General Article name: Joy of a Toy
Genre: Rock englischsprachig Product type: LP (Vinyl) Label: MUSIC ON VINYL Number of tracks: 10 Tracklist LP - 1 Ayers, Kevin - Joy Of A Toy Continued Ayers, Kevin - Town Feeling Ayers, Kevin - The Clarietta Rag Ayers, Kevin - Girl On A Swing Ayers, Kevin - Song For Insane Times Ayers, Kevin - Stop This Train (Again Doing It) Ayers, Kevin - Eleanor's Cake (Which Ate Her) Ayers, Kevin - The Lady Rachel Ayers, Kevin - Oleh Oleh Bandu Bandong Ayers, Kevin - All This Crazy Gift Of Time   Description Description

As the Soft Machine's first bassist and original principal songwriter, Kevin Ayers was an overlooked force behind the group's groundbreaking recordings in 1967 and 1968. This, his solo debut, is so tossed-off and nonchalant that one gets the impression he wanted to take it easy after helping pilot the manic innovations of the Softs. Laissez-faire sloth has always been part of Ayers' persona, and this record's intermittent lazy charm helped establish it. That doesn't get around the fact, however, that this set of early progressive rock does not feature extremely strong material. Ayers' command of an assortment of instruments is impressive, and his deep bass vocals and playful, almost goofy song-sketches are affecting, but they don't really stick with the listener. It's no accident that some of the tracks recall early Soft Machine: Robert Wyatt drums on most of the songs, and "Song for Insane Times" is virtually a bona fide Soft Machine performance, featuring actual backing from the group itself. A likable but slight album that is at its best when Ayers is at his folkiest. ~ Richie Unterberger

Richie Unterberger

Contributors Artist: Kevin Ayers Record Label: Music on Vinyl Guest Artist: Rob Wyatt Guest Artist: Hugh Hopper Guest Artist: David Bedford