Tide), possession (Take What You Will) and Toyah’s love of the spurned character Ophelia from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Toyah’s Ophelia however is resilient and doesn’t drown herself. Husband Robert Fripp plays on two tracks which were originally performed live by Sunday All Over The World; the upbeat Brilliant Day and album closer Lords Of The Never Known.
On iTunes and Amazon, all three albums come with a meticulously presented digital booklet to expand the experience of listening to the album. Compiling sleevenotes, production credits and full lyrics they also bring together almost all associated imagery created for each album. Prostitute and Ophelia’s Shadow are foregrounded by an introductory note from Toyah with detail on each recording; Desire contains a new reflection on the album by Chris Limb.
Long deleted and never available on any digital platforms, toyahwillcox.com is delighted to announce an October digital release of the catalogue albums Desire, Prostitute and Ophelia’s Shadow.
