What are you currently listening to?

[Sumez]

Bowie time!

Bowie's Low, Scary Monsters and Let's Dance on vinyl. (have more but these 3 are my fave and the ones I've been listening a ton these days)

Two of my absolute favourite Bowie albums, and one that's probably in the bottom three (Let's Dance)

I don't own any album/don't listen to his stuff past Let's Dance. Also, for the early stuff I mainly stick to the singles(really like sufragette city and hang on to yourself, such good glam-punk)

I'd say that's a mistake. Bowie is very much an album kinda guy, and some songs work better in that context. Actually so many of my favourite Bowie tracks don't even have single releases. There's an incredible amount of quality hidden in this discography. And tons of great albums past Let's Dance. Sure, the 80s were weak, and he had a hard time getting in gear during the 90s (but made some very interesting stuff in the process). However, I'd say Outside, Heathen, Reality, and The Next Day are all among his very best albums.

Also why haven't anyone mentioned Honky Dory yet? That album is a 100/0 ratio for me.

Low is a record I wish owned on vinyl.

Gloating (3 or 4 more acquired since that picture)

Coincidentally I originally bought Low after having adored the cover artwork in the window of a record shop for weeks. Bought it without knowing anything about it and was initially disappointed. Revisiting the album many years later, with a better understanding of its context, I was shocked just how amazingly cool and unique especially the first half is.

I particularly like the "snapshot" concept of Low's first half - lots of short, instantly hooky pop

And the absolute best drum sound of the 70s

[Randorama]

Philip Glass, Brian Eno and David Bowie collaborated on orchestral versions of Low and some other Bowie's works, which are quite nice (if rather mainstream contemporary orchestral music...). I liked them a long time ago, but now I feel like they are a boring collaboration with three outstanding innovators meeting and...playing it extremely safe all of a sudden.

Ironically, although not a fan of his work in the strictest sense of the word, I was lucky enough to have my father grabbing me to see his Sound+Vision concert, many moons ago ('80s?). I remember simply being stunned at the sheer intensity and brilliance of the show.

My father has all the family vinyls (of course!), including some rather obscure stuff, e.g. a compilation of Italian versions of his early classics sung by the man himself! He has seen Bowie live a few more times (and, say, Rolling Stones 100 times or so ).

The one thing I always wondered is why he never published any albums during the '80s, though [/ witty sarcasm].

EDIT: I am also pretty sure that his video of Ashes to Ashes is an indirect homage to Moorcock's Cornelius stories, among other things.

[FinalBaton]

I particularly like the "snapshot" concept of Low's first half - lots of short, instantly hooky pop - and the neat transition into darker, absorbing ambience in its second. It feels like as much like a couple of brilliant EPs that way.

Totally agree with this. I feel like it gives even more gravitas to the second ambient half




Also I'm a bit surprised at the lack of support for Let's Dance. It's a superb new wave album with songwritting caliber of the highest order and production values that are out of this world(Nile Rodgers did an incredible job, and his elite funk guitar playing contributes to that. Stevie Ray Vaughn also plays leads, pretty cool!). The thing is as tight as diamond

But then again I'm a new wave guy, and realize not everyone is.


I'll give a shot to these albums you mention, Sumez. Oh and I have Honky Dory on cassette actually. been a while since I listened to it but I remember liking it. I'll give it a go tonight

[Marc]

There's an incredible amount of quality hidden in this discography. And tons of great albums past Let's Dance. Sure, the 80s were weak, and he had a hard time getting in gear during the 90s (but made some very interesting stuff in the process). However, I'd say Outside, Heathen, Reality, and The Next Day are all among his very best albums.

Also why haven't anyone mentioned Honky Dory yet? That album is a 100/0 ratio for me.

*Cough* I did, though I must admit it doesn't get as much play as MWStW / Ziggy / Monsters. Oh, and Aladdin Sane. Love Quicksand, obv Life on Mars and Queen Bitch (which also received a nice trashy cover via Green River in the late '80s).

Good point about the '90s stuff though. At the time of course, I was an 'edgy' teen sort of shunning away from anything I'd gotten into via my Dad (T.Rex, Bowie, Queen, Slade, Quo etc), so didn't really take much notice, even though I liked the older stuff. Having come across some of his '90s singles, I'm actually quite impressed - stuff like I'm Afraid of Americans and Little Wonder, though perhaps riding the coat-tails of NIN/industrial a little, is far better that I gave it credit for at the time. Might start with a comp of later stuff and go from there.

[Sumez]

Aye, Earthling is a funny album, and very derivative of the 90s big beat and industrial rock sounds. It's hard to really qualify it as a "good" album (especially coming straight off the amazing Outside), but I'd say it's at least in the lower end of his good albums, with enough solid tracks that I'd recommend anyone listening to it. Seven Years In Tibet is actually probably up there with some of my favourite Bowie tracks. He does those long, brooding "epics" pretty well.

Funny you'd rank Honky Dory that low comparatively. I'm not personally a big fan of neither MHSTW nor Aladdin Sane, and would probably rank those near the bottom on my list. I guess I just don't like it when he sounds too theatrical.
I understand that MHSTW has quite a bit of a following though, its style just doesn't appeal to me at all. Even my favourite tracks from it (Saviour Machine, Supermen) I often end up skipping. And I actually really like the preceeding album, which for some reason rarely gets a lot of love.

[Sumez]

Also I'm a bit surprised at the lack of support for Let's Dance. It's a superb new wave album with songwritting caliber of the highest order and production values that are out of this world(Nile Rodgers did an incredible job, and his elite funk guitar playing contributes to that. Stevie Ray Vaughn also plays leads, pretty cool!). The thing is as tight as diamond

But then again I'm a new wave guy, and realize not everyone is.

I'm 100,000% a new wave guy, and Scary Monsters is an amazing new wave album. I always thought of Let's Dance as more of a disco album.
I realise that Let's Dance is a really well made album of course, but it feels like it's designed to be shoehorned into a mainstream pop audience, lacking much of the personal touch you'd usually hear on even Bowie's most derivative albums. So I'd say Let's Dance is good, it's just very uninteresting.
I do really like Modern Love, which I'd say is the best song on the album. Cat People is also cool, but the original soundtrack version is much better than the one on Let's Dance. China Girl is better than the Iggy Pop version IMO. As for the title track, I'm horribly fed up with it at this point, which probably affects my opinions a bit.

I'll give a shot to these albums you mention, Sumez. Oh and I have Honky Dory on cassette actually. been a while since I listened to it but I remember liking it. I'll give it a go tonight

Hunky Dory is just a "fun" and varied album. It feels like Bowie amd his chums are just playing around, paying tribute to a bunch of his favourite artists, his son and a bunch of other stuff, while doing a great job at it. Even if the album didn't have Changes or Life on Mars I'd probably still rank it among my favourites.

[Steamflogger Boss]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru8eGT15Ymc

Pyramaze - Contingent

This might be their best album yet. From the motherland too. \m/

Absolutely love the third track on here.

[Zen]

Bowie wrote so much interesting music, its almost unwise to have favourites, for risk of missing something.
Unavoidable to be drawn to certain aspects of his writing, though.

It was the "Man who fell to earth" type vibe that caught my ear, always.
For example, on Low (1977), I would be the chap who was constantly listening to "Art Decade" and "Subterraneans".

They say, that as the Music Industry evolved, Bowie became more and more irrelevant.
Of course, that's a load of old rubbish. It was Music that became more and more irrelevant.
Just when you would think he was gone for good, along would come something like, "The Hearts Filthy Lesson" from Outside (1995),
(which bedsides being a fantastic piece, features one of the angriest guitar riffs ever)

[Sumez]

They say, that as the Music Industry evolved, Bowie became more and more irrelevant.
Of course, that's a load of old rubbish. It was Music that became more and more irrelevant.
Just when you would think he was gone for good, along would come something like, "The Hearts Filthy Lesson" from Outside (1995),
(which bedsides being a fantastic piece, features one of the angriest guitar riffs ever)

I also heard someone claim that an artist finds success when what they are doing collides with the popular zeitgeist, and Bowie was lucky to hit that stride multiple times throughout his career, where most artists do it once at best.

I guess there's some sense to be made out of that, but that's really belittling Bowie's incredible efforts. More fair arguments could be made about his collaborators deserving at least as much credit as the man himself, but I don't think there are any Bowie fans out there who don't realise that fact. And when you talk about his amazing skills at staying relevant, it's not just about writing music, but all of the production work. He chose very wisely who to collaborate with, and how to market himself. And through all of it, his own love for music in all of it forms manages to shine through most of the albums.

The thing is, you could isolate his 70s output (which a lot of people pretty much do) and still consider him one of the best and most influential musicians of the 20th century, but the fact the there's so much more to it blows my mind. One of the coolest thing he did was IMO removing himself completely from the idea of contemporary sounds, but instead start producing incredibly tight, plain rock albums starting with Heathen in 2002, resulting in what I (also!) consider three of his best albums, even if they are rarely as celebrated as the popular classics.
And then at the brink of his deathbed he releases the completely leftfield Blackstar record, which just completely cements the fact that Bowie can do whatever the fuck he wants.

Even Buddha of Suburbia would be a great album in many other artist's discography, but in Bowie's it's rarely more than a footnote.

[dan76]

What, we're talking Bowie? The three that I listen to the most are Young Americans, Station to Station and Low. I'd be hard pushed to pick a favourite but it would probably be Low. I think with those three albums there is a crazy shift in his music and all are brilliantly produced. Young Americans has that lush soft 70's production, with a ton of funk and string synthasizer... Love it. Last year I listened to Diamond Dogs for the first time. Amazing.

For some reason Hereos has never really clicked with me. It seems to be a companion piece to Low but it feels much colder and harsh, like it was recorded in a hospital or something. Obviously it has great stuff on it, as does The Lodger but they don't hold together as well as albums. Maybe it's because Eno was less involved? I'd say that about most of his albums from the 80's and 90's. There are always some great tracks but they don't work completely for me.

For anyone who is into Let's Dance you should try and track down his unreleased live album from the Serious Moonlight tour. Even though Let's Dance was a massive commercial album the tour still had some rare tracks from his more experimental stuff - Look Back in Anger, Breaking Glass.

One last thing whilst we are on the Bowie. Why the hell hasn't his unused soundtrack for The Man Who Fell To Earth been released yet?!? The only thing that has seen the light of day is the backwards bass part on Low.

Other stuff, I just gave Jehovakill a listen by Julian Cope. I haven't listened to Cope in decades but this is as good a I remember it, maybe better with the getting older thing. I remember 20 Mothers being pretty great too.

[Zen]

I also heard someone claim that an artist finds success when what they are doing collides with the popular zeitgeist, and Bowie was lucky to hit that stride multiple times throughout his career, where most artists do it once at best.

I would say that this collision was more than luck. I would say that it was his absolute intent.
This collision is what makes art relevant. Which goes back to the "death" of music. As music became more irrelevant, Bowie had nothing to bounce off.
Nothing to be done about it. The heady adolescent days of "modern" music, had come and gone. We all became more "self aware" musically. How do you "collide" against that and keep it interesting?

I guess there's some sense to be made out of that, but that's really belittling Bowie's incredible efforts. More fair arguments could be made about his collaborators deserving at least as much credit as the man himself, but I don't think there are any Bowie fans out there who don't realise that fact. And when you talk about his amazing skills at staying relevant, it's not just about writing music, but all of the production work. He chose very wisely who to collaborate with, and how to market himself. And through all of it, his own love for music in all of it forms manages to shine through most of the albums.

Absolutely.
Hiring Stevie Ray Vaughan, for Lets Dance (1983), was smart move.

[Randorama]

I also heard someone claim that an artist finds success when what they are doing collides with the popular zeitgeist, and Bowie was lucky to hit that stride multiple times throughout his career, where most artists do it once at best.

I believe that in one biography he clearly stated that he carefully studied the Zeitgeist of the day throughout his career, and aimed at producing a work that would possibly anticipate it by a small bit.
He also expanded his musical skills over the years considerably...I think that the period he spent in Switzerland during the '70s was mostly focused on learning how to play various instruments and studying several genres, from classical music to Jazz, and so on.

In some albums, this is so extremely obvious that one could be forgiven for wondering why Bowie ended up collaborating with artists that, on paper, had nothing to do with a "rock icon" like him.

In other words, Bowie was often methodically trying to give us a taste of what was going to be tomorrow's music, one album at a time.

I wouldn't say that he has been successful too often, but the commitment to create more than just "new music" was always gloriously obvious.

...but I challenge anyone to admit here that they like at least one song of each of his albums

[Sumez]

I want to comment on what Zen (EDIT: sorry - dan76!) said on Heroes and Lodger, but I'm on a phone and can't write too much now...

...but I challenge anyone to admit here that they like at least one song of each of his albums

Why wouldn't you admit that? I guess I'm hard pressed on Hours, but I kinda dig Something In The Air.
I don't really like anything on PinUps, but not sure if you'd consider that a Bowie album.

[Randorama]

Why wouldn't you admit that? I guess I'm hard pressed on Hours, but I kinda dig Something In The Air.
I don't really like anything on PinUps, but not sure if you'd consider that a Bowie album.

Ah! Bowie had an immensely long career and created music in so many genres and Zeitgeists (ok, Zeitgeisten) that it is rare to find fans of his whole opus.
Case in point, my father has selective amnesia on his work and seems to simply blank out when I press him to discuss non-rock work.
He once literally denied that the Vinyl of outside I was waving in front of him was a Bowie work, and he even said that Low is crap!

Personally, I find it common to meet "raving fans" of Bowie who like a certain period of him (and his work), and pretend that the rest does not exist.
One of my parents is indeed like that, and we are talking of one guy who went to extreme lengths not attend his concerts in the '80s.

I *do* like at least one song on every and each of his albums, as I have always been in love with his artistic spirit and the aforementioned commitment to showcase tomorrow's music.

Say, Earthling is honestly a modest drum'n bass album and Black Tie, White Noise is a...funk? average work, but nevertheless they show that he was willing to experiment with genres distant from his roots for the simple reason that he could. I was reading the genesis of Outside, and how he exchanged these long mails with Eno, writing manifestoes on what was missing "in music" at the time, and how they should be hard pressed to fill this artistic void without being necessarily mainstream. I think that this is a way to show commitment to music as a general artistic (and human) enterprise, to put it in a simple manner. Few artists have such a broad, encompassing view of the craft, outside maybe Jazz and Classical music.

...I could loop Jump, they say and Little Wonder for hours, though

EDIT:

There are tons of academic (but easily accessible) publications on Bowie, which I feel to be an indication of the depth of his work and its impact. I feel that Strange fascination: David Bowie: the definitive story is a useful entry to this type of works

[Marc]

Some fair points there. I have to admit that in my younger years I was a fan of his early period, and that Bowie basically ended for me with Young Americans, which I still hate (though I have my reasons for that as a T. Rex fan).

As I hit mid-late 20's I ended up with a job lot of vinyl, and though it took a while I did eventually learn to appreciate the Berlin trilogy and Scary Monsters. As I've admitted, my main gap at the minute are his '90s albums, but I love the two tracks you've mentioned and intend to backtrack, if anyone wants to recommend a starting point I'm all ears.

[Sumez]

For some reason Hereos has never really clicked with me. It seems to be a companion piece to Low but it feels much colder and harsh, like it was recorded in a hospital or something. Obviously it has great stuff on it, as does The Lodger but they don't hold together as well as albums. Maybe it's because Eno was less involved?

I feel the same about Heroes. I mean, I do really like that album, and there's some great stuff on it, aside of course from the title track, which is close to being the best song Bowie wrote (despite being partly a cover). The production on it is really weird, especially considering how the album fits in between Low and Lodger, but it works well for what it does. If I had an "issue" with Heroes though, it'd be that it's just not particularly unique compared to the rest of the berlin trilogy. It's just rock and/or roll, not counting the instrumental side which isn't quite as interesting as Low's counterpart (aside from the Kraftwerk'ish V2 Schneider).

Lodger however is one of my top albums (man I must have a bunch of those, don't I? I promise, Lodger is really far in the top). My approach might be different since it's one of the first Bowie albums I got, but like Hunky Dory I feel this playful experimental nature of just wanting to do a lot of stuff, and even through the weaker tracks it remains super entertaining if nothing else! It's usually the one of the three Berlin albums that gets the least attention, and it's really unfair.
To be honest, I'd also say Eno is more prevalent here than on anything else he worked with Bowie on - it almost feels like a Brian Eno album with Bowie on vocals. Coincidentally it reminds me a lot of the Talking Heads album Fear of Music, which Eno also worked on, released only half a year later. It is also a masterpiece.
Check out Talking Heads - Cities to see what I mean.

Personally, I find it common to meet "raving fans" of Bowie who like a certain period of him (and his work), and pretend that the rest does not exist.
One of my parents is indeed like that, and we are talking of one guy who went to extreme lengths not attend his concerts in the '80s.

I think the bigger issue here is that the discography is just too massive for most people to grasp completely. I'd say if you appreciate Bowie, there's a solid common thread going through his entire body of work. It wasn't until after his death in 2016 that I took it upon myself to dedicate a month to going through every single record, one at a day, listening to each one over and over again, that I managed to feel like I had a solid impression of everything he made.

I wouldn't say I like every "Bowie period", but I also feel like there's a pretty general consensus that he was on fire in the 70s, was boringly lazy in the 80s, had a mild comeback in the 90s, and made some really strong stuff following 2000 - at least those are all opinions that I subscribe to, and even though I can easily find a few tracks that I enjoy from each album, I'd say Bowie had a pretty horrible 80s.

I think that this is a way to show commitment to music as a general artistic (and human) enterprise, to put it in a simple manner. Few artists have such a broad, encompassing view of the craft, outside maybe Jazz and Classical music.

And just to elaborate, I'd say this statement fits perfectly for both Bowie and Eno. I absolutely love hearing Brian Eno talk excitedly about his craft, like he's just some kid playing around with his hobby.

[Sumez]

Some fair points there. I have to admit that in my younger years I was a fan of his early period, and that Bowie basically ended for me with Young Americans, which I still hate (though I have my reasons for that as a T. Rex fan).

When going through the albums chronologically, Young Americans was an incredible breath of fresh air for me. I liked the original Ziggy album, but through Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs and PinUps it just felt too much like Bowie was stuck in an attempt to be generic rock'n'roll.
I'm actually not a big fan of Young Americans either, though I can appreciate it (there are some very good tracks, but I think most of them are forgettable), but it was great to hear Bowie grasping other genres, and it let naturally to Station to Station which I consider the first album for him to find something that really sounds like "his own" sound, something he'd carry on with him from that point on.

but I love the two tracks you've mentioned and intend to backtrack, if anyone wants to recommend a starting point I'm all ears.

I'd say either start with Outside, which is the only of his 90s albums to be considered completely solid, or go with Black Tie, Outside, and Earthling in the order of release, to hear how he started out playing around with electronic sounds to going full out dnb.

You can safely skip both Buddha of Suburbia and Hours. The latter is so boring that it plays no relevant role in his discography, while the former has a few merits, but still feels completely outside of his chronology (and the best track from it was reprised on Outside)

[chum]

Caillou - Les Carpates

[Randorama]

Ok, I am going by snippets, sorry Sumez, Dan and Marc!

I feel the same about Heroes.

I believe that this work was quite influenced by Iggy Pop and/or various issues that Bowie was going through. Heroes is one of those songs that really ooze the author’s turmoils in real life.

Lodger however is one of my top albums (man I must have a bunch of those, don't I?)

This is a rational choice! This is THE underrated album by Bowie, possibly because of the reasons you list.

I think the bigger issue here is that the discography is just too massive for most people to grasp completely.

Yes, and I would extend this generalization to Prince and perhaps Zappa, at least, and to Philip Glass outside "rock". These are all artists that never changed their creative, aesthetic philosophy (the composition methods are often the same), but the fact that they played with different genres made their discography superficially heterogeneous. Your method to ‘study" Bowie requires patience that most lack

And just to elaborate, I'd say this statement fits perfectly for both Bowie and Eno. I absolutely love hearing Brian Eno talk excitedly about his craft, like he's just some kid playing around with his hobby.

Ah yes, I guess that it might describe quite a few musicians (and other creative souls) with a theoretical, perpetually playful attitude.

Anyhow: The return of the thin white duke on Station to Station, or at least the first half, is possibly one of the most powerful and unique pieces he wrote. And he was so constantly high on cocaine that he remembered nothing of it

Dan: I believe that the soundtrack for the man... was involved in some mysterious copyright spat. We are possibly talking of vengeful producers who locked the recordings somewhere and decided to let disappear forever. Bowie was certainly furious for years on how the issue was handled.

Buddha... was something he produced out of obligation. The hours is possibly his lowest point...I
I’d say that his strong new millennium works stemmed from this low point.

I would add that his early work leaves me cold. Early rock bores me to tears (say, I hate the Stones, Beatles, etc.).

[Sumez]

Yes, and I would extend this generalization to Prince and perhaps Zappa, at least, and to Philip Glass outside "rock". These are all artists that never changed their creative, aesthetic philosophy (the composition methods are often the same), but the fact that they played with different genres made their discography superficially heterogeneous. Your method to ‘study" Bowie requires patience that most lack

To be honest, I would love to discover another artist that deserves the same thorough journey. The only I can think of with a library that matces is Coil, but those albums take a lot more dedication to get into.

[Zen]

[FinalBaton]

Here's my Bowie LP collection. It's not as impressive as Sumezu's, but it's still pretty cool! i like it a lot as it is




Someone mentionned Talking Heads : I feel like the one thing that Bowie had through all his career, the one thing that could bind most of his records together, is his off kilter(surprising and fun, crazy and creative), surrealist storytelling. Something that's very akin to David Byrne's lyrical style. Put this in parallel with his croon(a style of singing that's usually serious) and you got something really fascinating

[FinalBaton]

And this is what I've been spinning most the last 2 days. :




Had been a little while since I listened to these 2 records side by side, and it jumped at me : Mask is the undisputed better record of the two in my eye(ear?). Love ITFF but man... Mask has them stepping their game way up.

Now I just need to get some Christian Death LPs, to satisfy my Death Rock craving...

[BIL]

Lots of excellent guidance here re: Bowie! This is why I love this forum as a general pop reference. I find gamers who recreationally grapple with arcade-bred killers tend to do a similarly conscientious job with their other hobbies.

And this is what I've been spinning most the last 2 days. :

One of those names I know I've deprived myself by never investigating. They're always mentioned alongside the most famed stuff like JD/New Order and The Cure. I suspect I'm like a diehard Ninja Gaiden fan who's never played Castlevania, here...

[FinalBaton]

BIL... do me a favor my good pal, and give Bauhaus a listen. Absolutely mandatory post-punk stuff. At least listen to the album Mask, and if you dig it, then dig deeper.

Beware that they kinda ditch JD's visceral existentialism for full-on Goth moods(the bones of it are still robot-funk though, and still quite agressive at times, just like JD) and more dissonance. But Peter Murphy is one hell of a leader-with-a-presence and his singing just OOZES style, and excels at profaning doom and gloom.

[BIL]

Excellent, Mask shall be the starting point.

[FinalBaton]

(oh and btw, if you dig it, make SURE you listen to Christian Death's Only Theater of Pain. This is an insanely good record in the same style, and it's every bit as good as Bauhaus. Hell, IMO it's slightly better)

[BIL]

Aha, I saw Only Theater of Pain recommended somewhere recently - I thought it might've been on here actually! Seems not though. Christian Death is another name that always pops up in that gloomily pummeling death rock circle, duly noted!

[Steamflogger Boss]

Did somebody say Tin Machine?

[Sumez]

Had been a little while since I listened to these 2 records side by side, and it jumped at me : Mask is the undisputed better record of the two in my eye(ear?). Love ITFF but man... Mask has them stepping their game way up.

This is funny, because Mask never clicked with me. It's the first Bauhaus album I heard, but it wasn't until I heard In The Flat Field that I realised how awesome they are (and why they are what they are). That moody, aggressive punk sound just sits right with me.
Maybe I should give Mask another try... to me, Bauhaus really has been only ITFF to me since I became a fan, so it's always weird to me when I see compilation albums.

I saw Bauhaus at their short lived reuinion tour in 2006, and expected an old tired band who didn't know how to play together anymore, and instead I got one of the best concerts of my life, shock full of energy. I've also seen Peter Murphy perform entire Bauhaus sets, which is honestly also up there. Such a charismatic musician.