In 1992 Toyah Willcox began preparing a musical which was to be titled 'Cindy X', and for which several songs were written and recorded. When that project was abandoned, the songs were changed and revamped for inclusion in the 'Dreamchild' album, which was released in 1994, and is the record with the least amount of input from Willcox herself, with the singer contributing lyrics to only one track. The album was predominantly written by acclaimed producer Mike Bennett, whose credits for labels such as BMG, Trojan, Radikal and Creation Records include The Fall, BMX Bandits, Bob Marley, Kim Fowley, King Tubby and Lee "Scratch" Perry, and the dance nature of the album contrasted radically with the rest of her catalogue, making Willcox appear like more of a guest vocalist than the leading artist on her own album. In 1997, the album was reissued by Receiver Records as 'Phoenix', featuring an additional track of the same name taken from sessions recorded in 1996. These were intended to be included on a new album to be called 'Eternity (Madhatter)', but once 'Phoenix' was released the 'Madhatter' album was abandoned, and remains one of the most elusive additions to her discography. Musically, it would have followed the sound of 'Dreamchild', since it was again produced by Mike Bennett and Tacye, and there is a heavy emphasis on dance beats, although a track like 'Beyond That Thin Disguise' does hark back to her punk roots. There is only one scanned copy of the cover online, which was signed 'To Paul, love Toyah', but I've managed to clean it up as much as possible, including upgrading the typeface, so that it hopefully now looks like it did before it was autographed.
Track listing
01 Abandon Me Never
02 Flicker
03 Time Frame Deception
04 Vicious Scream
05 Satellite Whores
06 Glowing So True
07 Trapped Inside Paradise
08 This Crumbling Sea
09 Hold Me Down
10 Tidal Waves
11 Beyond That Thin Disguise
12 Illusion
