Ive been weary of davids more recent albums for a while now but I thought I would give this one a listen and I love it its a great album.


[Edited 9/10/08 6:33am]

Too bad it could remain his last.

I really like Days and Bring me the disco king

it's okay. i think it's one of his less catchy albums, but it has its moments. i'll be sad if this turns out to be the last album of his career.

why would it turn out to be the last album of his carreer?

I think he relies too much on his hard core fan base.
his beautiful voice etc.

I think his last really good album must have been "hours"

Rightly said:

why do you say that?

"I pray you'll soothe, my sorry soul,
All the days of my life (all the days of my life)..."

I love that song so much.

christopherlala said:

Me 2

I love Reality. Heathen is also a top album, nothing else in his 'recent' catalogue is upto much.

andymacfunky said:

huh. i think reality is the weakest album he released since "black tie white noise", but then again i know a lot of people think that's a great album too.

Anxiety said:

I agree with you. Reality sucks. I hope it's not his last.

Shapeshifter said:

actually, with time i think 'reality' gets more and more tolerable to me, but i think a lot of that is just me being afraid he won't record another album and as a result, trying my hardest to make the best out of that album.

i will say there are maybe 3 or 4 songs from 'reality' that i find moderately to substantially enjoyable. as far as the stuff i don't like on the album, i don't think it's painful. just kinda boring and cheesy.

Some of the songs are good, 'Bring me the disco king' of course is amazing, expecially live, but too much seems unfinished. Like it really has potential but then doesn't live up to it. 'Looking for water', for example, starts out promising and then gets really dull.

It cannot be his last album. There cannot be a last album from David Bowie at all.

calldapplwondery83 said:

"disco king" is nice...i really did appreciate hearing it performed live.

is "looking for water" what they used for the intro cartoon during the reality tour shows? i forget...i love that snippet of music, though i wish the rest of the song was as good.

as much as i love the version of "pablo picasso" from the "repo man" soundtrack, i really wish bowie hadn't recorded a totally over-produced, glossed-out cover version. it didn't work for me at all. in fact, i have an easier time tolerating the george harrison cover, even though it sounds like it should have been on the "labyrinth" soundtrack.

It's pretty good, but Heathen is the best of his post Scary Monsters work.

TRON said:

i love heathen, though i have an affinity for all his albums from 'buddha of suburbia' through 'heathen'.

i will argue until i'm blue in the face that 'buddha' is bowie's most criminally underrated album, even moreso than 'low'. not that 'low' is less brilliant, but it's finally gotten the accolades it deserves. most people don't even know 'buddha of suburbia' exists.

Anxiety said:

Oh yes, I whole-heartedly agree. I'll bookend ya by adding that I love Black Tie and like Reality for the most part too. I don't think he made a stinker during that decade from '93-'03. His 90's work has gotten a ton of mileage in my home.

Speaking of Buddha, "Dead Against It", "Untitled" and "Ian Fish" are all among my favorite Bowie songs.

I wish he would've followed through on his claims of trying to make another soul record right after Reality was in the can. He was supposedly working on it with Visconti and Nile Rodgers. If he could've taken the aesthetic he had developed with Visconti from Heathen and applied it to another soul record, I think that would've been a really fitting way for him to bow out.

TRON said:

this is an obvious wish for me but i would love it if bowie did a soul/jazz album with david lynch and angelo badalamenti. there have been a couple of close scrapes in the past (the 'lost highway' soundtrack and the red hot + gershwin comp), but a full on album? that would be a little delicious, and i think a nice fit for his age and his asthetic.

Anxiety said:

And don't forget Fire Walk With Me. Yeah, I can see that being a nice fit.

Reality was a great way for him to return to a classicist sound yet still seem young, vital and rocking. It almost seems out of place in his catelogue though, like it should've come after Earthling but before hours... and Heathen. Heathen seems much more like 'the last album'.

I'd love to see him retire with something more poignant and subtle.

wow, lots of Bowie threads today. y'all are going to make me abort this Prince kick I've been on for the first time in almost a year by making me want to immerse myself in Bowie, for whom it's been even longer!



but as for Reality... it's good. I like it. It's a bet of a step-down in overall quality and consistency from Heathen (which I think is very close to a masterpiece and one of his best albums ever), but it is nice to hear him a little more relaxed. and a little more cheery. and a little more energetic, after after the previous two albums, which were somewhat somber and insulated.

I liked it a lot but it pales in comparison to "Heathen", which to me is the best album of the decade. It's more fun and loose, I guess. I wonder what the hold up is with a new album....five years. I know he's had health set backs. I hope he is Ok and gets back into gear soon.

VinnyM27 said:

i haven't even heard rumblings about him WANTING to go back into the studio.

whenever people talk about some new movie or tv show he's appearing on, they always go out of their way to talk about how "healthy looking" david is. not to think the worst, but those comments always scare me.

Anxiety said:

well he just churns the stuff out mechanically
and peeps still buy it, based on his reputation or for some sentimental nostalgic reason

in the past of course he was amazing. I hate the idea that creative energy has a date of expiration. But it is a powerful idea.
consider the output of at iggy pop. Now he was once great as a solo artist.
lust 4 life
soldier
and my personal favourite would be Zombie Birdhouse

when did he last put anything good out?

I hope Bowie does pull out the stops b4 the final curtain falls

Rightly said:

i thought heathen was a great album.

and even though reality is not a favorite by far, i thought the tour was incredible and his voice/performance was top notch.

i think he slipped for a while in the 80s, but came back strong in the 90s. and of course, even if you have a creative comeback, it's never going to be as great as the first time you wowed everyone. i didn't expect his later output to be the next "low" or "station to station". if so, then yeah, i would have hated everything he did in the 90s.

i just wanted him to sound inspired again - and on everything from "buddha" through "heathen", he sounds like he cares about what he's doing again. "reality" sounds more like he's just having a good time, which i don't think translates into a great album, but sometimes if i'm in the mood, i will admit the fun rubs off.

I always thought "Reality" was just a more light-hearted companion album to "Heathen", and essentially something he could release to accompany the world tour he was about to embark on. A bit more work into it and you could have had a record the same quality as the previous one, but it's alright as it is. I think it's atill a lot better than Black Tie, "White Noise" for example.

Bowie was having a really good run songwriting-wise during that time and could pull off the ones on Reality probably really quick (the two new tracks on the bonus disc are okay too). What saves the record for me are the great sounds and 70s-type instrumentation used on it - Bowie and Visconti really did realize it was time to move away from all the too digital-sounding shit that was still characterizing most production standards in 2002-2003 (everybody's totally into vintage instrumentation now though). For example, the guitar part you can hear on the chorus on "New Killer Star" is as classic Bowie it gets. I do agree though that "Pablo Picasso" is a bit over-produced, but it's one of the best tracks on the record for me.

Anyway, thanks for the tip. I'm going to listen to "Reality" next, it's been a while.

I thought he didn't write most of the songs on Heathen

I really like that album
Did he write those tunes on it?

?

Bowie has often done a cover or two (or three) on his album releases, but he has never really had any hired songwriters write songs for him.

Rightly said:

other than a few covers (neil young, pixies, stardust cowboy), yes. he and his band wrote the album. he wrote all the lyrics on the non-cover tracks.

Anxiety said:

cactus sounds like a cover
what are the other covers
and which are his?