GangstaFam said:

I love Hours

GangstaFam said:

I have to agree... You Belong in Rock 'n Roll is top notch. I like One Shot as well. But most of the album is hideous.

Anx said:

If you put both Tin Machine studio albums in the context of Buddha and Outside, they make perfect sense. The second Tin Machine album is a lot more interesting to listen to than Tonight - sure, there's a high crap to gold ratio on the album, but at least he sounds like he's engaged in the album, as opposed to the bit part player lending his various crooner imitations to most of Tonight.

GangstaFam said:

i like hours very much.

Shapeshifter said:

i like Tin Machine 2 a great deal. there are 4 tracks on it that usually make it to comps for me.

KidOmega said:

It's a tight little album and it goes really well with the last 2.

GangstaFam said:

see, that's one of the major things i like about hours...it compliments outside and earthling so well, even though the three albums are pretty different from each other. those three certainly brought me the same sense of enjoyment that i got when i discovered the so-called 'berlin trilogy' for the first time, only i was around to hear this second trio as they were released. hours may not be bowie's most exciting album, but i can certainly feel his enthusiasm throughout. i wish it were more consistently along the lines of 'seven' and 'survive' - mellow, jangly, acoustic, melancholy - those songs almost brought me full circle with some of my favorite sounds from 'hunky dory'.

Anx said:

It's a strange mixture of styles and eras.

On the one hand you have something totally space-age and modern like "New Angels of Promise" or "The Dreamers". On the other you find him in full-on singer-songwriter bloom with the songs you mentioned. He's got the requisite Mike Garson piano ballad with "Something in the Air" and the Berlin styled instrumental "Brilliant Adventure". And for some reason "Thursday's Child" has always reminded me of a world-weary, aged take on "Win".

You could tell he was starting to get comfortable with his past and embrace his older work. A lot of 'hours' is like a nostalgic look back on his life and work and really set the stage for his full on classicist renaissance with "Heathen" and "Reality". It even sounds like it could've been produced by Visconti in places.

Something about "hours" is really gnarled and ornery, but something about it is totally familiar and sweet too. It reminds me of the feeling of Advil kicking in to take your headache away.

GangstaFam said:

it's a very sad, kind of angry album made by a very happy man back in touch with his musical mojo. it's a great balance in my opinion, though my only issue with it is i feel he was in TOO comfortable a place and that the album could have been a little more rickety and raw. but when you're freakin' DAVID BOWIE, it's gotta be near impossible to go back to basics. i really like some of the demo versions from that album, that were made available on the singles. i wish the album sounded more like the demos.

Anx said:

Which is what the man himself said about "Loving The Alien".

GangstaFam said:

Now, this is what I call a great album review - something which makes you want to go back and listen to it again. Which I now am. It's better than "Reality", his second worst album.

KidOmega said:

A good assessment of a flawed album. Their cover of Roxy Music's "If There s Something" should be taken out and shot.

I like 'hours' very much, too.Holds a special place anyway because it was my first Bowie album. 'Thursday's Child' is incredible, I absolutely love that song. Great concept for a video too and he looks good in it.

Shapeshifter said:

Thanks!

Anx said:

eh. Seven is my least favorite on the album. in fact, one of my least favorite songs by him.

KidOmega said:

But the "Marius de Vries Mix" is so great!

I hardly know Tonight aside from a few singles. They're pleasant enough. As for the other albums mentioned in this thread, let me represent my feelings through the wonderful gift of emoticon:

Outside:
Earthling:
Hours:
Heathen:
Reality:

KidOmega said:

good to know!

Shapeshifter said:

I don't know if I could handle hearing that.

Moonbeam said:

I like the emoticon reviews. I'll give it a try.

Outside:
Earthling:
Hours:
Heathen:
Reality:

Moonbeam said:

I wanna hear his cover of "Ladytron" from Pin Ups.

GangstaFam said:

but it's also got those horrible Beck mixes

KidOmega said:

I think one of them is decent. Can't remember which one though.

"Tonight" was apparently a lot rawer in the demo stage and could have been a pretty damn good piece of work had not the 80s production schmaltz seeped in so strongly. Of course, most of the songs were really well-written (many of them already having been recorded on some other form), it's just the sounds that mar the end-product.I think Bowie really realized he gave away too good songs for Iggy and wanted to claim them for himself with this effort, but really the optimal versions would be somewhere between the earlier Iggy's cuts and these Bowie's own ones. Think of the live version of "China Girl" that he first started to play sometime around the late 90s, it's a mixture of both and works so great because of that.

But I really, really do love his vocals on "God Only Knows". In fact, "Tonight" is the kind of album that I thoroughly enjoy listening from time to time, because even if it's not that terribly good as bonafide art, it has definitely traces of really good artistry that just needs to be dug up by the listener. As such I think it's challening music in its own peculiar way.

novabrkr said:

absolutely. and i'd love to hear the raw/demo version, because i always want to like this album moreso than it allows me to like it. i think the main problem was the production, coupled with the bloat of megastardom leading to a bit of indifference that wasn't a problem during bowie's 70s heyday, when he had more cult cred and was encouraged to go more experimental routes. he was a celebrity at this point, and he made a celebrity pop album.

underneath all the bloat is what i think are a collection of really fine possibilities, and i agree - the vocals on 'god only knows' are to die for.