Kevin Ayers – Joy Of A Toy

Excellent pressing great album beautiful cover. I love Music on Vinyl

Kevin Ayers had everything it takes to be a pop star. Drop-dead gorgeous, he was possessed of a seemingly effortless ability to compose richly melodic songs which he delivered in a delectably creamy baritone. That he never actually became a pop star can only have been because that particular ambition, or indeed ambition per se, never ranked very high on the list of priorities of this dedicated bon viveur.

Joy of a Toy, Ayers first solo album following his departure from Soft Machine in 1968, is replete with a nonchalant brilliance. It's not that Ayers isn't trying too hard, he doesn't really seem to be trying at all, just rattling off these idiosyncratic gems before getting back to the serious business of partying in Ibiza. With it's dry wit and languid air of bohemian Englishness this is the record Noel Coward would have made had he ever been introduced to the delights of mind-altering drugs. Mixing surreal wordplay with world-weary romance, Ayers was the missing link between Syd Barrett and Bryan Ferry. The songs are firmly in the tradition of late sixties quintessentially English pop, but the soundworld, with its unusual combination of instruments (Ayers former Soft Machine colleagues are augmented by a wide variety of instruments including cello, oboe, piccolo, celeste, alto melodica, Hawaiian guitar, and even that perennial I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue favourite kazoo - but no swanee whistle, alas) is utterly unique. At times the ensemble sound like a wandering troupe of psychedelic mediaeval musicians.

In addition to his pop sensibility, Ayers was also a dab hand at full tilt weirdery, and on this album the two strands of his artistic personality are seamlessly woven together, at once eminently accessible and impeccably avant-garde.

Ayers was responsible for some of the most singular music of the early seventies but he never surpassed the casual perfection of this miraculous debut. For Kevin Ayers being brilliant just came naturally.

The first and best Kevin Ayers solo lp, aided and abetted by Soft Machine friends. The sound on this reissue is fantastic and the whole package really impressive. 5 stars from me.

Yes this is a great sound LP even better than the BGO re-issue.

Stunning pressing as almost always the case with MOV. Vastly superior to the 4mwb release. Nice gatefold! No need for an OG. Buy with absolute confidence!

my copy was given to me by a blind man in Pensacola FL

Beautiful slab of vinyl. Great rigid gatefold cover. This is why I love collecting vinyl. If only all records were that good. A beautiful artefact.

The way to tell the difference between this and the 71 press is this doesnt have made in gt britain at the bottom of the labels. Other than that theyre identical.

Great sounding vinyl and master. Completely dead silence with absolutely no noise present. Has some awesome dynamics too. Get this press!

I acquired this CD when it was released in 2003, thrilled in being able to finally hear the "long lost" song "Religious Experience (Singing A Song In The Morning)" featuring Syd Barrett. But, I was more than disappointed when I discovered that the disc was crippled with Copy Protection.
My negative comment/review is thus solely based on the fact that This Release is laden with this DRM software.