With "Reality" coming out on CD, Special Edition 2-CD, and SACD..."Scary Monsters," "Ziggy Stardust," and "Let's Dance" coming out on SACD...the 3-disc "Black Tie White Noise" coming out SOMETIME in 2004 in the US...new reissues of "Outside," "Earthling," "...hours," "Tin Machine II," "Buddha of Suburbia," "Sound + Vision" box set...etc...


I am getting confused! Can someone please provide a nice summary of upcoming Bowie releases/re-releases, including (US) release dates???

Too many goddamn reissues...I'm happy to buy them if they're improvements, but fuck this is confusing!

Let me see what I can do.

KingSausage said:

About fucking time. These haven't been available in the UK for ages.

new releases of "outside, earthling hours" were scheduled later this year, but bowinet has announced at "sospended proget".probably they will be packed in a box set without the bonus tracks promised..
btwn riediction will be released 1 september 2003 in europe, so you can get an import copy soon (but you'l need a multistandard dvd for the bonus cd or..wait)
the sound+vision box is waited for october-november
15 september will be released in europe a dvd with some german dates of the heathen tour..
and still more to come...

Same problem here. I kind of 'discovered' Bowie with the 'Heathen' album and his back-catalouge is so vast that I am finding it quite bewildering.

Every time I visit HMV here in the UK, there seems to be another Reissue. Today, I was confronted with a box-set of 'Black Tie, White Noise' which includes 2 CD's and a DVD for £18. It looks pretty good.

A couple of months ago however, I purchased 'Hours' and was not as impressed with it. I'm guessing this album was just a bit of a wobble ...?

KingSausage said:

I bought it yesterday here in Holland, paid about $30...
Just buy the import instead of waiting for it in the US, you won't be disappointed...

Neversin.

Neversin said:

Can the bonus DVD be played in the US???

Mr7 said:

'...hours' was largely dung. A few great songs, but Bowie just sounds bored. Pick up "Outside" or "Earthling" if you want to be blown away by '90s Bowie!

KingSausage said:

Don't know... But doesn't everybody have a region-free DVD player by now?

Neversin.

I don't understand the dislike of 'hours...' at all. It's fresh, it rocks, it's classic but doesn't stay in the past, and most of the songs are tight. 'Seven' is the only one that doesn't really take off for me, but the Beck remix remedies that. What's not to love?

hours is a very good album, heathen a deep piece of art..but a lot of bowie's fans believe he finished with ziggy stardust..

I never liked "...hours." It's not as bad as, say, Never Let Me Down, but I just find it boring. His voice sounds tired and warbly...the music largely drags along...songs like "Pretty Things are Going to Hell" just sound like he's trying too hard...too many lame effects are used on his voice throughout...

TRON said:

I don't hate "hours...", but it's far from one of my favorite Bowie albums. Ironically, "Seven" is my favorite track from that album, along with "Survive" and "Something In The Air"...the whole album sounds a bit complacent and uninspired, but not in the depressing ways you can pick out from listening to "Never Let Me Down". I always think of "hours..." as being an album where a happy man tries unsuccessfully to write an album of songs about being an unhappy man. Most of all, I just think he was having fun making music and not really caring how it was received.

The Beck mix is pretty dang tasty.

The KS Official Review of "...hours"

• Thursday's Child: Good shit. Easily my favorite song on the album, and a fantastic video to boot.
  
• Something In The Air: Bowie sounds like he's falling asleep singing this crap. The song isn't as bad as Glass Spider or Rubber Band, but it's pretty ineffectual. Compare it to ANYTHING from Earthling, and there's just a level of excitement missing. What should have been missing are those god-awful effects on his voice. Barf!
  
• Survive: A pretty good song, but a bit tame. Nothing really all that special, considering that it's Bowie. It would be nothing but filler on any of his classic albums.
  
• If I'm Dreaming My Life: I've always liked this one.
  
• Seven: Good song. Again, nothing too special. Bowie should, however, get some sort of award for Laziest Chorus Ever. Hearing a loud acoustic guitar on a Bowie album in 1999 was just so refreshing though...
  
• What's Really Happening: Starts off well, but really goes nowhere. After about a minute, you start to really wonder "What's really happening?"
  
• The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell: This song makes my balls itch. It's terrible. It's cheesy...cringe-inducing. Not just for the awful voice effects again, but the way-too-forced rockin' out punk sound he was trying to capture here. I'll blame it on Reeves! The fact that it was featured in that cinematic lump of dung that was Stigmata pretty much says it all. Outside and Earthling were full of hardcore material; why does this song always sound so forced and self-conscious?
  
• New Angels Of Promise: Total filler. This might even put me to sleep more quickly than Star Trek IV!
  
• Brilliant Adventure: Decent enough within the context of "...hours" but relative poop when heard in the middle of the "All Saints" instrumental compilation. Listen to the end of "Low," and then this song. 'Nuff said!
  
• The Dreamers: I honestly can't even remember this song. I'm a Bowie fiend; I listen to him constantly. And I cannot for the life of me remember this one. That, in a nutshell, is the fate of "...hours." You might remember, you might not. Listen to Heathen instead.
  

KingSausage said:

I LOVE these 2 songs. 2 of the best on the album if you ask me.

But I agree. "Heathen" is the best of the new Bowie. It's one that can compete with the best of his classic stuff.

TRON said:

Really? Can you describe what you fancy about them, so that I might perhaps take another listen? Maybe I'm missing something. Bowie's worth another shot!

TRON said:

KingSausage said:

"New Angels Of Promise" has those awesome synth flute sounds are really complex chord changes. When it switches into the "suspicious minds...didn't see it coming," I get really excited. And the harmonies are awesome. Another sci-fi classic from a career full of them.

"The Dreamers" is just amazing. I don't know why any fan wouldn't like it. The funky, chunky guitar figures, the message of the song, the change to "So it goes..." at the end. The song is full of surprises. And when his voice gets distorted and he yells "SHALLOW MAN!" Ahh! Give it another try. To me, that album paves the way for Heathen. Something classic Bowie without trying on a new style. It takes everything that he's good at and fuses it without sounding retro or forced. A mature album from a fully accomplished artist. Heathen just builds on this with Visconti's obvious sonic textures.

TRON said:

Thanks!

Just wanted to add something about "Hours." I think "Something In the Air" is an incredible song. The track has ALOT of personal relevance for me, particularly it's theme about leaving a relationship while still loving the person.

"Abracadoo, I lose you..."

Good stuff!

Are there Bowie fans that say that his last great album was whatever? You know, like some say with Prince and Lovesexy.

he's not like prince..he still knows how to make fans happy..heathen was a great album..and itwas just a year a ago!

calldapplwondery83 said:

There are some. They usually reference Scary Monsters. Although that is a GREAT album, Bowie has had many terrific ones since, too...

wait... what?


BTWN *is* coming out in the US in 2004?

and Tin Machine 2 is as well?


hmmm! excellent!

Mr7 said:

i really love "hours.." it's the first Bowie album I bought as a fan. it had just come out.

as for its quality, i think it's great. in retrospect, to me, it's a precursor for Heathen. it's Bowie incorporating all that he is and has been into a millenium-closing retro/introspective album, that sounds like classic Bowie, but like nothing he'd ever actually done before. i think Heathen succeded better at that task, but "hours..." is lovely.

KingSausage said:

to me, though, Outside and Earthling are Bowie trying too hard (which is what you say about Hours).

They're both great albums, but I think they get bogged down in trying way too hard to be cool and relevant, and as much as they succeed, and put him back on the track to getting his head out of his ass (along with BTWN & Buddha), they fall under their own weight as Bowie albums. I like them both, but I feel that Hours & Heathen are what he's been destined for since he started picking up steam in the early 90's. Incorporating all that he is/was into something meaty and classic, while sounding like something completely new from him.

KingSausage said:

well, over @ teenagewildlife, those are the fans that think Hours & Heathen suck and that Outside & Earthling are Bowie's last good albums. don't get me wrong, i like all 4 for what they are, but i have a feeling many of them are young and came to Bowie through some tenuous hope that Outside & Earthling were indicative of the overall scheme of things and they were, at the time, really into NIN and Manson. but that's just my take on it. they seem to like a big concept album over a collection of wonderful songs. more power to 'em, i guess...

AaronSuperior said:

Bowie's last great album is "Outside". The great one before that was "Buddha of Suburbia" (which you ALL should get), and before that you have to go all the way back to "Scary Monsters".

frankjotzo said:

i'm sorry, you're wrong. Bowie's last great album was Heathen, and before that, his last great album was Hours. and before that, his last great album was Outside, and before that, Buddha, and before that BTWN, then you have to go back to Let's Dance, and THEN Scary Monsters. they've gotten increasingly better from album to album from BTWN on.