David Bowie is releasing another album 'Blackstar' on January 8th

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > No Music Discussion > David Bowie is releasing another album 'Blackstar' on January 8th

Mermaid Autopsy: Jun 8, 2001

Sometimes you get embarrassed about poo poo you used to like when you were younger

Some things however are continually confirmed to be eternally cool and good

# ¿ Jan 6, 2016 05:48

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# ¿ Nov 19, 2025 07:44

Mermaid Autopsy: Jun 8, 2001

There is a throughline from Buddha of Suburbia to Outside to Heathen that is the real Bowie

I don't know who that guy on the other albums is, probably some persona

# ¿ Jan 6, 2016 18:22

Mermaid Autopsy: Jun 8, 2001

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.

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.

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

# ¿ Jan 14, 2016 07:28

Mermaid Autopsy: Jun 8, 2001

"Silly Boy Blue" is really loving good and out of place on that first album

The true Bowie listening order goes from Space Oddity through Scary Monsters straight to Buddha of Suburbia, Outside, Heathen and Blackstar

The "other Bowie" of Let's Dance, NLMD, Earthling, and Reality seems to always have been writing what he thought would appeal to contemporary live tour audiences, and suffered accordingly

Hours and TND kind of inhabit a space of comfortable, pleasant mediocrity, where the best tracks are better than just about anything on Reality

The best live tours were 1972-73 and 1995-96; every other one played out more like a rather glossy clockwork Greatest Hits revue

Mermaid Autopsy fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Jan 18, 2016

# ¿ Jan 18, 2016 02:26

Mermaid Autopsy: Jun 8, 2001

^^ Get an original RCA pressing; they used better tapes

Cemetry Gator posted:

Let's Dance is pretty good overall. But after that was a huge album, he just tried to stay in that vein since that was his first huge album in America where it seemed like every single hit big.

There's a lot of subversive stuff on that album, like Modern Love, which beneath the pop gloss is a pretty dark song. And some awesome sax work on the outro.

He gets credit, I guess, for trying to work against the New Wave kids with their synthesizers by making an album completely with real instruments

And the Serious Moonlight tour has, on paper, one of the best setlists while in practice it's Bowie mutilating his own songs by dumping Borneo horns over everything in a more cynical iteration of his David Live crooner persona

As for the Heathen tour, well, maybe you had to be there

# ¿ Jan 19, 2016 02:09

Mermaid Autopsy: Jun 8, 2001

BigFactory posted:

So the early European leg of the 95 tour was pretty rad with lots of Lodger and Scary Monsters songs, but by the time it got to the States with NIN it's half songs from Outside in a short split bill. Which is a great concert if you include both bills, but not the best Bowie concert.

Vs. Heathen tour where you had about 7 songs from that album, 2 of which are pretty interesting covers, and a much longer setlist in general, with room to throw in more hits, but it also had 3 songs from Low and other good covers. If you go through and look deeper, that second leg of the tour when he was playing summer sheds back in the states was lovely. The first leg and the European run was amazing, though. Look at this show from the Hammersmith Apollo:

I like Heathen and Outside for different reasons, but they're both good. If Outside was your favorite Bowie album, I guess I can see liking the 95/96 tour better, because it's the only one that showcased that material. I've got a tape of the boston show from the Heathen tour, if I can dig it up maybe I'll upload it somewhere.

Really, it's just a matter that I think Outside Tour had the best backing band, you needed Carlos there to keep the Reever in check --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAblQAS1nuQ

On the Heathen tour, the band is just kind of there, I dunno, I don't want to say it's bad necessarily

# ¿ Jan 19, 2016 21:29

Mermaid Autopsy: Jun 8, 2001

The Sweet Hereafter posted:

I did check out what was available on eBay but secondhand prices are understandably high right now. Are the RCA pressings really that superior that it's worth risking buying a secondhand copy somewhere? I know my local record shops are near enough sold out of Bowie so I'm not expecting to be able to actually see a copy before I buy it any time soon.

I think I had, like, some bargain bin RCA pressing that I got for a dollar, and it still sounded better than any of the CD's. Ask the people on Stevehoffman.tv or wherever and they would probably tell you to find some super-rare UK pressing with the loud mix of "Starman," but they all sound surprisingly good.

I can vouch for this one, RCA AYL1-3843: http://www.discogs.com/David-Bowie-The-Rise-And-Fall-Of-Ziggy-Stardust-And-The-Spiders-From-Mars/release/1139519

Mermaid Autopsy fucked around with this message at 23:29 on Jan 19, 2016

# ¿ Jan 19, 2016 23:26

Mermaid Autopsy: Jun 8, 2001

HerzogZwo posted:

I think it's pretty telling that the director of the videos shared a crucial interest with Bowie: Aleister Crowley.

Now I know the ISIS he was talking about (to great saxophonist, but apparent doofus, Donny McCaslin) was the Egyptian goddess Isis (linked with funerary rites, motherhood, protection, and magic), not the other stupid ISIS.

Picnic Princess posted:

The more I watch Lazarus, the sadder it gets. The woman from Blackstar who appears before the cult and accepts the jeweled skull emerging from the wardrobe is obviously Death, coming to claim him. But he's not ready yet, and gets up to write one last album. But she's always there, waiting. His legacy is the jeweled skull, now sitting on his desk. He eventually succumbs and retreats into the wardrobe, accepting death. It's brilliant. Utterly depressing, but brilliant. At least, that's my interpretation of it.

"Yes. I remember Ramona. She set herself up as the no-future priestess of the Caucasian Suicide Temple, vomiting out her doctrine of death-as-eternal- party into the empty vessels of Berlin youth. The top floor rooms were the gateways to giving up to the holy ghost."

The Sarah lookalike = Baby Grace
The Priestess = Ramona A. Stone
Button Eyes = the Acolyte
The Trickster = the Minotaur
The Villa of Ormen with a solitary candle = the Laugh Hotel with a diamond friendly (Isis)

What a fantastic death abyss ...

Mermaid Autopsy fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Jan 22, 2016

# ¿ Jan 22, 2016 19:58

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# ¿ Nov 19, 2025 07:44

Mermaid Autopsy: Jun 8, 2001

Marv Hushman posted:

Never let me down never let me down. Actually, I've had blackstar on repeat for 3 days (Google briefly had it for 75% off) and the first observation I made about "I can't give" was that it would be right at home on nlmd. What a great record start to finish, regardless of the circumstances.

Maybe the best trolling Bowie ever did was making The Next Day sound like Tin Machine III and Blackstar sound like Black Tie White Noise + Never Let Me Down just to gently caress with the critics

I think "Girl Loves Me" even shares more than a bit of DNA with "Shining Star (Makin' My Love)"

Mermaid Autopsy fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Jan 26, 2016

# ¿ Jan 26, 2016 03:37

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > No Music Discussion > David Bowie is releasing another album 'Blackstar' on January 8th