I know many a Bowie fan will disagree with me, but I've always liked a good deal of songs from the two Tin Machine albums (we won't mention TM Live: Oy Vey Baby on this thread...you've been warned!). They are weak albums overall, due to many clunkers and the terrible decision to let Hunt Sales sing two tracks on TM2. But some individual songs from each are forgotten treasures! If one were to make a CD compilation, it could be the lost magical Bowie album...

Now, his basic look during that time is a different matter altogether...

Tin Machine
Under The God
Heaven's In Here
You Belong In Rock n Roll
Baby Universal
Goodbye Mr. Ed

all great, great songs!

"baby can dance" was my absolute favorite from this bowie time period.

$.02.

--gm--

TRON said:

Bus Stop is great, too. As is I Can't Read.

The first Tin Machine album is a very good companion for "Reality", as it's very "thrusty" (as Bowie calls his new album), and I've noticed TM has been getting a lot of attention lately, maybe for just this reason?

Anxiety said:

Perhaps...hmm...

Heaven's In Here
Tin Machine
Under The God
Prisoner Of Love
I Can't Read
Baby Universal
You Belong In Rock & Roll
Amlapura
Goodbye Mr. ed



those are the ones i like... off the top of my head, anyway. haven't listened to the albums themselves in a very long time, but these are the ones i always pick out first if i'm compiling a CD from the era.

Something about the very concept of Tin Machine that's always given me a certain sense of light ennui...I just never found it a very interesting idea, and I think that colored the way I listened to the music. A week or so ago was the first time I listened to the album and enjoyed it, and even then, there were some clunkers. I got to know "I Can't Read" from the Ice Storm soundtrack/50th Birthday broadcast, for the longest time not even remembering I already owned the original version of the song on the first Tin Machine album...

Anxiety said:

I think a lot of the original distaste for Tin Machine is that there were 2 camps of Bowie fans, each expecting something different than what materialized. It was an instant of pleasing none of the fans.

One camp was the 80's fan, who was into the mega-hits from Let's Dance, and the other various singles of varying degrees of success and quality from the 80's. Even they thought Never Let Me Down sucked and that he needed to put out another great pop album.

The other camp where the ones from the 70's, and were hoping for him to get back to business/basics, which, in some ways he did with Tin Machine. But submerging himself into a "band" setting isn't really the sort of thing people who were longing for Ziggy, the Thin White Duke, or hell, even Jareth, were too keen on.


That, plus the fact that the actual music was nothing like what was going on in either pop or rock radio at the time (it is a bit ahead of its time in some respects; AMG has even mentioned that had the 2 albums come out about 5 years later, the masses would have eaten them up) really put a crimp in the success of Tin Machine.


I do like several of the songs. I often think "oh, it's just Tin Machine" totally dismissing it as a side project, along the lines of an NPG-centered album. But then sometimes, I feel like it was the beginnings of his return to form, him trying something different and freeing himself of the 80's crap and the 70's baggage by going a completely different direction. Of course, the real sparks started wiht BTWN, and picked up with Outside and Earthling, but I think the match was lit with Tin Machine, in getting him headed in the right direction. Or just ANY direction.

My first "bowie" album was tin machine I. It got me into his music, so it can't be that bad.

Second, I bought "hunky dory". Then I thought, wow!

AaronMaximus said:

I'll buy all that...I think Tin Machine was a return to Bowie having FUN with making music again, though I can't help but think he was still in a bit of a creative funk and wanting to lose himself in a band situation, where there'd be less creative pressure on him because he'd just be "one of the boys" (despite the fact that he's David Fucking Bowie).

A lot of people are down on Black Tie White Noise - I think it's a fairly decent album...kind of poncey after all the axe-grinding on the Tin Machine albums, but also very heartfelt as it was partially an album celebrating his new marriage and I've read accounts detailing just how hard he worked on this project.

I think it was with The Buddha of Suburbia soundtrack that Bowie really got his melodic/experimental groove back. He went all over the place on that one, with no real boundaries or rules, and with great results. I think it's a true hidden gem of his 90s material, and a true return to form for his material.

there are some damn good tracks on both Tin Machine CDS, especially You Belong in Rock and Roll and I Can't Read

Tin Machine wasn't all bad. In fact, coming after "Tonight", "Never Let Me Down" and the terrible "Glass Spider" tour it was a real breath of fresh air. "I Can't Read", "Amazing", "Baby Universal", "Heaven's In Here" and a few others from both albums were great to good songs. If only he'd combined the best bits of both and released them as a single album instead ...

I think a lot of the resistance to Tin Machine has to do with the resistance of a LOT of his work post-80's.


It seems like ever 2 albums, he has some radical change in direction. The first album of a pair often gets (at least at the time of release) an "oh my god, what is this crap?" reaction.

For example, the first Tin Machine was a real headscratcher for critics and fans alike. They weren't prepared for it. The second Tin Machine, while in retrospect is viewed as the lesser of the 2, didn't get such a huge negative reaction, because people knew what to expect.


The reviews of BTWN in '93 ranged from negative to lukewarm, but now is often seen as the point where he got on the comeback trail. People had just gotten used to him "rocking out" with Tin Machine, and he comes along with a soul record, produced by Mr Nile "Let's Dance" Rogers, which at first reaction, might be a bleak prospect for those dreading a return to the blandness of everything that followed the Nile Rogers album the first time around. It was with this album, though, that he got back on track writing good songs, and having a bit of style in the music and image. Buddha of Suburbia, the follow up, is actually kind of 2 different records. The SONG-songs are a mixture of the best elements of BTWN and Tin Machine, while the other half truly shows a good deal of creativity and pointed the way toward Outside, while still being accessible.


Upon the release of Outside, critics and fans scratched their heads again. Even though this album is often cited now as one of his last greats by his internet fans, at the time of release, the critics nailed it. It was Bowing throwing himself very much into the hip industrial-tinged sound of the mid 90's, exemplified best by Trent Reznor. I recall this album pretty much being considered bandwagon-jumping exercise and pandering. It didn't get great reviews, and it wasn't considered important or interesting at all. When Earthling came out, people knew what to expect, and although it's in a different style than Outside, it was still in the realm of "techno" (for lack of a better all-encompasing term) with an industrial and drum n bass foundation. Because people had gotten used to where he was going with his music (and because Earthling left the baggage of the convoluted "concept album" and the confusing "story" segues of Outside behind), the reaction, not surprisingly, was more positive.


Just when people were starting to love the "electronica" (again, for lack of a better word) Bowie, he comes out with Hours. A very depressed, sleepy, end-of-the-millenium, middle-aged-man-reminiscence album. Many fans hated this album (and still do), because although there are slight influences from the previous two albums throughout Hours, it is a radical change in tone and sound. Then came Heathen, which, for the the most part, is universally loved. They'd gotten used to sleepy/depressed/negative Bowie, and were ready for Heathen.


Reality... it's hard to say what this one is. Is it a continuation in the vein of Hours and Heathen? Or is it the beginning of something new? I can see it either way. It is a nice companion to Heathen, but if it's a continuation, then it's a much more accessible and upbeat sibling to the previous two albums. Some of the fan reaction on the Bowie boards leads me to believe that it's the beginning of a new pairing, though. Initial response to this was almost 75% negative among the chattering internet fans. So maybe they'll be prepared for the next one, now that he's softened up the field for this type of vibe.