David Bowie - Toy (2001)

One well known "lost album" is "Toy" by David Bowie. Around 2000, Bowie had what I consider to be the excellent idea of revisiting some of his little-known songs from the very start of his career. He performed all new versions of these songs with drastically different arrangements, as well as three brand new songs. He was ready to release this as his next album in 2001, but there were problems with his record company, which wouldn't let him release the album. So instead a number of the songs dribbled out as B-sides and on compilations. Then, in 2011, the entire album as it was originally conceived was released onto the Internet. It is widely speculated that Bowie himself did this.

There are two different versions, but with the same song order. The versions differ slightly with the productions of the songs. I've chosen the less well known version, if only to help spread it around a little more. Both are equally good, in my opinion.

I could say a lot more, but for once I don't have to, since there's a Wikipedia entry that explains it all quite well. That can be found here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_(David_Bowie_album)

That lists where the original versions can be found, and where some of the revised versions can be found. Two of the songs, "Uncle Floyd" (also known as "Slip Away") and "Afraid" appeared on his next studio album, "Heathen."

The album is fairly long, being exactly an hour in length. Perhaps some of the songs would have been cut had it actually been released in 2001.

UPDATE: On November 29, 2021, I drastically updated the mp3 download file. Earlier that month, an official version of the album was finally released, as part of the "Brilliant Adventure" box set. However, only 12 of the 16 songs were included. So I've posted those twelve, plus the extra four at the end. 

01 I Dig Everything (David Bowie)
02 You've Got a Habit of Leaving (David Bowie)
03 The London Boys (David Bowie)
04 Karma Man (David Bowie)
05 Conversation Piece (David Bowie)
06 Shadow Man (David Bowie)
07 Let Me Sleep Beside You (David Bowie)
08 Hole in the Ground (David Bowie)
09 Baby Loves That Way (David Bowie)
10 Can't Help Thinking about Me (David Bowie)
11 Silly Boy Blue (David Bowie)
12 Toy [Your Turn to Drive] (David Bowie)
13 Uncle Floyd [Slip Away] (David Bowie)
14 Afraid (David Bowie)
15 Liza Jane (David Bowie)
16 In the Heat of the Morning (David Bowie)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15129408/DavidB_2001_Ty_atse.zip.html

When I searched the Internet for a good cover art photo, I was surprised to find many fan-made versions already existed. I don't know of any cover that was approved to be the real one back in 2001. So instead I just picked the one out of those that I liked the best. I like this one because it's based on the cover of his 1967 album, simply called "David Bowie," except it has different text and uses a photo of him from around 2001.