David Bowie – The Buddha of Suburbia (1993) – (A bit more than) A Month of Bowie

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And we’re back.

It feels strange actually listening to this album after intending on writing about it in March. I listened to about 20 minutes of it back then, and only now have i listened to it as a complete whole. I feel like i have been transported back in time, or that i am finally continuing a challenge that i started seemingly long, long ago. My absence was due to work. I got caught up in lots of juicy stuff. Couple of murder mysteries, a few transportation’s to other realms, maybe even some expeditions to discover new, exciting lands. But did i really do these things? That’s for me to know, and you to wonder, my children.

So, without further ado – welcome to Part 2 of this tribute to the man/myth/legend David Bowie.

The Buddha of Suburbia is a soundtrack album for the TV series of the same name. I know nothing about the series, and did no research. I will try and watch it someday though. It is probably Bowie’s least mainstream work, and possibly one of his most underrated.

It is probably one of Bowie’s most experimental albums, with the vast majority of it being solely instrumental, or at least very light on lyrics. The most interesting tracks for me might be the instrumental ones, because of how far away they occasionally are from the canon of Bowie. ‘South Horizon’ could be the closest to Jazz that Bowie ever ventured, with a light, twinkly drum beat stressing that throughout. Plus, most of the instrumentation, such as the sax and the piano sounds come off like Jazz improv. Contrasting that is the electronic beats that appear in the second half of the song. This Acid Jazz mix sounds modern even today, epitomising Bowie’s constant evolution to stay relevant and exciting.

‘The Mysteries’ is possibly my favourite of the songs here. It takes dark, moody ambient sounds, and puts them underneath beautifully ethereal and simplistic guitar. It brings to mind the work of David Lynch, who Bowie was a friend and fan of. It very much has a sound similar to that of Laura Palmer’s theme in Twin Peaks. It is a majestic battle between dark and light in music form.

Probably the albums best quality is just how diverse it is – with some of the songs sounding like alt pop rock, and others sounding like ambient drug trips. The more accessible songs, aka the songs with more lyrics, such as the title track ‘Buddha of Suburbia’, as well as ‘Dead Against it’, and ‘Bleed like a craze, Dad’ are all excellent. Especially Buddha. From the first quiet guitar sound at the start, we get the tone of the whole album – which is that it is tonally inconsistent. The album has so many contrasting sounds, so many fights between happiness and sadness, dark and light, as mentioned previously. The song itself is fun, emotional, and bookends the album at the beginning and end perfectly. ‘Bleed like a craze, Dad’ is also experimental, but has more of a rock’n’roll edge to it. Plus, it’s by far the most catchy song on the album.

Overall, i have a lot of respect for this work, because of the risks it takes. It also has an abundance of great material in it. However, it’s an album for a specific feeling and mood. Listen to it when you’re chilling out, not when you’re gong for a run, let’s put it that way. It’s powerful, it’s emotive, like so much of Bowie’s oeuvre, but it doesn’t particularly stand out to me in his canon. Still excellent work.

Next: 1.Outside

 

David Bowie – Black Tie White Noise (1993) – A (Couple of) Month(s) of Bowie

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Black Tie White Noise, known as Bowie’s Wedding album and the renaissance his of career, is a good album. Nae, a great album. Now that is something i haven’t said about a Bowie in a while. Here, he truly ventures into the 90’s, as it’s an album of house music, mixed with soul, rock and 80’s commercial pop. It’s a brilliant amalgamation of imaginative ideas that reminded me of his earlier, more experimental and innovative albums.

Fittingly, we start off with the ringing of wedding bells in the song called, funnily enough, ‘Wedding’, before being blasted into a crescendo of wonderful electronic beats, evoking the pure happiness Bowie would have been feeling with the love of his life, Iman. It is truly beautiful listening to this and realising the clear new lease of life, inspiration and talent the Starman has been given. This is a solely instrumental track, like a few records here. The beauty of these is the fact that they are seemingly flights of fantasy – Bowie is too over the moon to even try and explain his feelings. In fact, possibly my favourite song on the album is one of these instrumental tracks. ‘Pallas Athena’ may have a couple of male and female black vocals scattered throughout it, but they in themselves just act as instrumental sounds. This is a slightly more sinister track than any other, as it has a brooding, surreal quality to it. The odd sax and the incessant chants and electronic beats give it this beautifully and powerfully oneiric quality.

The title track, and one of the big hits on the album, ‘Black tie White noise’ is an angry, yet fun call to action for social equality. Bowie works with RnB musician, ‘Al B. Sure!’ in creating this song against hatred, which paints a creative environment, plagued by gang mentalities, in Ghettos. This may have been brought on as a result of his then soon to be wife being black, hence his heightened awareness in the troubles of African Americans. The other single, ‘Jump they say’, is another big winner. To me, it shows a cogent story of someone on the edge. They are being told to jump by the powers at be, but not given their wings first. Therefore, the are thrust into life without a helping hand by those thrusting them out.

Towards the end of the album it gets more 80’s Bowie, and slightly less creative, but that doesn’t matter. We even have a very Mario sounding tune in ‘Miracle Goodnight’. As well as a great Morissey cover and remixes and alternate mixes too. This album is a return to form in many ways, yet it doesn’t stack nearly as high as some of his early work. Looking forward to venturing further into the 90’s.

Tin Machine – Tin Machine II (1991) – A (Couple of) Month(s) of Bowie

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This album brings back wonderful memories. It is an absolute classic! The first time i heard it, i felt reborn. These are a few things probably very rarely heard said about this album. This is a definite step down from Tin Machine I, and i have no strong positive feelings about that album. Tin Machine II is generic rock, yet it does have some interesting turns and twists.

We start out with a couple of fairly promising tracks. The opening 10 seconds alone is a slight work of genius, as Bowie just repeats “baby” over and over again, while odd electronic and rocky sounds pop up around his voice. The song itself is an inventive anthem. It mixes art pop elements with hard rock, to captivating results. However, trying to get “baby, baby, baby, baby, etc” out of my head was painful. The whole album is distorted and distracted by this incessant, almost occultist chant. But not really.

“One shot” and “You belong in Rock and Roll” follow this formula of fairly interesting, yet pretty forgettable rock songs. In fact, the whole album follows this. It feels very worn out, like the Tin Machine gimmick was only worth one album. This is Bowie’s ‘fading rock star’ stage, i’m afraid. He goes through genres and styles, and here he is emulating the rock star who releases an album later in his career, and nobody remembers it when thinking of

him. I mean, this is an ok album, but it reaches new levels of forgettable in terms of Bowie’s canon.

Possibly my favourite song on the album is “Stateside”, as it provided us with something completely new and unique – the first track on a Bowie album to have someone else as the sole singer. The vocals by Iggy Pop’s drummer, Hunt Sales, are a superb blending of country and hard rock. Since his voice sounds so different to that of Bowie’s, it provides a new take on the lyricism’s of the icon.

I can’t really remember any other stand out songs. “Betty Wrong” and “If There is something” (cover of the Roxy Music song) were maybe the weakest to me, but they were inoffensive. The main problem with Tin Machine II is just that it’s very unimaginative. Nothing stands out, and it feels by the numbers. But that’s fine. As I’ve mentioned in past reviews, a bit of the appeal of Bowie is his unfathomable work ethic, and i’m just happy that he has such a massive amount of work out there. Adds to his mythos.

Tin Machine – Tine Machine (1989) – A Month of Bowie

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1989 may have been Bowie’s most unique year of the 80’s. Tin Machine is no masterpiece, but listening to this, it’s almost difficult to comprehend that the front-man was once Ziggy Stardust. This is Bowie at his most stereotypically masculine – wearing a suit, taking no prisoners with bombastic hard rock tunes. I’d describe Tin Machine as Dire Straights meets Bruce Springsteen. And though they may not be as good as either, that at least shows how much of an anomaly they are in Bowie’s canon. Tin Machine are a band. Bowie is part of that band. Not like ‘The Spiders from Mars’ who were Bowie’s band – they played Bowie’s music. Machine work as a democratic uni, all writing tracks together. This elevates Bowie from his past outing, as he doesn’t need to rely on his own creative impulse, which was waning somewhat.

Now with all that said, Tin Machine are a very average Hard Rock group. There is clearly a bit of a cash of personalities, and it’s obvious that Bowie is having to restrain himself, musically, in some areas. Throughout the whole album, there is a ‘Working Class Hero’ motif that Bowie is trying to stress. The problem is that at this point, it’s pretty hard to believe the working class roots that he’s talking about, considering that he’s been to Mars and probably further. I guess it is kind of a breath of fresh air in a way though, as Bowie is trying to talk about another side of himself. Lodger is therefore the only album of his at this point that is comparable to this, as in both he talks more about his ‘roots’ than ever before. Here however, it’s clear that he’s trying to emulate a style of music rather than innovate anything though.

The songs on show here are all very samey, in my opinion. Most of them have instrumental solos, and stress a rock formula. There are many songs about love, and just as many about struggles. Just what you’d expect from this kind of album. But there is something kind of comforting about that. I don’t really know many of the songs individually, but overall it is a solid listen, and i would easily listen to it again as background music. The hits to me were pretty uninteresting, apart from the first tune ‘Heaven’s in here’ which has a terrific riff. My favourite songs on the album are probably ‘Run’ because it’s simply a really fast and fun listen, and ‘I can’t read’ because it’s mysterious and sinister, and has something important to say about the longing for 15 minutes of fame.

The more i listen to Bowie throughout the years, i come to appreciate all areas of his career more. Like an artist like Woody Allen, he has such an incredible work ethic, that he continues to create albums even when he is less inspired. His consistency of albums released show how multi-faceted he really was.

David Bowie – Never let me Down (1987) – A Month of Bowie

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Well…this is embarrassing, Bowie. I seriously hope this is the worst it gets. I’m sure it will be. This album has a couple of interesting things going for it. For one, Bowie is experimenting, as always, here. It is a completely new direction for him, and that in turn makes way for some interesting and inventive tunes. And a couple of the songs are genuinely really enjoyable to listen to. ‘Glass Spider’, for one, is a cracker of a tune, depicting a surreal fever dream about, well, a Glass Spider casting her offspring into the wild. “Mommy come back, cos the waters all gone” is a strangely catchy chant, and the mix of Macabre and dance beats creates a dream-like atmosphere. Anyway, it’s a fun song and easy to dance to. Furthermore, it feels like a throwback to Diamond Dogs, and as a lover of that album, i found a lot to love in it.

‘Beat of your drum’ is a track i surprisingly got a lot out of. Rip-roaring tune, with the most obvious innuendo of a title that is imaginable. As subtle as goat’s cheese is mild. ‘Time will crawl’ is also a good song. It seems to draw many similarities to one of Bowie’s last singles ‘Blackstar’, as it talks about “a man with no eyes at all”, which is poignant. Apparently it’s about the Chernobyl accident, which makes it even more so. Most of the other tracks were forgettable because of how generic they sounded to me.

Unfortunately, these songs are so unbelievably 80’s (and not top-tier 80’s – cheesy 80’s), that it at times comes across as pastiche. Like a lesser Rick Ashley, or Guns and Roses, which seems cruel and heartless to say, considering that i’m not a particular fan of either. This is a low-point in Bowie’s career so far, yet even that in its self isn’t much of a criticism. If you consider the amazing albums of his past, it’s inevitable that he would fall slightly sometime. I mean for other artists this could be seen as a set of great songs, but because Bowie set such a high standard, he made it difficult on himself to live up to that. Plus, you can only experiment so much before something goes wrong. It’s not a good album, but it isn’t bad either.

This whole album, more than any so far, was a completely new experience. I know i sound like a broken record when i say that, but with this one it was ALL new. I hadn’t heard any of these songs before. So, you never know, this may end up being a favourite album in the future. Probably not, but you never know. Only time will tell, or crawl in this case.

David Bowie – Tonight (1984) – A Month of Bowie

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Tonight was an entirely new experience to me. Apart from seeing an old VHS copy of the ‘Blue Jean’ music video when i was young and maybe fleetingly listened to ‘Loving the Alien’ on Bowie’s greatest hits,  i had no connection to the album what so ever. Was i blown away? No. Was i pleasantly surprised for the most part? I’d call that a big fat “kinda”.

After the shock of how underwhelmed i was by ‘Let’s Dance’, ‘Tonight’ seemed not too bad an album. It is certainly more consistent than Dance, with arguably more interesting, inventive sounds at play. This ups the auntie in terms of cheesy pop, but also in terms of art pop. While listening to it, i felt more emotionally engaged, as it has strong religious themes running throughout it. Now, i am strongly un-religious, but i see it’s purpose, and i could almost understand Bowie’s Christianity through these records, which is an amazing feat to ‘almost’ make someone like me understand your religious feelings. Furthermore, the album cover contributes to the themes of redemption and hope, as the Church windows seem to symbolises some window into the soul, and Bowie’s head looking up shows his belief in hope. I know i don’t usually talk about covers, but this was important to me, as i feel like that is effective in showing that this is a happier album than possibly any Bowie has previously done. Not that Bowie is a sad musician, but all of these songs are upbeat, and sometimes unbearably so that they become saccharine.

Tangent over. The album peaks to early with ‘Loving the Alien’, the best song here in my non-controversial opinion. It is epic in scale, instrumentally, and lyrically. He talks of believing in something bigger, and surreal experiences that come from that. As well as being one hell of a funky, soulful hit. ‘Don’t look down’ is another winner, with a fusion of reggae, gospel and pop at play. Again, very unashamedly optimistic, which is great. Also, the ‘God only Knows’ cover warmed a heart to hear for the first time yesterday. Apart form Ziggy Stardust, my favourite album of all time is ‘Pet Sounds’ by The Beach Boys, and hearing this mix of Brian Wilson’s writing and Bowie’s vocals made me very happy. ‘Blue Jean’ is also a fun, if a bit unremarkable.

‘Tonight’ is too cheesy for me. So much so that at times it seemed anti-Bowie. Bowie working with Tina Turner – it’s an inventive idea, and for that i guess i’m happy it happened, but it’s just rubbish. All the other songs are fine, not bad, not particularly good, just fine.

Next: Never Let Me Down

David Bowie – Let’s Dance (1983) – A Month of Bowie

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Let’s Dance is, despite what he says, Bowie’s most commercial, most mainstream album. This is good in some respects, but honestly not many. The title track, ‘Let’s Dance’, is a superb hit with a funky, simplistic and unbelievably catchy tune, and ‘Modern Love’ and ‘China Girl’ are interesting amalgamations of styles, that are amazing to dance to. But the main problem with this album is just how generic it sounds after the first three songs, one of which being a cover. Here, Bowie is going in yet another genre direction – Pop – and yes, he’s had many albums/songs that are perceived as Pop, and they are, but never as overtly as this. It’s an interesting experiment in that way, and one which paid off as this album brought him new fans like no other had. This garnering of attention isn’t too surprising, but it’s just such a shame that this is the album over most that people seemed to respond to.

Instrumentally, there is some cool stuff going on here. Nile Rodgers, of Chic fame, is co-producer on this, as well as shredding it on the guitar. Tony Visconti, Bowie’s recent producer at the time, was not told that he wouldn’t be producing it until it was already two months into it’s development. Bowie was an asshole at some points in his life, i have recently come to learn. Oh well, we’re all flawed at times. But still, bit of a dick move. Anyway, the influence of Rodgers shows for the better throughout. Bowie said he wanted a ‘hit’ album, and that’s what he got.

After the first three songs though, everything becomes dull and generic. Honestly, the more i think about it, this is pretty pointless as a full album. I can barely remember any of it.

On the positive side now. ‘Modern love’ and ‘China Girl’ are too great Bowie hits. Listening to them while walking around yesterday put a major spring in my step and i honest-to-god felt brilliant. ‘China Girl’ especially, as it takes Iggy’s song and adds a new upbeat twist to it. Incredible electronic, funkadelic-like songs. ‘Let’s Dance’ is a tiny bit of a step down for me, but probably only because it’s Bowie’s most overplayed song.

Next: Tonight

David Bowie – Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980) – A Month of Bowie

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This album was one of my formative experiences with Bowie. I was 13 or 14, just home from school, washing the dishes. Sometime earlier, i’d burned all Bowie albums i could find on to my iPod. The first i chose to listen to in full was Hunkey Dory, i think, and the second was Scary Monsters. After listening to the first couple of tracks over the sink, i finished with the dishes and went on to walk, dance, and sit around the house listening it. The album had quite an effect on me at that point in my life, more than the others. It seemed to symbolise some kind of rebellious teen thinking – it talks of progressive politics and the struggles of growing up. Furthermore, the sounds that come ambiently and explosively from it are usually pretty eclectic and mad. This album is Harvey Gardner, age 13-14.

Firstly, there are three of Bowie’s most memorable hits featured on here – ‘Ashes to Ashes’, ‘Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)’ and ‘Fashion’. Great singles, with lots of feeling. Continuing ‘Major Tom’s’ story arch in Ashes was a stroke of kitsch genius. With doing so, he shows how he has evolved as a musician, but is referencing his roots. Scary Monsters is an album after all that sounds similar in some ways to his Ziggy Stardust period, but at the same time is clearly a record of the 80’s. These songs are all very different, but easily traceable to this album. That might be because they all sound like 80’s tunes, and they all include Bowie’s new and improved vocals. I haven’t touched on this before, but with “Heroes” Bowie experimented with the sound and texture of his vocals, making them expressionistic, and this carries on with subsequent albums. Here, especially in “Teenage Wildlife” Bowie’s voice covers a wide range of pitches and tones, reaching higher levels of expression than ever before.

Talking of ‘Teenage Wildlife’… This is my favourite song on the album, as well as being one of Bowie’s most poignant songs to me. At once acting as a metaphor the struggles of the hardships of the formation of human beings – including the lack of respect for teenagers , and a criticism with the things about life that Bowie’s inner teen struggles to deal with in the modern world. The world beats you till your down on your knees, gasping for breath, and it’s up to you if you decide to stay down or get up. That’s what it says to me. This spoke deeply to me. My other favourite is without a doubt ‘Up the hill backwards, which talks of people striving for change, while being ignorant of why they’re doing it. I think. Catchy, beautiful.

‘It’s no game (Part 1)’ is a crazy experiment with Japanese influences, and it’s quieter version (Part 2) is even better. I’ve never really been fond of ‘Scream like a baby’ and ‘Kingdom come’ (cover of Tom Verlaine song), but they spoke to me a bit more than they had previously this time.

When i was 14, when my music teacher asked us to play songs that showed our music taste, i played ‘Scary Monsters’. Nothing has changed.

 

Just want to quickly say, yes, i didn’t meet my ‘Month of Bowie’ goal…by quite a bit. But in my defense, my computer has been down for days, and I’ve had the Glasgow Film festival on, as well as work and a week full of uni. Enough excuses. Back to the music…

David Bowie – Lodger (1979) – A Month of Bowie

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The Berlin Trilogy: Part 3

Lodger, when listening to it yesterday, was a new experience to me. Apart from the singles – Look back in anger, and Boys keep swinging – i was mainly oblivious to everything else. I am still a bit oblivious to everything else. I didn’t think it was a bad album, far from it, but it’s far less memorable than the previous two albums. Looking back over it, that might be because it is such a departure from Bowie’s usual styles that it seems somewhat alien to his previous work. I know that Bowie changes with every album, but this one feels like it’s being made by a fairly normal person. The issues being discussed are more explicitly stated that ever before. Instead of his usual surreal style of story telling, he goes for a less conceptual and more everyday approach. Also, the album is more conventionally structured and loose, where as Low and “Heroes” were both conceptional.

The album, significantly, sounds like Bowie is sailing the seven seas, and with that, taking in a host of different cultures. He goes to Jamaica with the reggae inspired ‘Yassassin’, while also referencing Eastern culture sounds that make you feel like you’re walking through a desert. In ‘African Night Flight’, he goes to, predictably, Africa, while carrying with him experimental electronica. In ‘D.J.’ Bowie goes to Eno-land, to experience a hazy Roxy Music-esque sound, with a track that sounds like Bowie from the past, while also sounding like something of a future album. Classic tune too. And with ‘Repetition’, he travels to London, to brace the cold weather and live a normal life in the modern world. “He could of had a Cadillac, if the school had taught him right” – it feels so odd, as i mentioned earlier to have Bowie talking about normality, every day existence. Even more than the globe trotting sounds, this is the most significant thing in the album for me. The biggest leap of imagination. Real life, and all of it’s struggles are shown in a Bowie record, and that is pretty surreal. ‘Fantastic Voyage’, the first song, is my favourite, and the most memorable for me, because it sounds like he is on a fantastic voyage, while also going through the motions of middle-class life. He talks about politics, and “learning to live with somebodies depression”, which is quite powerful. It connects the space-boy to his audience on another level, by showing that he can be thoroughly normal.

David Bowie – “Heroes” (1977) – A Month of Bowie

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Here’s a quick ‘secret, secret, never seen’ – i’m getting busier and busier with work and Uni, so that’s why these have been few and far between. No matter though. I’m just going to shorten some of them and try and get through a few blogs a day if i have time. I need to meet my deadline of the 23rd so that i can get on with everything else. You get the idea, you’re a rational person.

The Berlin Trilogy: Part 2

“Heroes” is “Heroes”. Yeah, it’s that good. Of course the title track is the stand out, but basically everything else on here is worth while too. It’s ambient, it’s ahead of it’s time. It is clearly a sequel to ‘Low’, as it shares many of the same kind of sounds, meshing them with Japanese strings and obscure usage of the electric guitar, and so much more. Brian Eno’s production helps steer Bowie in another completely unique direction, helping create dream-like instrumentals, and innovating in many areas. The guitarist, Robert Fripp, also gives a spectacular contribution. As i mentioned, the guitar was used, especially in the song Heroes, to create a weird sustained re-verb-like sound. The amp was put to full, then Fripp would simply place his hand on the strings, and move it up and down the guitar. The sound is so idiosyncratic and otherworldly that i had to mention it.

Now, this album has a lot of emotion resonance for me. I have been touched by the song “Heroes”, as many people have, throughout my life. It’s is so true to life. It is so true to the journey’s that we each go through as human beings. We all want to be heroes, in one sense or another. We all wish to make some kind of mark on this world. Some kind of spiritual footprint. And to achieve this, we need someone to share it with. This song is truer to the human condition than any i can think of. It hopes for success, and more importantly, peace, and yet will possibly falter. But in faltering, something just as beautiful may take it’s place. This is a song that reaches the hearts of all those wishing desperately to succeed, and resonates even more with those who sometimes fail in that attempt.

The previous two songs also have significance in my life. Joe the Lion, just because it’s a great song, and it’s possible the highest that Bowie has sang throughout a whole song. Beauty and The Beast, because it was the song featured in my first short film. I say short film, it was really just something i rushed together to show to film schools. No masterpiece, but a completely bizarre mess that i hold close to my heart, and one that i will never show anyone.

Songs 6-9 are mainly instrumental, much like the ambient tracks on Low, they provide a completely different look at Bowie’s music. Atmospheric masterclasses. Absolute inspirations to my film work too. They have a futurist sound, and create surreal visions in the mind. Secret life of Arabia then acts as the perfect epilogue to the album, as it brings the album full circle with a song that is similar to the first 2, and it’s just so damn catchy.

I’ll leave you with this:

“I, I can remember (I remember)
Standing, by the wall (by the wall)
And the guns shot above our heads
(over our heads)
And we kissed,
as though nothing could fall
(nothing could fall)
And the shame was on the other side
Oh we can beat them, for ever and ever
Then we could be Heroes,
just for one day”