|
Post by Prole Hole on Mar 6, 2017 10:18:37 GMT -5
I utterly and completely love Blackstar. I think it's stronger overall than The Next Day, but that may simply by because of my own leanings towards jazz, and I have no argument with anyone that prefers TND. Really, this is as good a final Bowie album as we could possibly have hoped for and a real achievement in its own right, even without Sad Points. Nudie's right, it's not Bowie playing sax here, they're proper jazz musicians, and it makes all the difference in the world. Gone is the directionless noodling, and instead we have some real talent delivering brilliant work (the exhausted brass that sighs after each line of the verse in "Lazarus", the screehings of "Tis A Pity She Was A Whore"). "Dollar Days" is likely my favourite of the album, but its a really tough one to pick a favourite, because "Lazarus" is amazing, and "Blackstar" is amazing and... well it all is really. Some praise too for being an album obviously written by someone who's dying but for never becoming self-pitying or falling into all the usual "but why meeee!" traps, even as it does obviously confront the fact of its creator's soon-to-be-passing. That hopeful note on "I Can't Give Everything Away" saves it from being too downbeat, and the whole thing concludes just perfectly. In some ways Blackstar reminds me a bit of the eels album Electro-Shock Blues (another favourite of mine), thought Bowie's is superior, so if you like this, then, well you have a recommendation for another album to check out. But regardless, Blackstar is a perfect summation of, and end to, Bowie's career. Simply brilliant.
|
|
|
Post by Nudeviking on Mar 6, 2017 19:45:41 GMT -5
No Plan (2017)On January 10, 2016, David Bowie died of liver cancer. He had just turned sixty-nine years old. His was the first big celebrity death in what would soon become a year replete with big celebrity deaths and people were shocked and dismayed by his passing, perhaps more so since he had just released a new album and had somehow managed to keep news of his illness a secret. Nearly a year later, on what would have been his seventieth birthday, he released what is, to date, his final musical endeavor: an EP of songs that had been written for a musical titled Lazarus and recorded alongside Blackstar. This is that EP. Pre-Existing Prejudices
I know 50% of the songs on this album, which is to say I know two of them. "Lazarus," appeared on Blackstar, and the song "No Plan," seems to have been released as a single, or at least became a thing that they play a lot on the radio here. Songs"Lazarus" This seems to be the same version that appears on Blackstar rather than a remix or alternate take or anything like that. It was fine there and it's fine here. I mentioned it in my earlier review, but it bears repeating just how good the saxophones are here. They really drive the song and serve as its emotional core. "No Plan" A downtempo ballad with pretty keyboard riffs and downtown New York saxophones. Among the trio of previously unreleased songs on this EP, this is the only one that I feel could have worked on Blackstar. "Killing a Little Time" Quasi-Middle Eastern sounding heavy metal riffage and occasional aggro sounding free jazz saxophone skronk. David Bowie claims that he has songs to sing to fuck us over. This is the angriest Dying David Bowie has been. While Bowie on Blackstar is more or less at the acceptance stage of the Kübler-Ross model of dealing with grief, here Bowie's still in the anger stage. It's a good song, but would have been so out of place on Blackstar. "When I Met You" The intro to this is menacing industrial noise that kind of reminds me of the opening theme song for ECW back in the mid-90s that quickly morphs into a solid bass heavy power pop song. This might be my favorite song on the album, in no small part because of the chorus which I think is particular good. I'm a sucker for split channel vocals singing different crap apparently. Final Thoughts
David Bowie has, since the beginning of his career, had a pretty good grasp on the album as a concept. With few exceptions the track lists for individual albums have been logical and arranged in such a way to maximize the listening experience. During the course of this grand undertaking I ended up listening to a number of deluxe edition Bowie albums with bonus tracks and while these tracks were sometimes great (a couple of them actually ended up being among my most listened to Bowie songs) it was often obvious why'd they been relegated to a b-side or left in the vault. The same holds true for the songs here. They are all really strong songs as stand alone pieces of music but nearly all of the previously unreleased tracks here would have felt woefully out of place on Blackstar. If treated as deluxe edition bonus tracks, these songs are a pleasant treat for fans of David Bowie, but as a period on a remarkable music career this EP pales in comparison to Blackstar. And that, my friends, is Nudeviking vs. David Bowie. There will be one last post from me summarizing my final final thoughts about Bowie as a musician, ranking albums, letting you know what Bowie songs I listened to the most (I was honestly surprised by some of the results there) before I ride off into the sunset. I'll probably get that all up in the next day or two so keep your eyes peeled for that, it's sure to have at least one or two hot takes that will give you all cause to be angry with me about David Bowie related issues again. Best Song: All the songs here were pretty great, but I'm going to give the nod to "When I Met You." Worst Song: They are all pretty great so none or "Lazarus," because I already heard it on another album. You pick which answer you want.
|
|
|
Post by Nudeviking on Mar 7, 2017 19:34:01 GMT -5
Final Final Thoughs And so ends Nudeviking vs. David Bowie. When I started this I was aware of David Bowie as a musician and didn't really harbor any special dislike for the songs of his that I'd hear on the radio or when covered by 90s alternarock bands, but he wasn't an artist I felt like I was missing out on by not exploring deeper. I was wrong. Though his discography is not unimpeachable (whose is?) he is quite rightly held up as a Very Important Music Guy.
Last year when he died I couldn't understand why people made such a big deal about it. It wasn't like he was some young, promising musician in his prime whose life was cut tragically short. He was an older musician whose best days were behind him. Again, I was wrong. While Bowie was certainly not young when he died people could certainly argue that he was still relevant musically, his final two albums being two of his best.
I'm very glad I did this (even if I did have to listen to Black Tie White Noise) because unlike when I did this with Queen and had this feeling of, "Thank god this is done with," at the end, this time around I have the feeling of "I should remember to say David Bowie's name alongside Sleater-Kinney and the Pixies when people ask me who my favorite music guys are."
But no one cares about that! What everyone's here for is statistics and rankings, so let's get it on! First Bowie's albums ranked from best to worst.
1. Low 2. The Next Day 3. Blackstar / No Plan 4. Scary Monsters 5. Earthling 6. 'Heroes' 7. 1. Outside 8. Diamond Dogs 9. Lodger 10. Station to Station 11. Aladdin Sane 12. Ziggy Stardust 13. The Man Who Sold The World 14. Space Oddity 15. Tin Machine 16. Heathen 17. Reality 18. Hunky Dory 19. Hours... 20. Tin Machine II 21. David Bowie 22. Young Americans 23. Never Let Me Down 24. Let's Dance 25. Tonight 26. Pin Ups 27. Black Tie White Noise
If you'd prefer broader ranking metrics everything from Low to Outside is great, Diamond Dogs to Tin Machine is good, Heathen to David Bowie is okay, Young Americans to Tonight is bad, and Pin Ups & Black Tie White Noise are fucking terrible. I treated No Plan like bonus tracks to Blackstar rather than as an individual album for simplicity's sake.
"But what about the songs?" you ask, "Which are the best?"
Out of the 329 David Bowie songs (and 1 Giorgio Moroder song) I've listened to during the past four months or so it's hard to pick which one is the best so instead I've assembled a list of the top fifteen most played David Bowie songs according to my iTunes. Why fifteen? There was a 5 way tie for the 10th most listened to track which gave me 14 songs. Top fourteen doesn't really work for me so I added one more (it was one play count off from being in that 10th place grouping anyway).
1. "I'll Take You There" (The Next Day) 2. "Valentine's Day" (The Next Day) 3. "We Prick You" (1. Outside) 4. "Scream Like a Baby" (Scary Monsters) 5. "Seven Years In Tibet" (Earthling) 6. "I'm Afraid of Americans (V1)" (I'm Afraid of Americans Single) 7. "Blue Jean" (Tonight) 8. "Little Wonder" (Earthling) 9. "Black Country Rock" (The Man Who Sold the World) 10. "Beat of Your Drum" (Never Let Me Down) 11. "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)" (The Next Day) 12. "When I Met You" (No Plan) 13. "New Killer Star" (Reality) 14. "Girl Loves Me" (Blackstar) 15. "Time" (Aladdin Sane)
So there you go. David Bowie. AW YE YE!
Next Time on Nudeviking vs. Music... I honestly don't know. This was a pretty large project and even though I liked the music I was listening to for the most part, I was starting to get a little burned out at the end. To combat this I'm toying with two different ideas at the moment regarding series 3.
Idea the first: Choose an artist with a much smaller discography. I'm thinking maybe Bjork which is 8 albums (9 if you count that weird thing she did as a child). Idea the second: Tackle one of those Best 100 Albums lists either in full or just the top 20. This will give me a variety of singers/musical styles to listen to and hopefully stave off burn out.
I'm also open to other suggestions so let me know what you think. I'll see you next time!
|
|
dLᵒ
Prolific Poster
𝓐𝓻𝓮 𝓦𝓮 𝓒𝓸𝓸𝓵 𝓨𝓮𝓽?
Posts: 4,533
|
Post by dLᵒ on Mar 7, 2017 22:09:27 GMT -5
Nudeviking I suggested Ministry (for anyone) over in the Random music Thoughts. There's only thirteen albums but tons of side projects, and uncle Al has been anything but consistent. Being a fan of Trent Renzor I'm sure you've heard some Ministry, but haven't kept up.
|
|
|
Post by Prole Hole on Mar 9, 2017 7:48:03 GMT -5
I'm going to put my vote for 50 of the To Die For albums!
But also just want to add how much I've loved your going over these albums. It's a huge undertaking, but it's been great for me to re-listen along and re-engage with Bowie as an artist and not just, "yea I really love that guy".
I think most of your album rankings are relatively uncontroversial. My only exception is Ziggy, which is a Top Ten Album Of All Of Time for me. I'd put Blackstar above The Next Day, but both are phenomenal, and for the rest that seems about right. Weirdly I was listening to Diamond Dogs yesterday and I was running through your comments as I did so, so it's official - just as it with with Mun and bananas, when I think of Bowie I now think of your epic career-long trawl though his back catalogue.
Well done!
|
|
|
Post by Nudeviking on Mar 9, 2017 9:59:19 GMT -5
I'm going to put my vote for 50 of the To Die For albums! But also just want to add how much I've loved your going over these albums. It's a huge undertaking, but it's been great for me to re-listen along and re-engage with Bowie as an artist and not just, "yea I really love that guy". I think most of your album rankings are relatively uncontroversial. My only exception is Ziggy, which is a Top Ten Album Of All Of Time for me. I'd put Blackstar above The Next Day, but both are phenomenal, and for the rest that seems about right. Weirdly I was listening to Diamond Dogs yesterday and I was running through your comments as I did so, so it's official - just as it with with Mun and bananas, when I think of Bowie I now think of your epic career-long trawl though his back catalogue. Well done! Regarding Ziggy Stardust, I probably would have ranked it higher if I'd never heard about how amazing it was before I actually listened to it. Random rock history books and BEST 10,382 ALBUMS OF ALL THE TIMES! always rate it really highly so in my mind it should have been the best album of all times, but was just pretty good. I dunno, maybe I was just being a contrarian. Maybe I'll give that one a re-listen in full now that I'm totally done because that's really the only album that I ranked lower than real music review people who have done similar things with Bowie's discography. As for Next Day and Blackstar I switch the rankings of those two back and forth a few times before I published the list. I could have gone either way really since both are really good. Since Next Day had more songs in the top 10 most plays list I figured to give it the nod, though in the two days or so since I calculated all that stuff a mess of Blackstar songs have crept into the top 15. Both are great, both are albums I can see myself going back to and listening to repeatedly. And as for albums Low, though no single song cracked the top 15, probably had the most straight listens from beginning to end. The songs from Never Let Me Down and Tonight were honestly the only songs off those albums I listened to more than the minimum two times I set for myself (Black Tie White Noise got a single playthrough...even the songs I didn't listen to when I wrote the review I ended up going back to and listening to once). but with Low I'd listen to the album straight through, so fewer plays of individual songs, but most plays of the album as a whole. Blackstar I've been listening to like this as well. The Next Day, on the other hand is a fine album to put on shuffle. I'm leaning toward the BEST ALBUMS deal and am looking over a couple of the BEST ALBUMS OF ALL THE TIMES LISTS and trying to determine which one I want to tackle. I don't know if I want to do a specific decade or just a general BEST ALBUMS thing or something else yet.
|
|
|
Post by Prole Hole on Mar 9, 2017 10:54:00 GMT -5
Ziggy was the album that got me in to Bowie proper after enjoying a few random singles, so it will always hold a special place in my heart processor. I do entirely understand how off-putting those "YOU TOTES HAVE TO LISTEN TO THIS OMG ITS THE BEST ALBUM EVER!!!" comments are, and how they can actively work to damage the appreciation of an otherwise-great piece of art. My feeling is that, given everything you've gone through with Bowie, you probably will come to appreciate it more, especially the emotional distance a lot of the Ziggy material has (the the first side in particular). But maybe I just want someone to agree with me - I can't remember the last time someone agreed with me on Ziggy's awesomeness.
It's also one of those weird thing, because Ziggy is a Top Ten All Timer for me, yet Low, Blackstar, TND and Scary Monsters are, in my eyes, all better Bowie albums, yet none of them cracks my Top Ten. It's possible I'm the contrary one...
|
|
|
Post by Prole Hole on Dec 8, 2018 15:11:11 GMT -5
I have fallen down a David Bowie hole of listening this week and realised that, somehow, I never put a Bowie playlist together. So now I have, and it goes like this: Moonage Daydream Cracked Actor I'm Afraid Of Americans (Album Version - sorry Nudeviking ) Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) Crack City Aladdin Sane Queen Bitch We Are The Dead Lazarus The Man Who Sold The World Sound And Vision TVC15 Time Suffragette City Blue Jean Fashion DJ Dirty Boys Panic In Detroit Dollar Days Life On Mars? Space Oddity Ashes To Ashes Hallo Spaceboy (Pet Shop Boys Remix) You Belong In Rock And Roll It's No Game (Pt 1) Little Wonder New Killer Star Oh! You Pretty Thing Starman Let's Dance The Jean Genie Sweet Thing / Candidate / Sweet Thing (reprise) Let's Spend The Night Together The Stars (Are Out Tonight) Heroes (Single version) Wild Is The Wind Rock'n'Roll Suicide BONUS TRACK: Life On Mars? (I genuinely love the song delivered as a 20's Berlin cabaret number. Ignore where it comes from...)
|
|
|
Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Dec 8, 2018 20:55:39 GMT -5
I have fallen down a David Bowie hole of listening this week and realised that, somehow, I never put a Bowie playlist together. So now I have, and it goes like this: Moonage Daydream Cracked Actor I'm Afraid Of Americans (Album Version - sorry Nudeviking ) Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) Crack City Aladdin Sane Queen Bitch We Are The Dead Lazarus The Man Who Sold The World Sound And Vision TVC15 Time Suffragette City Blue Jean Fashion DJ Dirty Boys Panic In Detroit Dollar Days Life On Mars? Space Oddity Ashes To Ashes Hallo Spaceboy (Pet Show Boys Remix) You Belong In Rock And Roll It's No Game (Pt 1) Little Wonder New Killer Star Oh! You Pretty Thing Starman Let's Dance The Jean Genie Sweet Thing / Candidate / Sweet Thing (reprise) Let's Spend The Night Together The Stars (Are Out Tonight) Heroes (Single version) Wild Is The Wind Rock'n'Roll Suicide BONUS TRACK: Life On Mars? (I genuinely love the song delivered as a 20's Berlin cabaret number. Ignore where it comes from...) Where is "Cat People"?
|
|
|
Post by Nudeviking on Dec 8, 2018 23:01:08 GMT -5
I have fallen down a David Bowie hole of listening this week and realised that, somehow, I never put a Bowie playlist together. So now I have, and it goes like this: I'm Afraid Of Americans (Album Version - sorry Nudeviking ) With regards to the album version of "I'm Afraid of Americans," I probably would have liked it more if I hadn't been duped by Trent Reznor radio version and felt like the album version was some bait and switch BS. If memory serves correctly the version that appears on Earthling was my second favorite version of the 10 or so different versions I listened to that one time.
|
|
|
Post by Prole Hole on Dec 9, 2018 6:14:48 GMT -5
Putting out fire with gasollleeeeeennnneeeee, presumably.
|
|
|
Post by Prole Hole on Dec 9, 2018 6:16:16 GMT -5
I have fallen down a David Bowie hole of listening this week and realised that, somehow, I never put a Bowie playlist together. So now I have, and it goes like this: I'm Afraid Of Americans (Album Version - sorry Nudeviking ) With regards to the album version of "I'm Afraid of Americans," I probably would have liked it more if I hadn't been duped by Trent Reznor radio version and felt like the album version was some bait and switch BS. If memory serves correctly the version that appears on Earthling was my second favorite version of the 10 or so different versions I listened to that one time. Indeed, I was just teasing! Weirdly when I was putting this together I found Spotify had the first Tin Machine album, but not the second. Not that there was a vast amount I wanted to include (exactly one song, though still one more than fucking Black Tie White Noise contributed) but I thought it was off nonetheless.
|
|
|
Post by Nudeviking on Dec 9, 2018 20:09:39 GMT -5
With regards to the album version of "I'm Afraid of Americans," I probably would have liked it more if I hadn't been duped by Trent Reznor radio version and felt like the album version was some bait and switch BS. If memory serves correctly the version that appears on Earthling was my second favorite version of the 10 or so different versions I listened to that one time. Indeed, I was just teasing! Weirdly when I was putting this together I found Spotify had the first Tin Machine album, but not the second. Not that there was a vast amount I wanted to include (exactly one song, though still one more than fucking Black Tie White Noise contributed) but I thought it was off nonetheless. Maybe Spotify had a problem with the statue dicks on the cover of Tin Machine II.
|
|
|
Post by Nudeviking on Nov 2, 2022 23:58:07 GMT -5
David Bowie & The Philadelphia Orchestra - Peter and the Wolf (1978)Oh shit. I can't believe I forgot to review this album back in 2017(?!) when I was doing these Bowie reviews since, if I'm being forthright, it was literally my first exposure to ol' Dave Bowie. I had a 45 of it in my youth that I got from someplace or another. So here today I'm going to review David Bowie & The Philadelphia Orchestra performing Sergei Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf." The album's b-side was The Philadelphia Orchestra doing "Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra" sans Bowie so I'm not going to bother reviewing that since it doesn't really have anything to do with him and it will just be me talkin' out my ass about cool-ass French horns or some shit and no one wants that. They're here for my HOT TAKES about ol' Dave Bowie! Pre-Existing PrejudicesAs I mentioned, I owned this album as a small child and listened to it a decent amount in my youth. That being said it has been an age and a half since last I gave it a listen. Songs"Peter And The Wolf Op.67" So the deal here is David Bowie's narrating while the Philadelphia Orchestra plays "Peter and the Wolf." He doesn't sing. I don't think he's playing the oboe or anything. It's just him narrating the story and honestly he does a pretty good job. His regular-ass narration voice is pretty pleasant and he really goes all in on giving the various characters different voices that sound distinct enough. I don't know if he could have had a career in doing anime dubs or anything but he's more than serviceable here. My only real complaint is that at one point Dave in his telling of the tale talks about Peter fashioning a "lasso" but he pronounces it like, "lass sue," and it bugged me more than it probably should have. As for the orchestration, I'm by no means an expert (I quit playing French horn after 8th grade and that was pretty much it for my orchestra career) but it all sounds pretty good to me. They're being conducted by Eugene Ormandy, someone that Wikipedia informs me, made his reputation "as a skilled technician and expert orchestral builder," so I'm going to assume that the crew he's assembled for this record know their business. Final ThoughtsTo be honest I did this thing as a goof but you know what? I kind of dug it. I wish the musical powers that be would still do stuff like this and have massive pop stars show up on classical music albums aimed at children. Maybe they do still do it but I'm just in the dark about them. If that's the case maybe they should market that shit better. Anyway this was fun. Maybe I'll get back into doing these from time to time. Songs Featuring Saxophone Oboe: 1 Songs Ruined By Saxophone Oboe: 0
|
|