I thought I was done with Listening Posts, to be honest. How many artists can one cover whose work spans the decades like AC/DC, Elvis Costello, Madonna, et al?
And then a couple weeks ago I thought, hey, you know what? I’ve never really listened to Bowie. I had Scary Monsters when I was 15. I had heard a lot of Let’s Dance. I had the 1993 Singles collection. But, besides those tracks, what did I know?
So I spent the last two weeks getting through Bowie. I hadn’t thought about writing a post about it but that was primarily because, since I moved the LPs to my personal blog it has just become a dumping ground. It’s hard to navigate, hard to cobble together postings, impossible to search. It’s just not great.
So, I am considering bringing all those posts from this year to this blog. That’s not a fun task, to be sure.
But, what to do about the Thin White Duke? I certainly didn’t make notations when I was listening since I wasn’t planning on doing a post. But I DID spend over 24 hours with the man’s music and, since I’m bringing stuff back here I guess it would be prudent to write…something.
So, this is it. One post. Bowie. 35 years of albums. Here ya go.
1. David Bowie – 1967
What the fuck. You wanna delve into the grand history of one of classic rock’s architects so you start with the debut and you end up with this. 3rd rate Anthony Newley. Which makes it 2nd rate LEONARD NIMOY. It’s a contemptible piece of loathesome bile and should be avoided at all costs.
Grade: F
2. Space Oddity – 1969
Were it not for the novelty hit title track this album would be consigned to the forgotten bin. Barely acceptable as prog rock, Bowie scours the landscape, hears early Floyd and tries to emulate. But he ends up sounding more like a Moody Blues solo album. Don’t let the bizarre, multi-colored eye and spiky space hair of the cover fool you. This Bowie is not cool. He’s still just a wannabe. Tracks like Janine or God Knows I’m Good are offset by the deplorably pretentious “Memories of a Free Festival”.
Grade: C-
3. The Man Who Sold The World – 1970
Moving on the to the darkness of Sabbathian semi-metal Bowie tosses his hat into the ring of interesting, eschewing the croonerism that left audiences wanting the last few years. Songs like Width of a Circle and Black Country Rock show some muscle and of course, the title track would be made famous 20 years later by Nirvana. While not the best record, it’s haunting and powerful enough to warrant some extra love.
Grade: A
4. Hunky Dory – 1971
And then it all…changes. First off, the title track is a generation defining single in the way that Bowie hoped Space Oddity would be (and almost was) and there’s that great, “O you pretty things”. Much of what makes this album great is not Bowie. Although he is at his songwriting best here (Life on Mars, anyone? Kooks? Andy Warhol?) No, it’s the piano playing contributions of Rick Wakemen that elevate this record. In addition to whatever the boys were drinking. Hunky Dory is one of the first great records of the decade.
Grade: A+
5. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust – 1972
I’m not going to be able to add anything to the literally billions of words that have been written about this record. It’s a delectable melange of all the ideas that Bowie has been putting out for the previous 5 years. (Interesting opening track….) There’s a little folk, metal, glam, power pop, everything. With just enough narcissism to fill the stadiums and ego befitting the chameleon that is Bowie. He always wanted stardom. Here it is. Quite simply brilliant. One of the 100 albums you need to hear before you die.
Grade A+
6. Aladdin Sane – 1973
And then Bowie listened to Exile on Main St. and he decided to completely change his sound. It’s a good thing, too. Shucking off the glam sound just when it was getting popular, Bowie gets to be perceived as a trendsetter, rather than follower, which is really what he is. In just about every way, Aladdin Sane is more satisfyingly accessible than Ziggy. But it just doesn’t have the benefit of having come first. So, it feels like Ziggy goes to New York. It’s a lot of Blues and rock and roll and even a helping of The Doors (yes, I know they are from LA). Another stellar offering from David Bowie.
Grade: A
7. Diamond Dogs – 1974
Ziggy does concept album. Taking himself wayyyyy too seriously, David tries to do a concept album about 1984. The Orwell estate refuses him access. He does it anyway. The result? A nearly unlistenable panoply of bad ideas and poor songs. With the exception of “Rebel Rebel” which sounds like it belongs on Aladdin Sane, to be honest, the album is the first real misfire since his eponymous debut.
Grade: D
8. Young Americans – 1975
Ah…now we’re back to the Bowie we know and love. The poser. The guy who has his finger on the up and coming sound and wraps himself in it. This time it’s disco. Not a total failure but if you have the singles, the title track and Fame, you really don’t need to hear any more of this.
Grade: C
9. Station to Station – 1976
The first of the Berlin Trilogy, S2S is one of the hardest Bowie records to penetrate. It’s obnoxious, difficult, distant and, because of all that, surprising and rewarding. I may never listen to it again (well, I’ll listen to Stay) but while I was listening, I liked it. A lot.
Grade: B-
10. Low – 1977
I love Low. The audacity of opening with the instrumental “Speed of Life” the power of the swing of “Sound and Vision”, lovely, romantic and distant all at once. The second half of the record is really the most amazing. Notably, Warszawa, an instrumental piece he did with Eno that evokes late 70s british sci-fi and the holocaust and genocide and then followed by “Art Decade” which Mitchell Froom had to have been listening to when he scored the art/porn film Cafe Flesh. That fully half the album is instrumental and this evocative speaks volumes. Low is the great unrecognized genius in Bowie’s catalog. I do love that Gary Numan would so unabashedly try to emulate this record the next year on Replicas and make that work by taking Bowie to the next level. As only someone with Asperger’s could do if they were a Bowie Acolyte.
Grade: A
11. Heroes – 1977
Heroes is fine. It’s no Low, for me. It has that great title track. Which actually detracts from the record. It’s what makes Heroes less concise than its predecessor. Some would say that makes it accessible. I say it’s a step backward. A small step. But, it doesn’t build on what he’s learned.
Grade: A-
12. Lodger – 1979
And then there’s Lodger. Full fledged art rocker at this point the cinematic “look Back in Anger” and irony of “Boys Keep Swinging” keep the listener on his toes. I think we can get a sense on Lodger where Bowie’s going. If he hadn’t gotten caught up in videography I think Let’s Dance would have come earlier.
Grade: A-
13. Scary Monsters – 1980
The darkest pop record ever? Up the Hill Backward sounds like Kate Bush filtered through Bowie’s copycattitude. The title track is one of his strongest and the single Ashes to Ashes is indelibly marred by the visuals created for it. But the return of Major Tom updated for the cocaine era is most welcome. This is Bowie’s most cohesive record since Aladdin Sane, certainly one of his best overall.
Grade: A
14. Let’s Dance – 1983
Um…what? Modern Love opens this record is a way that says Bowie has finally figured out how to be a superstar. How to appeal. How can you not love the fake soul quasi-rock of this record? This is the Bowie record your girlfriend had. And when you tried to turn her on to Low or Heroes or even Ziggy, she looked at you like you were crazy as she donned her Madonna underwear as outerwear. One of my favorite things about Let’s Dance is the title track. The seven minute version. The club song. The ecstasy and sex version. It’s basically Funkytown. And it’s great. And there’s also Cat People, the song I always wished my band had covered.
Let’s Dance: B+
15. Tonight – 1985
How do you follow up one of the biggest breakthrough commercial albums of your career, let alone decade? Apparently, you hire a bunch of co-writers and make an album that sounds like Thompson Twins. Keyboard steel drums, faux raga, deep 80s percussion, programming, Tonight sounds more like an album from the era than I would expect. See, one thing Bowie’s been able to do is utilize the fad of the era and make it sound timeless. Maybe it’s the novelties of the era or maybe its something else, but Tonight is replete with forgettable missteps.
Grade: D
16. Never Let Me Down – 1987
Bowie himself claims to not remember recording this so I’m not going to expend too much energy writing about it. It’s awful. The worst of a decade filled with bloat, over production and useless “music”. I used to see this record in the bin at Tower all the time. I couldn’t get over how stupid it looked and I never lost sight of the fact that there were always tons of them just sitting there, daring people to buy them. (also, why the fuck write another song called Heroes if its not going to blow the other one away? Are you that dim that you think people will have forgotten one of the best songs of the classic rock era?????)
Grade: D-
17. Tin Machine – 1989
Many people deride Tin Machine as a curio. An aberration in Bowie’s storied career. I like it. Sure, it’s generic. It’s corporate rock in the same way that The Firm was. But it rocks harder than anything Bowie had done in a long while. For that it’s worth a listen.
Grade: B-
18. Black Tie, White Noise – 1993
I actually think BTWT is a harbinger of what Bowie’s going to try to do later with his various “comeback” records. The instrumental opener, “The Wedding” points to that. It’s ugly at times (You’ve been around) and fun at others (I Feel Free, Miracle Goodnight). Sometimes it’s as dully cold as a Roger Taylor solo album if produced by Gary Numan (Black Tie White Noise) and still others it’s as dull as muzak (Don’t Let me Down and Down, Pallas Athena). As a placeholder, it could be worse. As a love letter to his new marriage, it’s indulgent.
Grade: C
19. Outside – 1995
Art Crime. Dystopia. Murder. It’s Diamond Dogs all over again. I get the feeling that David Bowie is not a hopeful person. Kind of makes sense, you know. His music is not very emotionally connectd. In fact, there’s so much ironic detachment that I wonder just what it must be like to live with this guy. Intellectual as musician/artist. Outside borrows so much from Trent Reznor and NIN (once again following and not leading) that it’s impossible to get inside. Bowie wants so badly to be relevant but the art of noise is passing hm by. Still, the soundscapes are interesting and it does get its point across. I sense an artist on the road to recovery. Certainly his most extreme record since Lodger.
Grade: C+
20. Earthling -1997
Remember Prodigy? Remember the late 90s? Remember raves? Remember when music was made by computers? Bowie does. He’s right there in the thick of the electronica era with this. As an artist whose never had a style of his own it’s time to just accept that Bowie’s style is grafting himself to whatever is on the cutting edge of the times. That makes him disposable, however, unlike when he was riding underground currents like glam and art rock. As an electronica record it’s boring but acceptable, I guess. Passable. As a Bowie record it’s useless. (I do like I’m Afraid of Americans, though)
Grade: D+
21. Hours – 1999
When I started to write this paragraph I realized that I had no idea what this record sounded like. And I listened to it, the day before! A hodgepodge of unremarkable songs accompanied (much of the time) by acoustic guitar or mid-tempo warblings or chimes or techno-programming that it at times harkens back to the days when Bowie fancied himself a singer-songwriter. If he ever was, he isn’t now. And at other times is so schizophrenic that it seems like a collection of lost tracks. Maybe that’s what it was. (The Pretty Things are Going to Hell has some life in it, tho)
Grade: D
22. Heathen – 2002
Bowie is now Beck. Gleeps and glitches, ideas and posturing. Buy a Beck album. You’ll like it better than this offering.
Grade: C-
23. Reality – 2003
Oh, just look at the cover. can’t you see this record being sold at Starbucks? With Reality it seems that Bowie reached back to his own earlier self for inspiration. Tired of aping what’s hot or just unable, he’s gone back to sounding like Bowie. Makes sense. By 2003, if you wanted to take inspiration from what was coming on the musical horizon you either made bubblegum boy band Britney music or you made niche oriented, small demographic, indie music. Bowie can do neither. So, with nothing to steal from, he steals from himself. Covering the likes of Jonathan Richman, Bowie sounds like he’s having fun for the first time, really, since Scary Monsters.
Grade: B
There you have it. David Bowie. If you really want to hear what the man has done, get Best of Bowie. It’s really all you need.
