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Stale Toes is the debut studio album by Australian absurdist electronic duo Toe Hates Everyone. It was written, recorded and produced by the anonymous members who go by the pseudonyms "Toe 1" and "Toe 2". The album was digitally released on 18 November 2022.

Overview
Stale Toes had begun recording in May 2021 shortly before the release of their first single "Toes and Eyes" (which was written in 2018). No further recording was done for over a year, and it only started again in early November 2022, the same month the album was released. It explores an obscure, avant-garde style of musical comedy mostly based around nonsense, absurdity and surrealism. Its song titles and lyrics frequently mention toes and other various body parts, especially in the opening tracks. Some of the instrumentals are intentionally bland, uninspired, repetitive and cheap-sounding, whilst others are unorthodox and experimental. They are all made electronically, using mostly MIDI keyboards, drum machines and other software instruments (such as a digital saxophone used in the title track), with one exception being a recorded sample of a rusty steering wheel attached to a playground tower turning ("R.I.P Shower Noodles").

The music is heavily influenced by musical acts such as Wesley Willis, Barnes & Barnes and "Weird Al" Yankovic, as can be found in one of the band's public Spotify playlists. Another much more popular band very similar to Toe Hates Everyone is the Australian group known as TISM, although it is not known whether the duo took any inspiration from them. As for genre influences, the album contains aspects of pop, rock, funk, jazz, hip-hop, EDM, IDM, and even dubstep. It is consistently upbeat and danceable. The duo has jokingly stated in the past that their genre is a mix of K-pop and heavy metal.

The album features a remake/parody of the single "Oops!...I Did It Again" by Britney Spears ("Oops (I Did It Again)"). The lyrics depict several scenarios involving the perpetrator of several catastrophic events speaking to their victim(s), repeatedly saying "oops, I did it again", implying that these acts had been done before, most likely by accident, and with seemingly no remorse.

In the past, the duo has privately stated that they have created a new genre of music through their work, dubbing it "toecore". Whilst toecore is not considered to be an official genre of music, it can still commonly be used as a way of describing the band's unique style.

The two members of Toe Hates Everyone do not yet wish to have their real names or identities revealed, so they have given themselves the following pseudonyms: "Toe 1" and "Toe 2". Toe 1 is credited for being the lead vocalist in the album, while Toe 2 is the main instrumentalist (they still participate in both parts, just to varying levels). They each wrote the lyrics.

The album has 10 songs, with most averaging a short length of around 1-3 minutes. It has a total runtime of 17 minutes and 52 seconds (17:52).

Recording
The album was recorded using Ableton Live, Audacity and FL Studio.

In total, recording lasted only around a month, but because of a very long break in between production (mainly due to interferences caused by the COVID-19 lockdowns), the album technically took well over a year to finally be completed, if not counting the time that the idea first appeared, all the way back in 2018.

The instrumental for the album's final track, "Copium", uses a sample from a song titled "Hotandhotter" created by Toe 1 (known as "Maley" at the time) as part of a 2019 experimental IDM album called Dimensions, which was made primarily from a series of copyright-free instrumental audio live loops. "Copium" was produced by a close friend of the band, Leonardo D'Angelo, who volunteered to help make an instrumental for one of their songs.

Artwork
The cover photo, taken by one of the band members, is of a young and small individual (most likely a child or adolescent, presumably one of the band members at an earlier age) sitting on a carpet floor next to a wardrobe with a straw washing basket over most of their body, covering all except for their feet and hands, which are wide open, extending the fingers and revealing the palms. It is currently unknown what the image is supposed to represent. On the bottom left, there is a parental advisory warning, but with the usual "explicit content" notice replaced with "disturbing content" instead, hinting at the peculiar, uncanny and also humorous themes of the album. The album rarely features any explicit content, with one notable exception being the mildly profane lyrics used in the track titled "Legally a Dickhead".

Trivia

 * 1) As mentioned prior, the track "Oops (I Did It Again)" is a remake/parody of the 2000 hit single "Oops!...I Did It Again" by Britney Spears.
 * 2) "I Went to Aldi" is the only track in the album to not include any instruments of any kind. For the entire duration of the song, it is only words being spoken by the duo. The song talks about the duo's joys of grocery shopping at Aldi, a discount supermarket chain known for selling cheaper, so-called "off-brand" products.
 * 3) At the very end of the album, in the track titled "Copium", the lyrics say the following: "Thank you for coming to my toe talk. Goodnight," concluding the album with a play on words and a reference to TED Talks. This may also be because of the album's short length of only 17 minutes and 52 seconds, similar to that of the average TED Talk (18 minutes).