David Bowie: From Eponymous to Blackstar

Lordy this took a long time, 26 albums, and I didn't even bother with Absolute Beginners, The Buddha Of Suburbia, Peter And The Wolf and Bertold Brecht's Baal, to name but 4 side projects. I've written over 10,000 words on the subject. My old English teachers would be proud of such dedication. Bowie managed to fit a 10 year break into his career as well, and 26 studio albums is nothing to be sniffed at by any standard. Quality, by and large, remains high throughout. For me the zenith is Scary Monsters and the nadir is Tin Machine II. For the last 25 years he seems to have settled into his elder statesman role, with a minor deviation into the ill-advised drum n' bass of Earthling. I now consider myself a convert. Many of these albums I had never heard before, so it has been a journey of discovery, but I do now understand why he is so loved. Here's the playlist. Mainly well known songs but some lesser known ones of interest too, including the awful 'God Only Knows'

DAVID BOWIE (1967)
His career (as David Bowie) is as old as me. I'm guessing this will be very different from what follows. The opening is in the cheeky chappie, cock-er-nee style of 'Laughing Gnome'. A bit Small Faces really. 'Sell Me a Coat' is more reflective, but still very Sixties English Pop. 'Rubber Band' features the lyric "My mustache was stiffly waxed and one foot long" It seems to be a chap's reflections on going to war in 1916. He finishes with a rather bitter "I 'ope you break the baton!" He goes VERY Small Faces on 'Love You Till Tuesday' and doesn't shy away from a few da-da-da-dums. His closing shot is "Well I might stretch it to Wednesday". 'There is a Happy Land' is a maudlin reflection on the loss of childhood which ends with some more vocal hi-jinks. 'We Are Hungry Men' starts with a Kenneth Williams-esque (not actually him I think) news report. It's clearly highly political. There's an interlude in a stereotypical German/Nazi accent. He goes on about abortion and that. 'Little Bombardier' is a Viennese Waltz and he goes a bit quavery on the vocal. There's some nice tuba work too. 'Come and Buy My Toys' has a whiff of Anthony Newley about it, who, let's not forget was partly responsible for the songs in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. ''Join The Gang' runs through a number of characters, "Johnny plays the sitar and is an existentialist", before painting a picture of their collective lifestyle, including sounds of crisps being eaten and farts. The closer is 'Please Mr Gravedigger' that starts with a tolling bell, and features thunder and rain throughout and no instrumentation. Bowie pretty much speaks the vocal, describing the titular gravedigger. He throws in some sneezes and gets more adenoidal as he goes along. The special edition has the 'Laughing Gnome' on it complete with squeaky voiced diminutive person and Christmas cracker jokes. I guess we must put it all down to Dave trying to find his place in the entertainment world. The voice is familiar and most comedy impressions are calling on the style that he uses here. It should throw the next one into sharp relief.

SPACE ODDITY (1969)
Nearly missed this one. We all know the title track and that Canadian astronaut with the dodgy tache gave it a new lease of life on YouTube last year. So famous as to be written into the DNA of everyone of my generation. It obviously keyed into to the moon landings but I think there are clear clues to where Bowie was going as well; "and the papers want to know who's shirts you wear" is an oddly perceptive and forward looking line. Had we even heard of fashion designers in 1969 (well, yes we had, but not for men's shirts) . This is a very different animal from the previous album. Dave clearly had a sabbatical, reassessed his career choices and decided avant-garde was the way to go. No-one is going to say he made a bad decision there are they? Having said that,this still errs on the side of conventional rock, although I'm guessing it sounded quite radical then. 'Unwashed and Slightly Dazed' is harmonica-heavy - almost Stones-ish. 'Don't Sit Down' sounds like a failed take of a song that they decided to include as a joke. It only lasts 42 seconds and ends with Dave corpsing. 'Cygnet Committee' is fairly archetypal Bowie, strummy guitar and voice all over the place. It's nearly 10 minutes long too and he gets a bit worked up toward the end. 'Memory of a Free Festival' is formally introduced before a kind of accordion/organ intro. Don't know what festival it was, I'm sure aficionados could tell me in a heartbeat. Somewhere in London, a bit wet, he enjoyed it, mind altering substances may have been taken. It goes a bit freeform with repetition of "the sun machine is coming down, we're gonna have a party". Dave's quite bouffant on the cover, puts me in mind of Roger Daltrey in Tommy.

THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD (1970)
I've listened to this through a few times now. Trying to get a grip on it. Let's start with the cover. He's really hit his stride now. He IS wearing a dress and has long blonde tresses. Fair play he looks pretty good. The opening 'The Width of a Circle' is long old piece of jazz-rock. He strays perilously close to progressive rock as well. 'All the Madmen' has a spoken bit in the middle where he talks about "a cell-ah, dark and grim". The rest of it is moderately bonkers too.Next up, what I assume is a tribute to Black Sabbath and Slade 'Black Country Rock'. He actually seems to be singing about Makka-Pakka, but that can't be right, there's nothing about the Ninky-nonk after all. 'After All' is a real treat. Every line is followed by "Oh By Jingo!" There's a bit of circus side show pump organ too. 'Saviour Machine' is pronounced Seayviur Masheeeeen in Bowie's world. It's almost Heavy Metal. In fact, all jokes aside about midlands rock bands, it IS all quite heavy. 'She Shook Me Cold' starts with a Hendrix-style riff. The best known track is the title. It starts with a sitar-y intro and makes use of that scrapey thing that Ben E. King used on 'Stand By Me' and was given to every tone deaf kid at school in music lessons (or was that just me?). 'The Supermen' comes last. It's hard to accuse Bowie of singing in a silly voice cos he does it so much, but this one is a little worse than most.

HUNKY DORY (1971)
His first great album I think. Ch-ch-ch-'Changes' starts it all off, a pretty solid bit of pop which ends with a bit of lonely sax. Then 'Oh You Pretty Things' which still has that theatricality (in the purest sense - you could see it being part of a broadway show). It's mainly piano backed and the whole album relies heavily on the same instrument. I'm guessing it's Rick Wakeman throughout - more of whom later. '8 Line Poem' is a bit weak but it's followed by the centrepiece that is 'Life On Mars' The best bit of the excellent '5 Days' documentary was Wakeman taking us through the piano part of the song and showing how it breaks all the rules in achieving it's genius. It's also pretty well known now for it's association with the TV show of the same name. I heard somewhere that it came to him whilst travelling on a South London bus and he had to nip home straightaway before it escaped his head. I'm here to tell you that Bowie MUST be a genius if he can get inspiration on the 197 to Lewisham. I like 'Kooks' but he does do that mock scouse voice that David Jones of the Monkees was a bit partial to. It also has a bit of a Burt Bacharach feel to it too, mixed with some of the vaudeville of the first album. I believe 'whimsical' is the word. He gets positively chirpy in 'Fill Your Heart', in contrast to its predecessor, 'Quicksand'. He feels the need to do some talking at the start of 'Andy Warhol', "it's Warhol actually", which almost spoils a good song. The aforementioned '5 Days' indicated that he tried a bit too hard around Warhol and got short shrift. Apparently 'Andy Warhol looks a scream". Well I think we all knew that. There's a bit of flamenco guitar at the end. Not sure what all that is about. Next he turns his attention to Bob Dylan, whom he rather aptly describes as having "a voice like sand and glue". 'Queen Bitch' is a title you can't really go wrong with. It has that crunchy glam rock guitar and screams attitood. The last song is 'The Bewlay Brothers', which reprises some of the silly actor-ish mannerisms in the closing vocals that we last saw to the fore in the first album.

THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS (1972)
It's a tribute to Bowie that you can ask any five fans to name their favourite album and they'll probably come up with 5 different answers. However, Ziggy Stardust is the one that would just about top the poll. It's much more of a 'rock' album than what has come before.'5 Years' builds from a slow start to its doom-laden conclusion.'Moonage Daydream" rather audaciously starts with "I'm an alligator!" and continues with plenty of fuzzy, scratchy guitar which develops into a soaring solo before the fade. His vocal is given quite an echo-ey effect too. 'Starman' starts unpromisingly doesn't it?, with his can't-be-arsed la la la's, before getting stuck in. That sort of morse-code/signal from space bit before the chorus is inspired. The song is peppered with a few sixties-isms - "far out", "blow our minds" etc. which really do date it (but in good way). Even expecting the children to 'boogie' doesn't sound stupid. 'Lady Stardust' almost strays into Billy Joel territory, although if it does, then I'll put money on Bill being the copier and Dave being the copyee. We then launch into 'Star', a straight on rocker in line with it's subject matter. I reckon he utilizes his vocal idiosyncrasies to the best effect on it too. 'Hang On To Yourself' is archetypal Glam. Could easily be Marc Bolan. The opening riff of Ziggy Stardust is unmistakable, as is the high pitched moan that follows it. Ziggy is 'like some cat from Japan'. Bowie jumps all over the place to terrific effect. The "so where were the Spiders?" bit is slightly menacing, the verses are a bit sad but overall it's really controlled all the way to the closing "Ziggy played guitar-ah". That is then topped off by 'Suffragette City'. The "hey man"s are a bit workmanlike but you can bop or even 'boogie' to this one. Love the false ending as well, with the "Wham Bam Thank You Maam". He can't have been the originator of that phrase can he? No way am I looking it up in the hope that maybe he was. 'Rock and Roll Suicide' presumably signals to us that Dave is moving on from this persona to a different one. I guess the whole thing is a concept album but for me the narrative isn't particularly obvious. I don't think it's as good as Hunky Dory as a whole, but in 'Starman', 'Ziggy Stardust' and 'Suffragette City' he hit a peak in chart friendly output.

ALADDIN SANE (1973)
Here's a question that has intermittently bothered me over the years. Which was released first, Jean Genie or Block Buster by the Sweet? Answer at the end of this post. Iconic cover. The first track is 'Watch That Man' which ploughs a Rod and the Faces style furrow, plenty of fuzzy guitar and fairly standard rock/boogie woogie arrangement.'Aladdin Sane' sees him venturing into modern jazz territory (see posts passim for my views on this, particularly when discussing Sting). The central refrain is actually quite catchy, but it soon degenerates into discordant piano, somewhere between what a five year old and a chimp could do (OK, I'm exaggerating, but it's not nice to listen to). J asked me if I was listening to two pieces of music at the same time. 'Drive In Saturday' is much better, the cheesy backing vocals are perfect and the saxophone soars in the backing. Mick Ronson's crunchy guitar riff opens up 'Panic In Detroit'. Having listened to the past few albums it's easy to see why he was so highly regarded in guitar circles, he and Bowie pretty much invented Glam Rock in both image and sound. The drum rhythm is interesting on this one too, almost tribal. 'Cracked Actor' shows off more of his technique and the song is a good solid rock-out. 'Time' is a slightly different animal. Backed by piano and with lyrics that would be risque now. It's OK, but not really my cuppa. Same goes for 'The Prettiest Star', it's a decent song but I prefer Glam Bowie to Stagey Bowie. He also chucks in a cover of the Stones' 'Let's Spend The Night Together' which sounds almost like a piss-take, although both piano and guitar parts are delivered with full commitment. Near the end it trails off as if he's lost interest before a short coda. So, Jean Genie. The answer to the question at the top of the post is that Bowie was first but Block Buster was contemporary with it an actually topped the UK charts at the same time as Jean Genie was in the top ten. Total coincidence apparently. I like the abrupt ending, 'Lady Grinning Soul' features a rippling piano and Spanish guitar. He almost sounds like Dusty Springfield and it's really quite lovely. I'd say this could have been his greatest so far, but I found the title track unbearable.

PIN UPS (1973)
I don't really have any hard and fast rules for these posts, but I do tend to try to stick to studio albums of original material, so an album of covers gave me cause to hesitate. However, in Bowie's case there is likely to be some worth in giving it a listen. It did lead me to do some research (another rule/guideline, never check the facts when your memory provides a more interesting perspective) with the oracle that is Wikipedia. It seems a strange thing for him to do, given that he was on a creative roll, to dedicate an entire album to other people's songs*. Apparently Bowie wanted to do a number of British songs from the sixties to bring them to a wider audience in the States. The first is one I don't really know, 'Rosalyn' originally by the Pretty Things.  It's almost proto-punk, a standard rock song given an angry and edgy feel by the vocal and the updated instrumentation. It goes immediately into 'Here Comes The Night'. Given that the original features Van Morrison's own inimitable vocal style, it's hard for him to produce something similar. At the end of the day it sounds like nothing more than Bowie singing the song in his own style, which isn't a bad thing. 'I Wish You Would' is a Yardbirds track. It's OK. There's some interesting throbbing bass. The next one is interesting - Floyd's 'See Emily Play'. The vocal veers from fey to thuggish. It's a good song and suits Bowie well (although the deeper vocal is a bit distracting). It goes a bit free-form at the end but in this case I'll allow it. I didn't know the Mojos' 'Everything's Alright'. It's a fairly standard slice of Rock and Roll, but Dave delivers it well. The Who's 'Can't Explain' is given a bit of a pedestrian treatment. Not sure if it works really, but then The Who only ever really had one gear so you have to give him credit for trying to make it different. 'Friday On My Mind' sees Dave doing his nasal voice. Not as good as the original I'm afraid. 'Sorrow', originally by The Merseys is probably the best known Bowie track here. It's good too, with string instrumentation, and probably is the only track here that really outshines the original. Another Pretty Things song next, 'Don't Bring Me Down', not the ELO track of the same name ("Groooos!?"). My early Fleetwood Mac posts told you that I didn't have a lot of time for the blues and this is blues-ey too, but it's quite good. 'Shapes Of Things' was another Yardbirds track. It's notable that it employs an effect on the repeated line "Come tomorrow" which sounds like back-masking. Makes me want to run off and hold a black mass straightaway. 'Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere' is another Who song that I'm not really familiar with. It certainly sounds like one of theirs, that whole call-and-refrain thing that they liked so much. He goes for an elongated guitar break which is a bit scratchy and disjointed. Finally (on the original album at least - I have one further treat that I'm looking forward to as well) there's 'Where Have All The Good Times Gone" by the Kinks. He actually manages to blandify this one. Ray Davies knew his business after all. So the unexpected treat (for me at least), is a cover of Springsteen's 'Growin' Up' that was released as a bonus track in 1990. It starts with the plinky-plonky piano and is pretty much a faithful rendition. He improvises near the end with "Dontcha know that I'm growin' up" and "I can't help but be growin' up". I'm glad I included this one now, otherwise I might never have heard this. A word on the cover, it features Bowie and Twiggy looking weirdly beautiful.

*On further reflection it doesn't seem strange at all. He wanted to do it, he could do it, so he did it.

DIAMOND DOGS (1974)
My God he churned them out in the 70's didn't he? We're only in 1974, 6 albums into the decade and he still has to break America and do the entire 'Berlin trilogy' plus a couple of other albums before the 80's arrive. No noticeable drop in quality so far either. 'Future Legend' is a spoken piece describing some kind of post apocalyptic world which kind of reminded me of the Vincent Price bit in Michael Jackson's Thriller. I like the idea of "peoploids" though. Spotify cocks things up mightily on this album. Most of the tracks are supposed to segue into each other and yet there is a gap. That's just about bearable but the end of one track is often repeated at the start of the next. So his exclamation "This ain't rock and roll, this is genocide!" is repeated at the end of 'Future Legend' and the beginning of 'Diamond Dogs'. Very poor. The title track is actually a straightforward bit of glam rock, enlivened by some Zevon-esque howls and some interesting voice distortions. 'Sweet Thing' brings us deep-voiced  Dave, at least at first, he soon gets up to the higher registers. It goes straight into 'Candidate' which is a continuation rather than a separate song. Mercifully Spotify doesn't insert a gap either, nor when 'Sweet Thing' is reprised afterward. I liked this little triptych of songs. Big Hit time next. 'Rebel, Rebel'. Simple riff, catchy chorus, good words - "Gotcha mother in a whirl, cos she's not sure if you're a boy or a girl". My dad used to say the same about Dave and his like when Top Of the Pops came on. These days, as a dad myself, I'm bitterly disappointed that I don't even have TOTP to sneer at while the kids watch it. Closest is X Factor and even my boys have enough taste to avoid that. 'Rock and Roll With Me' is anthemic and is followed by 'We Are The Dead', which has a nice understated electric piano accompaniment. Wikipedia tells me that Bowie wanted to do a musical version of 1984, which explains why the next two tracks are '1984' and 'Big Brother'. '1984' definitely has a rock opera feel about it. When they got round to making a new film in 1984, Eurythmics got the musical nod - wonder if DB was in the running? There's a bit of a 'Shaft' wah-wah/bass thing going on as well. 'Big Brother' starts with some mournful trumpet before becoming a more typical Bowie song. It has a good hook though and, again, you can see the way it's intended to be part of a wider project. 'Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family' is a title to contend with isn't it? Not very complex lyrically but quite catchy and with some pretty odd percussion. It repeats to fade as if the needle's stuck. I wonder how many fans at the time cursed the first time that happened. I've included the full gatefold of the cover, complete with DB's canine lower half. Although this is the censored version I think (we saw quite enough of Dave's packet in Labyrinth - of which more later), a bit disturbing. I really liked Diamond Dogs, despite obviously being cobbled together from at least two separate projects it hangs together really well, and Rebel, Rebel IS a solid gold hit.


YOUNG AMERICANS (1975)
This is his soul album apparently. He looks like Cybill Sheppard in Moonlighting on the cover - all soft focus. And he is HAVIN' A FAG WAYNETTA! Wouldn't be allowed today. I have a theory that the "I read the news today oh boy" might be the first example of sampling (sort-of), but contradictory suggestions are most welcome, some sixties tracks almost certainly used classical melodies.  'Win' which comes next is much more interesting. A kind of langorous bit of soulful smooth jazz. 'Fascination' kind of pre-figures 'Imagination' (and not just because they rhyme - although it helps). I found it a bit repetitive. Same for 'Right'. I'm not a big soul fan so a lot of this stuff fails to inspire me. He collaborates with John Lennon on 'Across The Universe' but I prefer the Beatles version. The only objective here seems to be to Bowiefy the song. In fact I'll go so far as to say they make a right pig's ear out of it.We all know 'Fame', although I was ignorant of the fact that this is also a Lennon collaboration. It differs from the rest in that it is more of a light funk track than soul. And that's it for the original release. Spotify has 3 further tracks which were released in 1991, including the familiar 'John, I'm Only Dancing', although this is not the version I'm familiar with, less punchy and more (you guessed it) soulful. It does work though.It breaks down into some freeform hi-jinks toward the end. 'Who Can I be Now' and 'It's Gonna Be Me' (are they a call and response?) are fairly standard soul offerings. I found this to be a bit of a falter from Bowie, but this might be due to my indifference to soul as a musical genre. As I understand it, it starts to get a bit, ah, 'experimental' from now on. Bring it on.

STATION TO STATION (1976)
Only 6 tracks? That bodes well. It suggests artiness and a bit of weirdness. Just what you want from DB. It also features TVC15 - about which more later. I was expecting something a lot more avant-garde from this album, and I guess it is, but it is also absolutely classic Bowie. I think he must have been in a bit of a transition from his soul dabblings to the Berlin years. What that means is that I think he actually hits a little peak with this one. The title track starts with a steam train running through your head (if you're wearing headphones) before he starts his tale of the Thin White Duke. Station To Station soon settles into a great song that really drives along. Then the rather magnificent 'Golden Years'. It has a real Stevie Wonder 'Superstitious' guitar riff, offset by finger snaps and claps and Bowie's full vocal range, from murmured backing vocals to falsetto breakouts. There's even a bit of whistling, which I always love. It's lyrically puzzling though, why would you "run for the shadows" in the "golden years"? We finish side one with 'Word On A Wing' which is as close as Dave has come to a ballad so far. He's a little bit histrionic on it, but what do you expect?

Firstly an apology, I HAD to include this video for TVC15 but it does feature someone at the start whom many people would rather forget. I can't find a version on YouTube without him, so I beg forgiveness. However the rest of it is pure TV gold. It features Top Of The Pops dance troupe Ruby Flipper who turned into a kind of stop-gap between Pan's People and Legs and Co. BBC execs obviously eventually decided that a bunch of pretty girls wiggling their derrieres was what the viewing public wanted. They were notable because they included a number of male dancers and took a slightly more, ahem, experimental approach. Their interpretation of the song is, well, different. It is either choreographer Flick Colby's finest hour or she just told the fellas to do what the hell they wanted. Either way it is so absurd that it emerges on the other side as inspirational. If nothing else they clearly 'got' Bowie at the time. As for the song, it was a hit (TOTP didn't put just anyone on you know) but is probably not that well known. I think it's great.
'Stay' features some Chic/Nile Rogers influences in the underlying guitar riffs and their is an extended groove out with funky guitar to the fade. We finish with 'Wild Is The Wind' which I think prefigures some of his later work such as 'China Girl', but maybe I'm reading too much into it. It has that kind of David Arnold/Bond Theme feel to it. It goes on a bit too long if I'm honest, but he did have a lot of vinyl to fill.

LOW (1977)
So now Bowie buggers off to Berlin and starts working with Brian Eno for the next three albums - the Berlin Trilogy. I'm approaching these with some trepidation although I know he still produced some nailed on classic songs in the period. 'Speed Of Life' is an instrumental. Fairly conventional if truth be told. Clean but fuzzy guitar prevails but there is an undercurrent of electronica. 'Breaking Glass' (nothing to do with Nick Lowe OR Hazel O'Connor) is similar in tone but the synths are more prominent. It's bloody short too. 1:53. 'What in the world' sounds a bit chaotic. As ever Bowie does seem to be at least two steps ahead of the rest of the field. There's a punk feel but it's more like Public Image Limited with a decent singer and a bit of restraint. That cascading synth on 'Sound and Vision' followed by Dave's contented sighs is perfect. The sung words are almost incidental to the overall song, just another instrument but vital to the whole. He brings in a bit of honky-tonk piano on 'Be My Wife'. I can't put my finger on what it reminds me of, it's quite anthemic and Bowie puts his sarf London inflection to the fore. I guess me must assume that there is something self-referential in the title 'A New Career In A New Town', another instrumental which is piano driven with a melancholy harmonica behind it. We start going a bit Vangelis on Warszawa. It could be off the Blade Runner soundtrack. He gets arounnd to singing about halfway through. Can't make out the words, could be an African chant. More instrumental atmospherics on 'Art Decade' and 'Weeping Wall', which wouldn't be out of place on 'Now That's What I Call Chillax 13'. The closing 'Subterraneans' is very much more of the same, but not in the sense that it's all similar, just that it is all very ambient and really quite pleasant. So my apprehension was unfounded. There's nothing to fear here. It's different certainly and it's not particularly jolly, but considering he was reputedly off his head on cocaine it's quite an achievement.

HEROES (1978)
I'm thinking that since these albums are a trilogy I should listen in fairly quick succession. I'm guessing that there was no master plan about a trilogy here, he just stuck with Eno and Berlin for 3 albums and so they are linked. You never know with Bowie though, he does think things through. 'Beauty And The Beast' is a compelling start. It's sort of industrial. Quite crashy and hard-edged and you could engrave glass with his vocal. It sets the tone for the following 'Joe The Lion'.  'Heroes' is quite leisurely really. It's one of the few songs I remember him doing when I saw him in 1987 and to be honest, he really ballsed it up. You expect it to be a real uplifting anthem, like he did for Live Aid (or was it Mandela?) but the way he staged it was really daft. He ended up all tied up in ropes I think. Apparently King Crimson's Robert 'Hubby of Toyah' Fripp was on lead guitar for the song (at least that's what Wiki-know-it-all says). When I saw him live he'd been traded in for Peter Frampton. 'Sons Of The Silent Age' sees DB veering between almost spoken word verses to a pretty conventional harmonised chorus. He talks about listening to 'Sam Therapy and King Dice'. Search me. 'Black Out' is a bit manic and headache-inducing. V2 Schneider is a tribute to Kraftwerk's Florien Schneider (thanks again Wikipedia). Then we have 'Sense Of Doubt' which is mainly doomy organ. Certainly atmospheric but it does sound like a piece from a movie score.It segues into 'Moss Garden' through some wind sound effects. This latter piece is a kind of plinky Japanese piece (I'm sure that there is a technical term for it and I'm being deeply offensive for describing it thus, but you know what I mean) . This again segues into Neukoln which is well, another synthy instrumental piece. They're all fine, I imagine they work quite well when tired and emotional at the end of a long day. The last track is 'The Secret Life Of Arabia' which again shows him achieving a sound that would become common about 5 years later. It really could have been released in the early to mid-eighties.  Heroes is a bit disjointed. The instrumental triptych of side 2 is good, but doesn't really fit with the rest. The title track really stands out, but is that because we all know it so well?

LODGER (1979)
Is substance abuse conducive to producing work of high artistic merit? On the evidence of Bowie you'd probably have too say yes, but then he was pretty amazing when he wasn't high as a kite. J told me she didn't rate what I'd been listening to recently, and I'll agree that it's not everyone's cup of tea, but no-one can deny the diversity and creativity of these three albums. I think Lodger is my favourite of the three, maybe it represents a coming together of the whole Berlin era.'Fantastic Voyage' is a nice calm affair although the lines about not wanting 'to live with somebody's depression' hint at something dark. I really liked 'African Night Flight'. Industrial electronica with Bowie delivering the lyric like an automaton interlaced with what I must assume is African chants. Weird but compelling.Same could be said for 'Move On'. There's more of that pseudo back-masking effect. Then we have an Egyptian Souk/Jamaican Reggae mash up in Yassassin. Put me in mind of Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers' 'Egyptian Reggae' (more superb interpretations by the TOTP dance troupe of that one available on YouTube if you care to look), but only because of the two elements being blended. 'Red Sails' goes back to an oriental theme, mainly in the way he delivers the vocal. More industrial rock on 'DJ' and then 'Look Back In Anger' starts like Led Zep's 'Immigrant Song' complete with mini-screams. Definitely an entry into the list of 'opposites' songs, partnered with Oasis' 'Don't Look Back In Anger' (see also 'Stay' and 'Leave Right Now'). The next song starts and I think, Hold on. This is Heroes, but it can't be cos that was the last album. It's actually 'Boys Keep Swinging'. I've always assumed it's an ambiguous song about sexuality 'Other boys check you out' etc. and that 'Boys' doesn't strictly refer to young males.  I've gone for the full gatefold for the cover image here. Bowie following a nasty run in with a Volkswagen. So at last we're at the end of the 70's He's released at least one album per year throughout and seems to have maintained the quality control. Modern Pop Kids should take note.

SCARY MONSTERS (1980)
I'm going to stick my neck out and say that side one of Scary Monsters is the best thing Bowie has done so far and will probably not be surpassed. It seems to build on the promise of Lodger and blend some pretty diverse elements into a compelling whole. It also shows I think the influence it had on later British artists. It doesn't take much imagination to think that Damon Albarn and Blur had recently listened to 'It's No Game (Part 1)', when they wrote 'Boys and Girls' and I wouldn't be surprised if Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream had the opening to 'Up The Hill Backwards' running through his head when he wrote 'Movin' On Up' (OK it's a fairly standard blues riff but you can see the same DNA). 'It's No Game' Parts 1 and 2 bracket the whole album and they themselves start and finish respectively with some "can you guess it" sound effects (I can't, answers on a postcard please). The first part is brilliant, with it's discordant backing and spoken Japanese female vocal, interspersed with Bowie virtually howling the song. It could have been awful but instead it's just incredible. It finishes with a screamed "SHUT UP!", which is only heeded second time around. I think 'Up The Hill Backwards' may be my favorite Bowie track of all time (have I said that already? - if so I've now changed my mind). The aforementioned intro is completely out of keeping with the rest of it which consists of a distantly chanted vocal.  "I'm OK, you're so-so" - is possibly the best example of a lyric that is both bland and fascinating at the same time. 'Scary Monsters' is another of the few I remember him doing live in 1987. It had good lighting effects, very quick bright flashes during the drum beats in the chorus. He sounds pretty threatening and scary himself as he sings it. He also deploys his glottal stops to their full strength with "well I love the li'le gerwl". 'Ashes To Ashes' always makes me think of the late great Rik Mayall in the Young Ones when they were performing a funeral in the back garden. The vicar intoned "Ashes To Ashes" and Rik immediately chips in with "Funk to funky, we all know Major Tom's a junkie' in his own inimitable fashion. Seemed to perfectly sum up the way that every generation thinks their own culture is original and best. The video was on the Pops interminably and was another big inspiration for more early eighties comedy in Not The Nine O'clock News' 'Nice Video, Shame About the Song'. It's all about Major Tom of course. I guess we must see it as a bleak descent from heroic adventurer to washed up druggie. 'Fashion' is another one that shouldn't work on paper, but the flatulent synth, and buzzy guitar and "beep beep"s all come together perfectly. Side 2 goes off the boil a bit. 'Teenage Wildlife' goes go on a bit. He has some fun with vocal effects on 'Scream Like A Baby' going from Pinky and Perky to Will 'Kissing With Confidence' Powers. I found 'Kingdom Come' unremarkable, so I'll make no remarks. There's lots going on in 'Because You're Young' and it has a catchy chorus with a twinkly synth backing. It all closes with the second part of 'It's No Game'  It's less chaotic than it's partner. He doesn't try to rip his own vocal cords out this time and the tone is much more introspective, and dare I say, political. He touches on child labour.

LET'S DANCE (1983)
Three years between albums? What a slacker! We can't wait forever for your artistic muse to seize you Mr. Bowie ("Just you wait Sunshine" he replies under his breath). Common wisdom has it that it's downhill from here, at least till the early nineties. Let's see. I decided Bruce's Working On A Dream wasn't that bad after all, so maybe I'll find Never Let Me Down to be a lost masterpiece. Nevertheless, this one is nowhere near a nadir, opening as it does with 'Modern Love', 'China Girl ' and the title track. He was at his commercial peak by now but at the expense of some of his more outre ideas. 'Modern Love' is a good old pop jaunt, made interesting by the spoken-ish intro and 'China Girl' has the ssshhhhhhh's. Of this trio I think 'Let's Dance' is the most interesting with its Twist and Shout intro and shimmering synth which is reprised in the closing 'Shake It'. 'Ricochet' sees him getting a BIT more experimental and 'Criminal World' has a fairly typical eighties over-complicated bassline. There is also 'Cat People (Putting Out The Fire)' from the film of the same name (sans brackets) but possibly more famous now for it's use in Tarantino's WWll spaghetti western bloodfest, Inglourious Basterds. The cover? A vision of love wearing boxing gloves. Rather surprisingly a Google search for Let's Dance returns 'Lets Dance with Joy Division' as an autocomplete option. On this, the hits are immense, and the rest is just fine, but give me Scary Monsters every time.

TONIGHT (1984)
Some would have you believe that by now Bowie was on the turn and beginning to stink out the pop fridge. The ventures into reggae, calypso and salsa are dodgy, but there is also 'Blue Jean' which harks back to some of his earlier work. 'Loving The Alien' was released as a single and I seem to recall an arty video. I suspect it's not well regarded, but I like it. 'Don't Look Down' resorts to mild reggae. The cover of the Beach Boys 'God Only Knows' makes the same mistake as 'Across The Universe' and only serves to ruin an unimprovable original. 'Tonight' goes for a calypso sound, features Tina Turner and is immensely dull. 'Neighbourhood Threat' is a bit more like it, returning to a sound reminiscent of the industrial Berlin period.'Blue Jean' is great and is head and shoulders above anything else on the album. 'Tumble and Twirl' and 'I Keep Forgettin' are a bit Miami Sound Machine.'Dancing With The Big Boys' is better but it's still pretty forgettable. Next up is Labyrinth, which despite not strictly being a Bowie studio album, is too good an opportunity to pass up.

LABYRINTH (1986)
I saw the movie in the Sunderland ABC. A few FB friends will remember it fondly. Two screens, one a small fleapit and the other a grand affair with properly tiered seating and plenty of red velour. The big screen was packed (as always on a Saturday night) not least because entry was £1. It had been given good promo too. I remember they had some of the puppets, including Ludo on the BBC Saturday morning offering of the time. Probably Going Live but it could've been Saturday Superstore, look it up on Wiki-big-'ead if you must. We loved it of course, not least because Dave turned in his usual rubbish acting performance but this time tempered with his legendary tight fitting breeches in which his religion could be easily determined. Terry Jones wrote it and Frank Oz masterminded it. They say you should never go back but in the interests of nostalgia, research and giving my kids a cultural experience, I watched it again recently. It generally stands up fine, BUT, the firedance sequence is terrible. Really poor quality bluescreen. I can't believe it was considered acceptable even then. Incidentally that particular song is sung by Danny John Jules of Red Dwarf fame.

As for Dave's contributions, they're pretty good. 'Magic Dance' has that Abbott and Costello type wordplay "the child with the voodoo, who do? you do" thing and is good and boppy. 'As The World Falls Down' accompanies the masked ball dream sequence which hints at darker sexual undercurrents between Jareth and Sara. 'Within You' is the bit where he's chucking his crystal ball about while he, Sara and the baby move around a set of Escher staircases. It's all a bit ethereal. Finally there's 'Underground' Which forms part of the opening credits and the closing. It's good, with a gospel feel. Ah fond memories!

NEVER LET ME DOWN (1987)
Guys, guys, guys! Hold on for a moment. This isn't bad at all, and I'm not being contrary for the sake of it (always a risk). I did hear it a fair amount on it's release, so maybe familiarity is working in it's favour. 'Day In, Day Out' was the opening single and it's OK. Pretty certain the video featured roller skates. It's a bit Prince-ish, so I can see he was vulnerable to accusations that he was no longer ahead of the pack, but it is a decent pop song. Then we get 'Time Will Crawl'. Another single I think and also catchy enough. Nice repeated piano phrase and brass backing. The production across the whole album is 'lush' shall we say? But this was 1987 after all. 'Beat Of Your Drum' IS a bit of a mess. The chorus is good but it rubs up against the rest of it. Outstays its welcome too. 'Never Let Me Down' starts like 'Last Christmas', which I guess can't be good. He does a kind of faux-Lennon vocal on it. There's some whistling at the end which regular readers will know always plays well to my ear. The next one is a bit of a conundrum, 'Zeroes'. We must assume I think that there is some relationship to 'Heroes'. He chucks in some pseudo sitar. It's also recorded as if live, with audience sounds, but I don't think they are genuine. 'Glass Spider' is terrific fun, if only because of the opening talky bit about a 'glass-like' spider in a Chinese province who makes her web and decorates it so that it looks like "an al-tuh". Something about having blue eyes as well. Daft as hell. The ensuing song goes on about "Mummy come back cos the water's all gone". Eighties excess writ large. You can either sigh with despair at the fall of the man who gave us Ziggy or embrace it and basically let him off. 'Shining Star (Makin' My Love') is a bit sugary and he does a particularly irritating voice on the verses. There's a sort of rap in the middle too. It's all very like Prefab Sprout/Aztec Camera/Scritti Politti. 'New York's In Love' is a head-on rocker. It could be better with more imaginative instrumentation. The title '87 and Cry' leaves me completely incurious as to its meaning. It's another that is a bit uninspiring and frankly, repetitive. And is that cow bells I hear in the background? Finally there's 'Bang Bang'. Not, alas, a cover of B.A.Robertson's memorable hit but a bit of a dog's breakfast to be honest. I can see it's not his best work, but there are good moments and I wouldn't class it as embarrassing. I'm sure die-hard fans laugh hollowly at the title. Of course he promoted this with the infamous Glass Spider tour, so maybe he had an eye on geting some stadium-friendly stuff on the roster. The tour came to Roker Park in Sunderland and was probably the biggest thing to happen there since they won the cup in 1973. I was indifferent to going. Tickets were £10. Can you imagine that even though in those days the government used to give you a bit of money called a 'grant' to get a higher education and hopefully give something back to the country afterwards, a tenner was still a bit rich for me? However the gods of rock smiled down on me and for the one and only time in my life I found a £10 note in the street and decided to celebrate my good fortune by taking up a spare ticket that was knocking around. I've given you most of my recollections of the show previously. There were support acts, which I remember being The Screaming Blue Messiahs, who we arrived too late for and Big Country, who frankly stole the show. Dave lost the audience with his first utterance "Hello Newcastle". The set had  a giant Glass Spider spanning across the stage, and there was a lot of jigging about by the dancers. It was my first stadium gig and I'm proud to be able to say I was there, but it wasn't his finest hour. I think by then the music press had decided that the time had come to take him down a peg or two, but I would still recommend you give the album a listen. There are things to enjoy here.

TIN MACHINE (1989)
It's generally seen as a misstep these days but at the time there wass a real buzz about Bowie's decision to immerse himself in a band. I know he started out in bands in the sixties, but its hard to think of another artist who established themselves on their own, going on to being a member of a newly formed band. The influence was allegedly the emergent thrash and grunge scene, characterised by the likes of Napalm Death (come on, we've all got one of theirs in the collection) who put out songs such as 'You Suffer' which took less time to listen to than to say the title. The overall sound then is heavy guitar and drums since that's pretty much all he had to work with in Hunt and Tony Sales and Reeves Gabrels. I have to fess up and say that I was now on my sandwich year, so had a bit of cash in pocket and could afford the odd CD so this was the first (and last) Bowie album I purchased, so I do know it well. 'Heaven's In Here' has a Monkee-like intro, and ambles along before breaking down into a bit of a cacophonous mess. I think the title track is my favourite. It has a kind of frenzied 'Ace Of Spades' riff and a memorable opening line delivered in a kind of monotone : "Tin Machine, Tin Machine, take me anywhere, somewhere without alcohol and goons with muddy hair". 'Prisoner Of Love' is good too. Possibly the most Bowie-like track on the album. Then we have 'Crack City' which shamelessly steals from 'Wild Thing' and sees Dave getting a bit sweary. It does have a Glam feel, but the lyrical gems include "They're just a bunch of assholes with buttholes for their brains". Like 'Heaven's In Here" it also falls to pieces toward the end, which has a false fade to boot. 'I Can't Read' gives us trancey-Dave and some back-of-the-fag-packet lyrics. "I can't read s**t" he says, but it could just as easily be "I can't reach it". The closing thought is "Andy where's my 15 minutes". With all due respect he's had a fair crack of the whip. He ends up with some moans. 'Under The God' is hard and heavy, A diatribe against right wing violence and delivered with a fair amount of commitment. I liked the cascading wah-wah-wahing of the guitars in the middle. Then we suddenly get all pastoral and gentle with 'Amazing'. I'd forgotten about this one, so I'll describe it as "forgettable". He chucks in a cover of John Lennon's 'Working Class Hero', which is more successful than some of his other recent covers. His tale of redemption at a 'Bus Stop' is good fun. Starts off like 'New Rose' by The Damned. 'Pretty Thing' gallops along nicely before changing direction halfway through and, like a few before, eventually falling apart. 'Video Crimes' is a misnomer, 'Audio Crimes' perhaps. An unpleasant listen.There's a couple of tracks that are apparently exclusive to the CD release, 'Run' and 'Sacrifice Yourself', but they are unfamiliar to me, so I suspect they were added in some later re-release. I can understand why they didn't make the original cut. We finish with 'Baby Can Dance' which is just OK. Having listened to his full back catalogue up to this one, I can see why you might consider this a bit of a disappointment. There's nothing very groundbreaking (for him) here, but I still think it's an interesting album. He looks great in his suit on the cover too.

TIN MACHINE II (1991)
This has proved problematic. Not available on Spotify. I even considered buying it but Amazon and iTunes don't have it either. He can't be THAT ashamed of it can he? In the end I'm listening to the tracks on YouTube. 'Baby Universal' has a slightly annoying repetitive intro before plunging into headlong rock. 'One Shot' reminds me of '(I'm In With) The In-Crowd' and I was quite surprised that he hadn't covered it. Could have sworn he had. 'You Belong In Rock and Roll' features Deep-Voice Bowie and is low key and rather pleasing. 'If There Is Something' is more thrashy, a bit of a kickback to his Mick Ronson days.'Amlapura' is a bit dreamy and, let's be honest, a bit boring too. 'Betty Wrong' passes me by but 'You Can't Talk' is nice and catchy. I had to settle for a live version of 'Stateside' which has Hunt Sales on vocals. Dunno if this is how it should be so I will not pass judgement. Live version of 'Shopping For Girls' too. Dave gives it a bit of sax. Didn't know he had it in him. The song is rubbish though. D'you know what? I'm halfway through and I'm going to stop trying to find things to say about is. In the interests of completeness and integrity I soldiered on with the album to the end, but it is really not great. Believe me, I've listened to this so you don't have to. The inconvenience of trying to listen to the bloody thing leaves me badly disposed toward it anyway, but I can see how the Tin Machine project all petered out in the end. I've reproduced both versions of the album cover, which in true Diamond Dogs style was censored to remove exposed male appendages. In my view the censored version is more unpleasant because it looks like a botched castration. Only altered in the US I think.

BLACK TIE WHITE NOISE (1993)
This is a bit more like it. One of many 'returns to form' following the late eighties/Tin Machine doldrums. It's much more muted and contained than the immediate previous offerings. He had just got married to Imam and so was obviously in a calmer place. Apparently Nile Rodgers was involved, so you see kids, his magic touch goes back beyond those young Daft Punks. 'The Wedding' is an instrumental which has a drum loop that reminded me of the DNA remix of Suzanne Vega's 'Tom's Diner'. 'You've Been Around' features some very pleasing basslines and he rather playfully inserts a "ch-ch-ch-change" into the lyric.. There's also a rather good cover of Cream's 'I Feel Free'. The title track features Al. B. Sure! (with silent '!'). "And what names will you be giving the the baby Mr. and Mrs Sure!" "No need to shout vicar and we've chosen to call the little fella Alphonse Bumstead". 'Jump They Say' features quite a lot of brass (or brass-like sounds at least). It's something of an eighties throwback - I'm thinking maybe late period Roxy, but that doesn't mean I didn't like it. 'Nite Flights' has more of that Vega/DNA drum loop and is quite engaging. 'Pallas Athena' drives me toward Wikipedia for more information as it starts with a spoken lyric  "God is on top of it all, that's all", so I'm guessing that coupled with the reference to Athena in the title there's some kind of religious theme. It's a dance track really, a little bit 'trance', with more light brass tones throughout. There's something familiar about 'Miracle Goodnight', maybe it was a single. The recurring loop sounds like the sort of thing a sea-lion could play on a row of old-fashioned car horns. He talks some of it and it's quite likeable. 'Don't Let Me Down and Down' is a bit of soft soul. You could listen to it with your evening cup of cocoa. Who is the 'Lester' of 'Looking For Lester'? Piggott? Nygaard? (let's hope not). Wikipedia, for once, is not forthcoming, but Lester Young was a jazz saxophonist and this is sax-heavy and jazzy, so my infallible powers of deduction lead me to believe he is our missing person. 'I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday' is a fairly pedestrian affair with gospel choir backing. 'The Wedding' is revisited at the end with some singing this time (so it's now 'The Wedding Song'). The entire album is bracketed by the sound of church bells. I'm aware that I've probably damned the whole album with faint praise, but I actually thought it was very good and would happily listen to it again - or put it on in the background at a dinner party (or is that even more f.p?).

OUTSIDE (1995)
A lot of muttering at the beginning. Can't stand poor enunciation. 'Leon Takes Us Outside' is a lead in to the title track and makes me think this could be a concept album. Oh dear me. OK. I really try to avoid looking things up on the interweb for this but I think some background reading is required here. It's the first collaboration with Eno since Berlin and is subtitled: The Ritual Art-Murder of Baby Grace Blue: A non-linear Gothic Drama Hyper-Cycle. Oh deary deary me. I don't have the sleeve notes, so let's take it on it's musical merits alone, the plot around 'art crime' can go hang. You can certainly detect Eno's touch (but would I have spotted it if I hadn't known?). 'Art's Filthy Lesson' is quite memorable but maybe that's due to it's repetitiveness. There's some freeform piano work in 'A Small Plot Of Land' but it soon settles into something Moby-ish. Bowie sings it tonelessly, and what IS he singing? "whoreson"?, "arsehole"?. There are segues in this too. The first one coming next to lead us into 'Hallo Spaceboy' consisting of a voice distorted to sound like a child, possibly Bowie, wittering on about something or other. 'Hallo Spaceboy' is the only thing I remember from the time the album was out. He did a rather good performance at the Brits I think wearing some quite fabulous high heels.It's got some hefty drumming and really snarls along well. In fact, if you ignore the massive pretentiousness of the whole affair, I could see that this could bear several listens. As a concept album, it's no worse than, say, The Wall and it IS pretty musically diverse. It's almost impossible to characterize individual tracks and I guess the best tactic is to let it all wash over you. The segues are the most amusing parts, In 'Algeria Touchshriek' he does a passable impression of Grandad from Only Fools and Horses and the 'Ramona A. Stone' segue is done in what I can only describe as a pixie-ish voice. 'Wishful Beginnings' features a rather compelling hoarse, electronic chuckle.  You can see he was getting interested in Drum n' Bass too, particularly on 'We Prick You'. Final segue is 'Nathan Adler' (the main character apparently) and sees him attempting what we must assume is his version of a Mike Hammer style gumshoe. Not entry level Bowie certainly, but a potential grower. The segues would probably get tedious though.

EARTHLING (1997)
Booyakka! Jungle is MASSIVE! Don't expect me to hold forth on break beats and all that. I have no clue. The opening 'Little Wonder' is familiar. Dave sings in an interestingly disinterested fashion. "Am I getting it", he asks at one point. It's not what you'd call lyrically dense, but it doesn't need to be. You can hear hints of the Prodigy in it, but that could just be the style of music. I really like it, not dinner party music though. I found 'Looking For Satellites' a bit trying. Too much going on and some if it quite piercing. More of a soundscape than a song. He goes for the John Lennon 'I Am The Walrus' vocal option on 'Battle For Britain (The Letter)' over some pretty hefty drum n' bass. He does throw in some jungle-stylee piano too, which doesn't really work. Three tracks in and I am feeling a bit exhausted so the slower more soulful opening to 'Seven Years In Tibet' is most welcome. However he soon jerks us out of the comfort zone by having thrashy Tin Machine episodes. There is something of Radiohead's 'Creep' about it. I think 'Dead Man Walking' is probably a decent song, but the instrumentation is just too much. I asked my 13 year old son, P., who is into (gawd help us) Linkin' Park what he thought and he said it was good, so what do I know? Bowie is more in touch with the yoof than me obviously. One frenzied tune after another comes along. In fact there are good songs here but I think he got it right with 'Little Wonder' and should have stopped there. 'I'm Afraid Of Americans' isn't too bad (bit rude though). Remixed by Trent Reznor apparently. Looks like he knocked some of the drum n' bass excess out of it. The last track is 'Law (Earthlings On Fire)', which asserts "I don't want knowledge, I want certainty". I'll give him 10/10 for not doing the obvious thing, but I would advise that it is consumed responsibly. Too much in one go could leave you feeling a bit ill. I like his coat though. 

HOURS... (1999)
Ah. Someone seems to have soothed his savage breast. This is a much calmer affair. In fact the opening track, 'Thursday's Child' carries a slight future echo of 'Where Are We Now' off his last record. Also, an important record in one sense (if Wikipedia is to be believed) in that it was the first ever to be released online, two weeks in advance of the physical CD. The three dots are intriguing, I was almost afraid it was something to do with that terrible Nicole Kidman movie that J. wasted a couple of hours of her life on a few years back. 'Something In the Air' is not a cover of the Thunderclap Newman song (unfortunately I already did a christening joke a couple of albums back, but as P.G. Wodehouse once noted - there is some pretty raw work performed at the baptismal font). He uses the word "Abracadoo" in it presumably just to get a rhyme. There's also some twiddly distorted guitar. 'Survive' is a quite touching song of loss. No-one can sing the words "razzle dazzle" in quite the way DB does. Do I also detect a distant hint of 'Starman' in the closing musical phrases too? 'If I'm Dreaming My Life' doesn't go particularly far lyrically but speeds up and slows down in several places through its 7:05 duration. 'Seven' was apparently written for some computer game - back to the 13-year old offspring for more details I guess, although given the album was released in 1999, he would doubtless describe it as 'old-skool'. 'The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell' starts with something close to the aforementioned 'In Crowd' riff, but I don't think that's why I had it associated with Bowie in my mind. It's good though, close to Heavy Metal. 'New Angels Of Promise' typifies the whole album really. It's very much Bowie being Bowie. He doesn't seem very far out of his comfort zone, but the end product is still good.and it's still experimental enough to be interesting. We have the short 'Brilliant Adventure' which sounds like a piece of incidental movie music. Lastly there's 'The Dreamers' which is just a bit humdrum really. 

HEATHEN (2002)
This is about his third return to form since Scary Monsters, but I reckon that so far this has come closest to being the genuine article although it never approaches the quirkiness of it's predecessor. I have also finally made it to the 21st century, but DB has been notoriously quiet since the millennium so there are now only 3 more to go. It starts with Sunday, which put me in mind of that U2 song that went with Gangs Of New York, sort of a slow build that never quite progresses. Then there's 'Cactus' which is actually fairly conventional blues dressed up a bit. The lyrics had me confounded for a moment. I thought he was singing "Sitting here wishing on a semen floor",  but it's actually the more obvious "cement". Make of that, and what it tells you about my mind, what you will. I really liked 'Slip Away' but the lyrics are baffling (come on Andy I hear you cry, you've listened to 24 Bowie albums and this is the first time you've found the lyrics baffling?). It's about a couple of characters called Bones Boy and Oogie. Uncle Floyd (who apparently twinkles) turns up, and there is advice to not "forget to keep your head warm". It has shades of 'Space Oddity' I guess. 'Slow Burn' and 'Afraid' are fairly straightforward Bowie songs. 'I've Been Waiting For You' employs a satisfying degree of screamy guitar. 'I Would Be Your Slave' has some Darth Vader-ish breathing sounds in the background. There's a worrying moment at the start of 'I Took A Trip On the Gemini Spacecraft' where it sounds like he's employed Stock, Aitken and Waterman as producers, but it soon settles into a much more satisfying affair with lots of wacky sounds and Dave singing through his nose. He's back in space too! He talks about shooting his space gun while thinking about the object of is desires, fnarr fnarr. '5:15 the Angels Have Gone' follows, nice enough. Then 'Everyone Says Hi', with it's lush, orchestral production and clever and unexpected "wa-wa- wa-oooo" from 'Absolute Beginners' as he sings "We can do the old things". There's a simplistic oddness about 'A Better Future'. It's almost like the Pet Shop Boys, but dare I say it, they would have made a slightly better fist of it. Still like it though. Finally, the title track, subtitled 'The Rays'. Not much in the way of lyrics, which is reflected in the sparseness of the song. The cover: Android/Zombie Bowie in another lovely suit.

REALITY (2003)
Nearly there now. I think he's letting go a bit on this one and having a bit of fun. It's, dare I say, a bit more poppy than the usual offering. This means he trades in a bit of complexity for slightly more repetitive songs. Having said that, second song in, 'Pablo Picasso' has some true lyrical gems "Well the girls would turn the colour of a juicy avocado, When he would drive down their street in his El Dorado". He sings it in a hectoring John Lydon style and incorporates some Spanish guitar to good effect. It's bracketed by 'New Killer Star' and 'Never Get Old' which are both good strong rock songs. 'Killer Star' makes me think of Blur with its loose-stringed guitar (but I can't put my finger on which song).  'The Loneliest Guy' is a much more contemplative thing and really quite bleak really. If you're the luckiest guy and not the loneliest guy then presumably you're not much of a socialite (or maybe I'm missing the point, the more I think about it the less I think I understand it). Maybe a hint of the next 10 years of seclusion.'Looking For Water' is VERY repetitive, but not awful. 'She'll Drive the Big Car' starts with some bluesy harmonica and does seem to be some kind of play on the all-american driving anthem (well that's what I think anyway. I'll see a Springsteen reference anywhere I can find one). 'Days' seems to be a rather sweet song of thanks to a friend or lover who has seen the protagonist through the bad times. Quite similar in tone to it's Kinks namesake actually. 'Fall Dog Bombs The Moon' is a title to contend with isn't it? I read somewhere that he sometimes writes lyrics, then cuts them up and puts them back together in a different order. Possibly that technique was used here. It certainly makes no sense to me, but the jangling guitar has a nice sixties feel.'Try Some, Buy Some' is more gratitude for a fulfilling relationship. I guess we must assume that he was in a pretty good place on that front when he recorded this. For that reason the title track, which comes next is a bit of a shock as it bursts out all loud drums and fuzzy guitars. It's another bit of reaching back to the Ziggy/Aladdin Sane/Diamond Dogs days I'd say. It does degenerate a bit toward the end, Too screamy. 'Bring Me The Disco King' is straight out of 'Jazz Club' - Nice! Maybe he has Turnham Green on piano and Kensall Rise on drums? As you may be aware, I'm not a big jazz fan and found this all a bit tedious. There's a bonus track which is a cover of 'Waterloo Sunset', which makes me suspect that 'Days' may be some kind of tribute to Ray Davies too. Yet again, Dave cocks up a classic. It's meant to be wistful, not some thumping guitar anthem. 

THE NEXT DAY (2013)
Leaving aside the actual product for a moment, it says a lot about Bowie that the actual release of this album was a work of art. In these days of viral campaigns, internet spoilers and the twitterati, to release a single completely unexpectedly after 10 years off was an achievement that suggests a fair amount of carefully controlled planning in advance. It was a genuine pleasure to come home from work and find that there was a new, unannounced Bowie single all over the radio. But was it so unexpected? I seem to recall that there was a low level of media interest in Bowie at the time. I'd read a Sunday supplement article about a month earlier about how he was living very quietly but happily in New York, and the forthcoming V&A exhibition of his wardrobe was causing a buzz (wish I'd made time for it now). Whether Bowie was pulling the strings in the background, I'll guess we'll never be sure, but I'd like to think it was all part of some grander scheme. Of course the album itself could have been a disappointment and when I first listened to it I did struggle a bit, but this subsequent hearing has allayed my fears. It IS good. His opening shot is funny, "Here I am, not quite dying" he proclaims in the title track. He sings it really well too. Sounds like he means it. It's all backed by a punchy guitar loop. 'Dirty Boys' is slow and deliberate, sung in a detached voice. He sounds a bit angry on 'The Stars (Are Out Tonight)' which is a commentary on celebs I think. 'Love Is Lost' has a chugging backing and, from what I can tell, is not exactly cheery in nature. Then the aforementioned first single, 'Where Are We Now'. reflecting on his Berlin period, it's almost a piece of lounge jazz. His voice seems cracked and old and a little bit sad. 'Valentine's Day' gives us a bit of classic Bowie. Little bit of pop, little bit of rock and his unmistakable vocal style. Dunno who Valentine is, just a made up character I guess. Worryingly he sounds a bit like Bono at the start of 'If You Can See Me'. It doesn't get much better either, some of those nasty break beats from Earthling make an unwelcome return. 'I'd Rather Be High' seems to be about the dilemmas faced by young soldiers posted to far-off deserts. 'Dancing Out In Space' is good fun. He goes back to a few rock n roll cliches with an intro akin to 'You Can't Hurry Love' and some 'deep voiced 'Hey Baby's last heard in 'Let's Go To The Hop'. More hi-jinks on 'How Does The Grass Grow' as he almost goes Speedy Gonzales with his falsetto ya-ya-ya-ya's. Then he starts with some Spinal Tappish riffs on '(You Will) Set The World On Fire' which is clearly about a protest singer, with it's references to Joan Baez, Phil Ochs and Dave Van Ronk (I had to look the last two up I must admit, although I have heard of Phil Ochs). 'You Feel So Lonely You Could Die' has shades of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' about it. It has a little false ending too. And lastly we come to 'Heat'. A menacing intro and then Dave going on about his father running the prison. I dunno. It somehow seems appropriate he leaves me feeling baffled and a little queasy from the instrumentation. The cover is the same as Heroes, but obscured by a big white square bearing the title. It's all about subverting Bowie's past see?

BLACKSTAR (2016)
I was going to wait. I thought, there's plenty of time, it's just another album to add to the existing post, he seems to be back to regular recording. Then the news came out this morning. I still thought about waiting, give me time to digest, get on with other artists, do a proper job. But music is about how it makes you feel, what it means and, certainly for me, how it associates with memories. So it makes sense to listen to this now and write about it. His final offering. It doesn't matter if I love it, hate it or think it's somewhere in the middle, Bowie is the ultimate rock artist. More than just a musician, everything he's done is interesting (well - Tin Machine II is the exception that proves the rule). For me doing the original post was a massive undertaking. I'm not a Bowie fan. I only listened to most of his albums for the first time a year and a half ago and haven't listened to many of them since, but he was undoubtedly the most fun to do. Inventive, absurd, a soundtrack to my lifetime, even if I didn't realize it as I was going along. You can't help feeling that even this last release and his subsequent departure was some kind of artistic gesture too. Before release there was speculation that the rise of Islamic terrorism was a theme, but now he leaves us confused about whether, in fact, it's all about his illness and inevitable death. I bet he'd be delighted at the ambiguity. I'm happy to report that the opening title track is genuinely great and immediately grabs you. His kind of treble chanted lyric is fragile and assertive at once, much like 'Where Are We Now?'. 'Tis A Pity She Was A Whore' has a classic Bowie vocal, sung as if through gritted teeth against a cacophony of instruments that somehow resolves itself into a tune. If you listen to the lyrics of Lazarus now then it's easy to see what he was singing about, "scars that can't be seen", "nothing left to lose", "I'll be free like that bluebird". Of course he could put out a song so openly about oncoming death because he'd spent a lifetime putting out elliptical lyrics, he hid the illness in plain sight. There is some distinctly dingy guitar work on 'Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)'. He references 'A Clockwork Orange' on 'Girl Loves Me'. Research tells me that he also uses Polari slang in the lyrics.The outro to the languid, sax-heavy 'Dollar Days' is simply, a repeated "I'm trying to; I'm dying to". Could he have made it any plainer? The only other thing he could have done was walk across a zebra crossing barefoot. Finally, 'I Can't Give Everything Away', gentle electro pop now laden down with meaning. The news reports today said he had an 18-month battle with cancer and people often object to the word 'battle' in that context, but I wouldn't mind betting that he hung on grimly until this had been safely released on his birthday on Friday as planned. Heroic.