Love Is the Law (Toyah album)

Love Is the Law is the fifth studio album by Toyah, released in October 1983. It was the last album to be released by the band before singer Toyah Willcox embarked on her solo career, though subsequent albums would still be released as "Toyah".

Love Is the Law
Cover photography by John Swannell
Studio album by
Toyah
Released24 October 1983
RecordedSummer 1983
StudioThe Marquee Studios, London, UK
GenreNew wave, gothic rock
Length39:33
LabelSafari
ProducerNick Tauber
Toyah chronology
Warrior Rock: Toyah on Tour
(1982)		 Love Is the Law
(1983)		 Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!
(1984)
Singles from Love Is the Law
  1. "Rebel Run" / "To the Mountains High"
    Released: September 1983
  2. "The Vow" / "I Explode"
    Released: November 1983

The album reached No. 28 in the UK Albums Chart and included the Top 30 hit "Rebel Run".[1]

It was first released on CD in 2005, containing five additional bonus tracks.

Background

Willcox said the making of the album was the happiest period of her life. She remembered,

...in 1983 everything was going right. I was starring in a stage play called Trafford Tanzi, which won me especially huge critical acclaim, and I was about to star in a film, The Ebony Tower with Lord Laurence Olivier just as soon as the album was finished. Because my schedule was incredibly full, the band moved into my house in Finchley, London, where we transformed my gym into a makeshift recording studio to pre-write and programme all the material in the daytime. I'd then go to the theatre for five o'clock and meet the band at the Marquee Studios to do the main recording of the vocals after midnight. It was a killer timetable but I loved it with a passion.

...I was surfing on adrenaline for almost six months and by the time I got to the recording studio at midnight each day I was literally ready to explode, thus the track "I Explode", one of my all time favourites. Sometimes my head would be racing so much that the only way to get me to calm down was to give me a sleeping pill. This is not something I would readily admit, but it was the only way the producer could get me to sit long enough to finish a track and is the reason "Rebel of Love" and "Martian Cowboy" sound so relaxed for a Toyah song![2]

The phrase "Love is the law" is from The Book of the Law, the central sacred text of Thelema, written (or received) by Aleister Crowley. "I was never a fan of what he represented, which was mainly dark, devious and debauched, but I thought the phrase 'Love Is the Law' was possibly one of the most beautiful to ever be uttered because it crosses every social and tribal divide", she said.[2]

Track listing

All songs by Toyah Willcox and Joel Bogen, except where indicated

Side one
  1. "Broken Diamonds" - 4:05
  2. "I Explode" - 4:09
  3. "Rebel of Love" - 3:42
  4. "Rebel Run" (Willcox, Simon Darlow) - 3:11
  5. "Martian Cowboy" (Willcox, Bogen, Darlow, Phil Spalding) - 4:40
Side two
  1. "Dreamscape" - 5:04
  2. "Time Is Ours" - 3:38
  3. "Love Is the Law" (Willcox, Bogen, Darlow, Spalding) - 3:09
  4. "Remember" (Willcox, Bogen, Darlow) - 4:08
  5. "The Vow" (Willcox, Bogen, Spalding) - 3:47

2005 CD bonus tracks
  1. "Be Proud, Be Loud (Be Heard)" - 3:30
  2. "Laughing with the Fools" - 4:03
  3. "To the Mountains High" - 3:36
  4. "Baptised in Fire" (Willcox) - 2:45
  5. "Haunted" (Willcox, Darlow) - 3:39

Personnel
Additional musicians
  • Denys Darlow - string arrangements and conductor on track 10
Production
  • Nick Tauber - producer
  • Simon Darlow, Joel Bogen - arrangements
  • Simon Hanhart, Phil Harding, Mark Wade - engineers
  • Andy Lovell, Mike Higgs, Mike Duffy, Rob Waldron - assistant engineers

References
  1. "Toyah Official Charts". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
  2. "Toyah discography: Love Is the Law". www.toyahwillcox.com. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
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