David Bowie - the Studio Albums

[Slim]

uǝɥʇɐǝɥ [June 2002]

This gets off to quite a bright start - from the off it sounds more spirited, more inspired than Hours. There's a touch of the old drama, atmosphere and grace. A couple of slow-burning atmospheric pieces, an energetic rocker or two. There's no trend-chasing, no over-arch experimentation. It's pretty straightforward Bowie-style pop/rock.

Unfortunately as the album wears on it does start to drag. The difficult truth is that it's mostly filler.

I was familiar with two of the tunes on this record: Everyone Says Hi, which was a single I remember hearing often back in 2002 - and I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship which is a cover of a tune by Legendary Stardust Cowboy (look him up) in 1968. These are, for me, by a long way the best moments on the album. The former is a mainstream pop/rock meditation on death which is really nicely conceived. It's a really strong tune, tastefully performed and arranged, sung with conviction.

The Gemini Spaceship tune is very pleasingly out-there - it has a bit of drum and bass energy and a sort of brooding, tongue-in-cheek glam power and presence. It sounds nothing like the original, which sounds something like Johnny Cash having a laugh while off his face so although he didn't write it, I do have to give David some credit here.

But I'm not sure what to make of the rest of it. it's in part thoughtful, tastefully done, some quite inventive and atmospheric arrangements. I quite liked the Pixies cover, Cactus. I quite liked David's own A Better Future. All in all this album does improve on Hours, but I'm pretty lukewarm about it. It's just not really very interesting or engaging.

[captainkurtz]

Didn't really like Hours or Heathen...the only memorable thing about them was that we got a tour out of the latter record..

[Slim]

Reality [September 2003]

Well blimey. Against all reasonable expectation, this turns out to be a very decent record.

We're still pretty firmly in the pop/rock mainstream on the whole, perhaps a bit more edgy, more moody in places, but the songs here are catchy, they have a poky energy and spirit. And they're stylish. This is much more like it. It really sounds like David's heart's in it.

I only knew New Killer Star which was a single. Great little tune.

Special mention for the album's closer, Bring Me the Disco King which is a sort of jazz piano piece with a melancholy vocal. Originally intended for Black Tie White Noise but re-recorded for this record in a bare, slower, stripped down form with a melancholy vocal. Lovely.

Reality was recorded with the Bowie touring band - I wonder if that's made the critical difference? More performance oriented, perhaps. The music feels played, not assembled. Alive.

For a long time this looked like David's swansong - he retreated from public life for ten years following its release, although he did appear in Extras in 2006.

[Slim]

The Next Day [March 2013]


So ten years pass, the great man is assumed to have retired and then one day, taking the music world entirely by surprise (it was recorded secretly, everyone involved being subject to an NDA) - here's a new Bowie single, with an album to follow.

I loved the single Where Are We Now? which is a beautiful, atmospheric reflection on David's past and the passing of time. Really excellent. I heard a couple of the other tunes when the album came out, wasn't that impressed, didn't bother with it.

Highslide Image Viewer

It is though a very decent album. I have much the same feelings toward it as I do toward its predecessor, Reality. Again: well-produced, decent songs, his heart is clearly in it. Confident and committed.

No filler. But really only two exceptional tunes for me - the aforementioned Where Are We Now? and Heat, a slow, ethereal piece with a rich, sonorous vocal performance. Scott Walker-ish. David's voice sounded a bit tired and old on the former when it came out, but it must have been deliberate. Some very nice fretless bass on that one as well (Gail Ann Dorsey I assume).

I'd say this is a bit stronger on the whole than Reality. Good album, no question. It must have come out of a fruitful creative period because there are three outtakes on the deluxe edition and they're all thoroughly decent as well. A little more than an hour of good (but only sparingly great) stuff.

Special mention for the cover art - the Heroes cover with a simple blank square and title impsosed on it. Brilliant.

[Slim]

★ [January 2016]

Recorded in secret in 2015, as the great man neared the end of his life. I was knocked out when I saw the video for Lazarus, the first single. I hadn't paid attention to David's new stuff for years. But this was.. clever, powerful, brilliant. I was back on board! Then a couple of weeks later, he was gone.

This is a very good album, recorded with a group of local jazz musicians in New York. It's certainly not jazz but it does have a certain low-key sophistication. Although it's not a concept album, it does feel like there's a thread running through it, an intensity. I think it's largely about mortality. But it's not all ominous gloom by any means, it's somehow engaging and warm at the same time.

It's a relatively short album at 41 minutes. All of it is very strong. Hints of ambience, hints of experimentation, some unusual rhythm but it's very coherent. Strong, interesting songs. Brilliant.

For me the highlight is Blackstar, the title track. It spends over four minutes in a sort of haunting, atmospheric drone .. then somehow morphs into a swaggering, saxophone-embellished, darkly satisfying Bowie pop tune. I think there might even be a suggestion of tongue-in-cheek. Love it.

Oh, and on the very last tune I Can't Give Everything Away there's a hint of the harmonica refrain from Low's A New Career in a New Town. Poignant.

This final Bowie album was released ten years ago today, on his 69th birthday.

[Thenop]

I recall quite well what impact the first time hearing Lazarus had on me. I was, like you, blown away. I soon realised I needed this entire album, and see what it was all about.
An ensemble of New York jazz musicians, Bowie and longtime producer Tony Visconti, count me in!

This really is some album, not just by Bowie standards, but by any standard. It really is fresh, exceptionally well sounding, most of the drumsound resonates quite naturally, listen to that snare on 'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore. The right amount of electronics and effects, as an aural paintbrush fills in gaps like Bob Ross painted little clouds always in pairs because everyone needs a friend. Speaking of 'Tis a Pity, what a drive that song has!

Of course the titletrack is a work of art, heavily dealing with his own demise, it sounds unreal to hear him like that.

Lazarus is maybe my favourite on here still though, that horn part in the intro almost sound like a group of teenage girls singing nag-nag-nag in a bored fashion. The lazy feel really does it for me. And again, that snaresound, the close miking of the drums. And that lyric, literally describing how he feels in that instant dealing with dosages of morphine battling his cancer pain. I read an interview with Ivo ten Hove, the director of the Lazarus theater production who spoke extensively with Bowie on the subject. Phrases in here are so literal:
Dropped my cell phone down below
Ain't that just like me?
Seems he was a bit clumsy, he just left it in.
The song itself is a proper pop jazz masterpiece. And not in the Sade way of jazzy laid back feel..
The basslines feel almost like New Order at some point, I can almost hear Pete Hooks spirit float through the room there. Fantastic.

I believe Sue is a somewhat of a divider amongst fans, personally I am very fond of the drum'n'bass part. it has a hyper feel in a hypnotic way, I know I am contradicting myself. It just feels like that.
Dollar Days is very on the nose when it comes to his mortality (I Am Dying To, repeated over and over), as a song it's a relatively simple tune, with Bowie's voice and timing (!) as a shining stars. Again with clear reference to his ever drawing closer death it feels like he really is saying goodbye here.

Fantastic album, probably pushing out the Tin Machine one as my favourite Bowie release.

As an aside, I bought the LP upon release and played it quite a lot. One of those that somehow disappears to the back of your mind, but it's back to the forefront now.
Aside 2: our wedding anniversary is January 10th and I remember getting dressed to go out in the morning (yes, we are weird like that) and reading that Bowie died. It really made the day a little less shiny.

[Slim]

I'm trying to rank the Bowie albums in order of preference. I pasted each of my posts in this thread into ChatGPT and asked it for my ranking. It hasn't got it quite right but it's roughly there.

Your Bowie Albums — Ranked by Preference

• Diamond Dogs (1974) 
  Theatre, dystopia, total immersion. Your clear summit.
  
  
• Station to Station (1976) 
  Intensity, architecture, discipline. Monumental at its best.
  
  
• Low (1977) 
  Art, restraint, mystery. Aesthetic seriousness over emotion.
  
  
• ★ Blackstar (2016) 
  Intentional, contained, sophisticated. Necessary and complete.
  
  
• 1. Outside (1995) 
  Aural theatre, obsession, danger. Flawed but brave.
  
  
• The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust (1972) 
  Iconic, focused, immaculate. Admired more than loved.
  
  
• Aladdin Sane (1973) 
  Dazzling, stylish, uneven genius.
  
  
• Hunky Dory (1971) 
  Songwriting triumph. Career-defining tunes.
  
  
• Black Tie White Noise (1993) 
  Taste, curiosity, rediscovery. Best post-'80s recovery.
  
  
• Reality (2003) 
  Engaged, energetic, played. Poky and spirited.
  
  
• The Next Day (2013) 
  Authority, craft, emotional coolness.
  
  
• The Buddha of Suburbia (1993) 
  Atmosphere, restraint, immersion. Minor but thoughtful.
  
  
• The Man Who Sold the World (1970) 
  Dark, heavy, formative hard rock Bowie.
  
  
• Heroes (1977) 
  Stylish, brittle, emotionally grey.
  
  
• Scary Monsters (1980) 
  Bold, arch, theatrically thin.
  
  
• Young Americans (1975) 
  Audacious but alienating. Classy moments only.
  
  
• Lodger (1979) 
  Clever, lightweight, little residue.
  
  
• Let's Dance (1983) 
  Glossy, professional, un-artful.
  
  
• Heathen (2002) 
  Tasteful, inert. Improves on Hours but mostly filler.
  
  
• Earthling (1997) 
  Energetic, constructed, superfluous.
  
  
• Tonight (1984) 
  Polished, inconsequential.
  
  
• Tin Machine (1989) 
  Honest, flat, monochrome.
  
  
• Tin Machine II (1991) 
  More subtle, still banal.
  
  
• Never Let Me Down (1987) 
  Corporate, dated, energetic — but stronger than Hours.
  
  
• Hours... (1999) 
  Inert, unmotivated. Your clear nadir.
  
  
• David Bowie (1969) 
  Patchy, embryonic.
  
  
• David Bowie (1967) 
  Camp, misjudged curiosity.