David Bowie‘s notorious ‘lost’ 2001 album ‘Toy’ is set to finally get an official release.

The album, which leaked online back in 2011, features re-recorded and revamped versions of some of Bowie’s earliest tracks. It was due to be released as a follow-up to 1999’s ‘Hours…’ but was shelved after a dispute between Bowie and his then-label Virgin.

News of the new release comes alongside the announcement of ‘David Bowie 5. Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001)’, the latest in a series of box sets which are running through the legendary artist’s career.

‘Brilliant Adventure’ will be released on November 26 this year in 11-CD box and 18-piece vinyl set formats, before ‘Toy’ is released on January 7 next year, the day before Bowie’s birthday. ‘Toy’ will be available in three-CD and six 10″ vinyl versions.

Listen to the radio edit of ‘Toy’ track ‘You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving’ below:

Included in the LP box set of ‘Brilliant Adventures’ will be vinyl versions of Bowie’s albums ‘Black Tie White Noise’, ‘The Buddha Of Suburbia’, ‘1. Outside’, ‘Earthling’ and ‘hours…’, alongside ‘Toy’, an LP of non-album singles, b-sides and more called ‘Re: Call 5’, a hardback book and more.

“From time to time, he used to say ‘Mark, this is our album’ – I think because he knew I was so deeply in the trenches with him on that journey,” he added. “I’m happy to finally be able to say it now belongs to all of us.”

Discussing ‘Toy’ and the 20 years since its creation in a statement accompanying the news, Bowie’s co-producer Mark Plati said: “‘Toy’ is like a moment in time captured in an amber of joy, fire and energy. It’s the sound of people happy to be playing music. David revisited and re-examined his work from decades prior through prisms of experience and fresh perspective – a parallel not lost on me as I now revisit it twenty years later.

The news of the new release comes just after the estate of David Bowie has agreed a new deal with Warner Music Group that will see the company overseeing his full back catalogue of albums.

Warner Music previously held the worldwide rights to the music that was released by the late artist between 1968 and 1999 (up to his October 1999 album ‘hours…’) after they acquired the Parlophone Label Group in 2013.

This new licensing agreement with Bowie’s estate now means that Warner Music also has the rights to the artist’s back catalogue of music between 2000 and 2016, the year of his death.

The Bowie albums ‘Heathen’, ‘Reality’, ‘The Next Day’ and ‘★’ (AKA ‘Blackstar’) are among the works that will come into the Warner Music fold in 2023. They were originally released via Sony Music.