In Toytown was one of the rare missing links between the clang of early
Joy Division ("Warsaw," "Digital") and the desperate post-punk psycho din of the Cardiacs,
Eyeless in Gaza, and, to some extent, the
Violent Femmes. Songs rarely broke the three-minute mark, choruses were trampled at a moment's notice, and Richard London's barrage of brass gave the impression that he was hearing a considerably different song than everyone else.
Blur's "Fried" would later lift from tracks like "Live for Now" wholesale, but this was bleaker than almost anything that followed, distorted and suggestive and ultimately listenable. ~ Dean Carlson