 |
|
Amg:
David Bowie returned to relatively conventional rock & roll with Scary Monsters, an album that effectively acts as an encapsulation of all his '70s experiments. Reworking glam rock themes with avant-garde synth flourishes, and reversing the process as well, Bowie creates dense but accessible music throughout Scary Monsters. Though it doesn't have the vision of his other classic records, it wasn't designed to break new ground -- it was created as the culmination of Bowie's experimental genre-shifting of the '70s. As a result, Scary Monsters is Bowie's last great album. While the music isn't far removed from the post-punk of the early '80s, it does sound fresh, hip, and contemporary, which is something Bowie lost over the course of the '80s. [Rykodisc's 1992 reissue includes re-recorded versions of "Space Oddity" and "Panic in Detroit," the Japanese single "Crystal Japan," and the British single "Alabama Song."]
Amazon.com essential recording
Some would argue that this is the last great Bowie album, and certainly his only great album of the '80s. While it lacked the bite of its punk brethren at the time, it appealed to some fans of that genre and to middle-of-the-road rockers as well. Muscular playing met with no-frills production, and the product as a whole was infused with a gloriously arty style. "It's No Game (Part I)" opens the album, and is sung in Japanese, and "It's No Game (Part II)" closes, in English. New York punker Tom Verlaine even contributed a track ("Kingdom Come"), and "Scream Like a Baby" tells a dark and violent story with a howl. The drug-oriented "Ashes to Ashes" confesses that Major Tom was a junky while sounding all sleek and alluring, and the dance floor hit "Fashion" took aim at its very subject. The crowning jewel is the title track, with Robert Fripp's guitar ripping the place up at a relentless pace. It's been a long time since Bowie sounded this inspired. --Lorry Fleming
Amazon
If the 1970s were a hellish journey for David Bowie, Scary Monsters represents the first night home, a blanket wrapped round the shivering figure, cup of cocoa in one hand and a series of really awful flashbacks and nightmares everytime he falls asleep. Okay, that sounds stupid, but I mean that Scary Monsters is Bowie finally attempting to take stock of the situation (which, in 'It's no game (ii)' he concludes he really doesn't understand). Cutbacks and cross references to his earlier material abound - the intro guitar chords to 'up the hill backwards' are the same as the intro chords to 1973's 'panic in detroit' - only played backwards. What a clever chappie he is. And there is the celebrated attempt, in Ashes to Ashes, to write off Space Oddity as a heroin song. Now Bowie has never been averse to making up all sorts of nonsense about his past, and this is no exception; he might have whiffed a doobie or two in 1967 but a junkie he was not. The album is very strong and Carlos Alomar has made a real impression on its overall sound, particularly in 'Ashes to Ashes' and 'Fashion', which cross back and forth between disco, funk and new wave - an odd combination which no-one else (except possibly Queen in the dreadful 'Hot Space') has ever tried. Tiresome though he is, you have to take your hat off to Rock's crashing intellectual bore Robert Fripp, who cuts this record up with some stunning, incandescent guitar playing. The second half of the album is a more interesting prospect. 'Teenaged Wildlife', seemingly the paradigmatic 'silly voice, random lyrics' Bowie song, has the makings of a great, confessional work, perhaps more personal even than Ashes to Ashes, but it's a pity Bowie sings it as if he's trying to impersonate a Leslie rotating speaker. 'Scream Like a Baby', 'Because You're Young' and 'Kingdom come' (the last featuring once again the rotating speaker impersonation) are less essential, but the album, and the decade, are brought around quite nicely by 'It's no game (ii)' (where old smarty pants cross references the very album he's singing on. How post-structuralist...) and finally a very odd sound effect, which sounds like someone pouring cement (perhaps to 'finish' the album?). The Rykodisc pressing I own also contains an extraordinary re-recording of Space Oddity, dating from about the time of this album, which Bowie has rearranged in a minimalist fashion. It sounds just like Lennon's 'Mother'. Weird, but true. I used to think this was the best Bowie album of the lot, but now I think there's too much fat in it for that. But, to quote the old chap, 'when it's good it's really good'. If you're serious about Bowie when he was important, this is one you can't do without.
1. "It's No Game (No. 1)" – 4:15
2. "Up the Hill Backwards" – 3:13
3. "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)" – 5:10
4. "Ashes to Ashes" – 4:23
5. "Fashion" – 4:46
6. "Teenage Wildlife" – 6:51
7. "Scream Like a Baby" – 3:35
8. "Kingdom Come" (Tom Verlaine) – 3:42
9. "Because You're Young" – 4:51
10. "It's No Game (No. 2)" – 4:22
| SPOILER! |
:hi: