Wendy Matthews completed her touring commitments for the new wave group Absent Friends in mid-1990.[2] She went into the studio with producer Ricky Fataar (ex-Beach Boys, Rutles) to record her debut solo album, Émigré. Her session musicians included Absent Friends' members Garry Gary Beers (also in INXS) on bass guitar, Andrew Duffield on keyboards, Sean Kelly on guitar, Roger Mason on keyboards, James Valentine on saxophone, and Mick King on guitar. She also enlisted Tim Finn (Crowded House) and Peter Blakeley on backing vocals. The album peaked at No. 11 on the Australian Recording Industry Association Albums Charts.[3] It spawned the hit singles "Token Angels" (No. 18 in November 1990), Bobby Womack's "Woman's Gotta Have It" (No. 34 in February 1991) and "Let's Kiss (Like Angels Do)" (No. 14 in June).[3] Matthews won 'Best Female Artist' and 'Breakthrough Artist – Single' ("Token Angels") at the ARIA Music Awards of 1991. Matthews was also voted 'Best Female Singer' in the 1990 Australian Rolling Stone readers poll.[2]
For touring in support of the album, Matthews used Paul Abrahams on bass guitar, Amanda Brown on oboe, violin (ex-The Go-Betweens), Robbie James on guitar (Gang Gajang), King on guitar, Lisa Maxwell on backing vocals, Mark Meyer on drums (Mark Gillespie Band, Moving Pictures), Mark O'Connor on keyboards and Valentine on saxophone. In October 1991, she issued a live mini-album The Way It Has to Be and toured as support to US R&B group, The Neville Brothers. At the end of 1991, Matthews recorded her second full-length album Lily, which was produced by T-Bone Burnett and released in late 1992.[2]
