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XBenedict posted:I've listened to ★ about 10-15 times now, and I have to say that it ranks amongst his best albums. The music videos are killing me over here. SEE an old man, in the top attic in the highest tower, recognizing that his time is over, that it's the natural way for one to pass and other to rise up. Then there's the gem-encrusted skull of Major Tom, being passed like a mantle to a new generation of young people. gently caress gently caress gently caress.
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Jan 13, 2016 23:34
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Anaranjado posted:I think Side A is fantastic, and that the title track is the only good song on Side B, but the material on the front half is so good I don't mind. Agree that Running Gun Blues is loving rancid and much of the album is basically Bowie guesting on a Visconti/Ronson album, though I grew up with that album first so I have some sentiment for it. Width of a Circle was one of his best "epic" pieces until Station To Station blew it, and most of his songs, out of the water. Tin Machine is glossed over as a lost cause but stuff like Betty Wrong and especially Goodbye Mr. Ed are great. I also always loved I Can't Read. Those two albums are really extremely mixed bags, especially with the Sales-penned songs, but there are a few good picks on them.
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Jan 13, 2016 23:46
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Got all caught up to the present and made a list of the 13 albums of his I enjoyed the most (just in alphabetical order):
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Jan 14, 2016 00:13
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Awful Sandwich posted:The music videos are killing me over here. SEE an old man, in the top attic in the highest tower, recognizing that his time is over, that it's the natural way for one to pass and other to rise up. Then there's the gem-encrusted skull of Major Tom, being passed like a mantle to a new generation of young people. gently caress gently caress gently caress. Everytime I watched it I was thinking "man, there's a lot here of morbid imagery and references to his past, and he looks like my grandma did when she had cancer" but I was in denial. Complete denial. I was in no way ready to accept he could actually die. When I saw the post by the official page on Facebook, it was within minutes and the rest of the internet said nothing so I was certain it was a hoax and the page was hacked.
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Jan 14, 2016 00:14
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MinibarMatchman posted:Agree that Running Gun Blues is loving rancid and much of the album is basically Bowie guesting on a Visconti/Ronson album, though I grew up with that album first so I have some sentiment for it. Width of a Circle was one of his best "epic" pieces until Station To Station blew it, and most of his songs, out of the water. Width of a Circle, All the Madmen, Black Country Rock, Saviour Machine, the title track, and The Supermen are all really good! I listen to that album pretty often, though yeah, I skip Running Gun Blues because christ
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Jan 14, 2016 00:16
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If you really need to clean out the Bowie cupboards, he did a few tracks on Adrian Belew's "Young Lions."
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Jan 14, 2016 03:11
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Rageaholic Monkey posted:Got all caught up to the present and made a list of the 13 albums of his I enjoyed the most (just in alphabetical order):
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Jan 14, 2016 03:15
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Leon Einstein posted:You don't like Scary Monsters? That album is amazing. Blackstar has some of the same Fripp sounding guitar. It's hard for me to rank his albums. They all scratch different itches.
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Jan 14, 2016 03:18
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In case you want to feel even more bummed out, last week Bowie was writing songs for another album because he thought he had a few more months to live  I hope that material gets released eventually, along with any extra stuff from the Blackstar sessions.
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Jan 14, 2016 03:24
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HorseRenoir posted:In case you want to feel even more bummed out No I didn't!  quote:When Visconti asked him if he was making "a farewell album," Bowie just laughed.
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Jan 14, 2016 03:28
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gently caress don't tell me that. I can't deal with that.
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Jan 14, 2016 03:32
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I had never heard this version of "Heroes" before I heard it on the radio during a tribute show today, almost started crying because it just sounds amazing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBiiFplMWls
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Jan 14, 2016 03:33
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HorseRenoir posted:In case you want to feel even more bummed out, last week Bowie was writing songs for another album because he thought he had a few more months to live  Well at least we might get a posthumous release out of that.
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Jan 14, 2016 03:55
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I'm not sure I want the last mostly-done (if that) Bowie tracks to come out. They'd have to be completely recorded and produced with like a note signed by the man himself saying "yes I would release this to the world in this state, just waiting to get some more done to call it an album". Or else to me it'd be like when an author dies and their last unfinished work is finished off by someone else, edited without their feedback, and released. Doesn't sit 100% right with me.
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Jan 14, 2016 04:12
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one of the only big dinosaurs left to posthumously release would be Toy, which leaked years back anyway. Worth it if only because the versions of Afraid and Uncle Floyd are somewhat better than what we got on Heathen, which is saying a lot considering Heathen in one of my alltime favorites of his.
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Jan 14, 2016 04:54
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Diet Poison posted:I'm not sure I want the last mostly-done (if that) Bowie tracks to come out. They'd have to be completely recorded and produced with like a note signed by the man himself saying "yes I would release this to the world in this state, just waiting to get some more done to call it an album". Or else to me it'd be like when an author dies and their last unfinished work is finished off by someone else, edited without their feedback, and released. Doesn't sit 100% right with me. I would trust Visconti to do it justice, since he worked with the man from the beginning of his career to the very end. My attitude towards posthumous releases is that as long as they're done with respect, it's fine. There's no perfect solution, otherwise, when people died, stuff would just sit in the vaults forever, unheard. There's no perfect way to honor their intentions, since they may have ended up releasing something very different. Maybe they wouldn't have released those tracks. But on the other hand, would they also want their stuff to not be heard by other people? As I said, I trust Visconti to treat it correctly and to not put something out there that Bowie wouldn't at least approve of.
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Jan 14, 2016 05:09
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Rageaholic Monkey posted:I do, just wasn't a personal favorite for me. The ones I listed are just the ones that had the most profound impact on me/stuck with me the most, some very recently and some for a long time now. it's interesting, because i see the list lacks Station To Station and my immediate reaction is total disbelief, but if anything it just speaks to the breadth of Bowie's material. Really incredible Also I've probably only listened to 4-5 Bowie albums consistently in the past 10 years, only touching on the others very briefly when I first got into him before that. Now I'm revisiting all the albums I've been neglecting, and holy poo poo have I been missing out.
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Jan 14, 2016 05:55
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im the bottlecap on his shoe
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Jan 14, 2016 06:02
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Sharks Eat Bear posted:it's interesting, because i see the list lacks Station To Station and my immediate reaction is total disbelief, but if anything it just speaks to the breadth of Bowie's material. Really incredible It goes to show what an impressive, lengthy catalog he'd built up, and honestly, it made me more able to accept his passing, listening through his entire body of work like that. I'm still not totally okay with it or anything. It's still very sad, and stuff like that new Visconti post punched me right in the gut. But to hear the many albums he put out over the many years he was active...he just had a long, fulfilling career and he explored tons of different ideas, most of which were successful. You aren't able to say that about too many artists when they pass away. And also Blackstar has taken on a new meaning since he passed. It feels like he wrote his own eulogy, which the majority of artists cannot or will not do. He brought his long, storied career to a close on his own terms. I don't know, the circumstances of it are just rather amazing to think about. I'm real sad the guy's gone, but the way he went out was rather extraordinary and kind of beautiful, albeit heartbreaking. Rageaholic fucked around with this message at 06:33 on Jan 14, 2016 |
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Jan 14, 2016 06:29
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MinibarMatchman posted:Agree that Running Gun Blues is loving rancid and much of the album is basically Bowie guesting on a Visconti/Ronson album, though I grew up with that album first so I have some sentiment for it. Width of a Circle was one of his best "epic" pieces until Station To Station blew it, and most of his songs, out of the water. http://www.bowiewonderworld.com/chats/dbchattvmrdb1298.htm Bowie posted:I really did object to the impression given in some articles that I did not write the songs on man who sold ... you only have to check out the chord changes. NO ONE writes chord changes like that  triple sulk posted:Lodger is a very underrated album and it's probably due in large part to being so poorly produced. It's bookended by Heroes and Scary Monsters, both of which still sound excellent today/after a remaster (especially Scary Monsters), while there's just a bit of a muffling of sorts that sits on the Lodger tracks. It's really a shame because it's the second best of the three Berlin albums behind Low, IMO. The German RCA and Ryko (to a lesser extent) sound okay, it's only the 1999 remaster that sounds like digitally chopped garbage
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Jan 14, 2016 07:28
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HorseRenoir posted:In case you want to feel even more bummed out, last week Bowie was writing songs for another album because he thought he had a few more months to live Well, writing is not recording. If the vocals were not recorded (presuming the songs weren't instrumental) then there may not be much to work with. If they were partially recorded with DB vocals then I would be interested but I couldn't get excited about a DB album with guest vocals.Incidentally, are there any cover versions of Bowie songs that come close to equalling the original? I know of Nirvana's The Man Who Sold The World but nothing else. The posthumous stuff could go multiple routes. The two Beatles tracks (vocals and basic instrumentation done, harmonies and extra instrumentation added) were ok but skippable, the Freddie Mercury/Queen stuff was also ok. On the other hand, the Hendrix material was vast and in all states of production/completion and it contains some really great stuff. Any other examples?
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Jan 14, 2016 09:24
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Josef K. Sourdust posted:Incidentally, are there any cover versions of Bowie songs that come close to equalling the original? I know of Nirvana's The Man Who Sold The World but nothing else. I'm quite partial to The Bad Plus's Life on Mars cover, but it's a prog jazz instrumental. Can't think of any worthwhile straightforward covers. Maybe that astronaut singing Space Oddity on the space station?
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Jan 14, 2016 09:38
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Josef K. Sourdust posted:Incidentally, are there any cover versions of Bowie songs that come close to equalling the original? I know of Nirvana's The Man Who Sold The World but nothing else. There's a couple of live videos of Of Montreal and Janelle Monae[ covering Moonage Daydream that I'm pretty fond of.
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Jan 14, 2016 10:11
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Rageaholic Monkey posted:Right? Station's a good album, just didn't totally do it for me all the way through on this listen like the others on the list did. But that could change in the future. Maybe I'll end up loving Station more than one of those albums on my list later on. For covers, try Melvins and JG Thirlwell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pabmB-2SFsA
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Jan 14, 2016 14:00
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Cheesus posted:The "problem" with Station To Station is the song Station To Station. It's such an amazing song that it's an opener and a closer. Yeah the rest of the album is quite good but it never reaches the high of the first track again so it feels "top heavy". But the solution is to just listen to Station to Station again at the end 
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Jan 14, 2016 14:15
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I don't usually go for the Magnetic Fields but their cover of Heroes is really good. In terms of universal recognition for David Bowie covers I'd think the only thing that kind of comes close is something like All The Young Dudes but that's a pretty different situation than "Nirvana covers a David Bowie song 20 years later". For weird Bowie-tangential things, Mick Ronson's solo work is kind of like stumbling onto lost Ziggy outtakes; the quality's really inconsistent but I like Growing Up and I'm Fine, which I'm pretty sure was a cast-off Bowie track. e: Now that I've cheated and poked around Spotify for Bowie covers, the M. Ward cover of Let's Dance is also pretty alright (and apparently something like the song was before Bowie brought it into the studio?), if a little long for my tastes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbxQ9bvdZgU Cockblocktopus fucked around with this message at 14:18 on Jan 14, 2016 |
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Jan 14, 2016 14:15
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Earwicker posted:Yeah the rest of the album is quite good but it never reaches the high of the first track again so it feels "top heavy". But the solution is to just listen to Station to Station again at the end Or if you have the old Rykodisc green case version, you get to listen to Wild is the Wind and Stay again
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Jan 14, 2016 14:55
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Cheesus posted:The "problem" with Station To Station is the song Station To Station. It's such an amazing song that it's an opener and a closer.
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Jan 14, 2016 15:00
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cptn_dr posted:There's a couple of live videos of Of Montreal and Janelle Monae[ covering Moonage Daydream that I'm pretty fond of. Did she ever do a full cover of Heroes or was that just a bit for a commercial? I also saw Ween do Let's Dance at Lollapalooza a few years ago: https://youtube.com/watch?v=qqqH_u5mmQU
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Jan 14, 2016 15:02
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Rageaholic Monkey posted:Exactly. The title track is so rad, but then the rest of the album didn't stick with me nearly as much. I don't think there's a bad song on it. I probably don't need to hear Golden Years again, but you can't say it's not a great single. They're all great songs, although I think I like what he did with Stay on the Hours tour better than the album version, if you can dig up a bootleg. I think it was Hours tour at least.
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Jan 14, 2016 15:04
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Josef K. Sourdust posted:Incidentally, are there any cover versions of Bowie songs that come close to equalling the original? I know of Nirvana's The Man Who Sold The World but nothing else. Jessica Lange did a pretty good Life on Mars? cover for American Horror Story: Freak Show
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Jan 14, 2016 15:07
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Phish did a too on the nose and not that good cover at the Clifford Ball 20 years ago holy poo poo that was a long time ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC1Ix-4X7lg
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Jan 14, 2016 15:16
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BigFactory posted:I don't think there's a bad song on it. I probably don't need to hear Golden Years again, but you can't say it's not a great single. They're all great songs, although I think I like what he did with Stay on the Hours tour better than the album version, if you can dig up a bootleg. I think it was Hours tour at least.
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Jan 14, 2016 15:24
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Henchman of Santa posted:Did she ever do a full cover of Heroes or was that just a bit for a commercial? Full version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HS6Jh3O6r4
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Jan 14, 2016 15:43
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I'm sure Flight of the Conchord's "Bowie" song has been mentioned before but yesterday Jemaine wrote an article for a New Zealand site that's pretty sweet about how much they idolized him and how writing that song came about. I had no idea they had actually tried to get him to play himself on the show. http://thespinoff.co.nz/13-01-2016/david-bowie-the-man-we-idolised-imitated-and-failed-to-get-on-our-show/
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Jan 14, 2016 16:27
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Josef K. Sourdust posted:Incidentally, are there any cover versions of Bowie songs that come close to equalling the original? I know of Nirvana's The Man Who Sold The World but nothing else. I don't think it tops the original but Anna Calvi's cover of Lady Grinning Soul is really good https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwyN4PrMFH0
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Jan 14, 2016 16:56
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BigFactory posted:Phish did a too on the nose and not that good cover at the Clifford Ball 20 years ago holy poo poo that was a long time ago. of all the Bowie songs phish could have picked, *those* were the vocals they thought they should try?! yeesh
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Jan 14, 2016 16:59
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BigFactory posted:Phish did a too on the nose and not that good cover at the Clifford Ball 20 years ago holy poo poo that was a long time ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC1Ix-4X7lg wow thats awful even for phish
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Jan 14, 2016 17:03
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Earwicker posted:wow thats awful even for phish Yeah it's bad. I thought that whole weekend stunk.
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Jan 14, 2016 17:53
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I like when covers aren't slavish imitations, especially when in the case of Bowie they won't really approach the original. Subsequently my favorite Bowie cover might this A Place to Bury Strangers cover of Suffragette City: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynPoAlUJe-A On that same note I also really love that JG Thirlwell/Melvins cover of Station to Station.
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Jan 14, 2016 17:55
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