» Listings for 2023

1. 2023 Albums Thing 075 - David Bowie “Reality”

   Posted on 9:55am Friday 14th Apr 2023

   “Reality” was released on September 15th 2003, hot on the heels of the “Heathen” tour. What nobody knew at the time was that this was to be the last new David Bowie album release for 10 years. While on the “A Reality Tour” Bowie suffered a heart attack on stage in June 2004 and, after an emergency operation in Germany to fix a blocked artery, withdrew from the stage, the public eye and the recording studio. He took on the role of happily married Dad and to all intents and purposes looked like he had retired from the music business.

   Bowie now had his own record label, ISO, and an agreement with Columbia that they would release his records when he had them ready and not against some rigid company release schedule. Reality was recorded very soon after the “Heathen” tour and with many of the musicians he was working with live (Gail-Ann Dorsey, Mike Garson, Earl Slick, Mark Plati, Gerry Leonard and Sterling Campbell) and with Tony Visconti again producing.

   “Throughout Heathen and Reality he was in such a good place. On the road he had such a blast, smiling all the day, I’d never seen him happier. We had a good run for about four years straight.” Earl Slick: “David Bowie: A Life” Dylan Jones

   “Reality” was recorded at Looking Glass Studios in New York. The idea was to record an album that relied on the musicians and not technology, to make it so Bowie and his band could go out and play it live without relying on banks of synths and sequencers. He wanted a sense of urgency to the music and that comes from people and not machines. It also comes from the environment in which the recordings took place. Bowie had been living in New York for 10 years at this point and the city appears in references throughout the songs. Bowie was keen to explain though that it was not his “New York album“ (the opening lyric on the first song is “See the great white scar, Over Battery Park” and further such NY references litter this album).

   “New York informs it, but it’s not the content of the album. It’s a lot more about New York than I expected it to be, but I would not want it to be considered my New York album. It’s more about the times it was made in.” David Bowie, The Word magazine, October 2003

   “This album is a counterpoint to the idea of a spiritual search. It started off as a random collection of songs – just whatever I was writing at the moment – that express how I feel right now, in this time. But afterwards, reflecting on the work itself, there are recurrent themes – the sense of anxiety about the times that we’re living through and a strong sense of place. It was unwitting, though, because I wasn’t planning on doing that.” David Bowie, Interview magazine, October 2003

   “Reality” contains 11 songs, 9 originals and 2 covers (Jonathan Richman’s “Pablo Picasso” and George Harrison’s “Try Some, Buy Some”). It’s a tougher, more “rock” album than its immediate predecessors, made in the city and sounding of the city. In places “Reality” comes on a bit Indie rock, Bowie had recently covered the Pixies and here he went with Jonathan Richman. “New Killer Star” has a definite Indie feel about it, Side 2’s “Fall Dog Bombs The Moon” has a similar vibe with the loose and low growling guitars driving both along.

   “Never Get Old” must have been one of Bowie’s favourites or regarded as a pivotal song on the album. He performed it on at least 3 appearances on US chat shows to promote the albums release. It featured in his live set through 2003 and 2004 and eventually was sped up and mashed up with “Rebel Rebel” as “Rebel Never Gets Old” (https://youtu.be/_n0_jpyMGvY). It’s a great groove based on a simple, funky guitar riff. “The Loneliest Guy” is a beautiful if unnerving song about one of Bowie’s favourite recurring characters, the loner living apart and on their memories.

   “Days” is a beautiful pop song wrapped around a lyric of great regret and atoning for past and future misdemeanours. “Try Some, Buy Some” is surprisingly good with some unsettling guitar parts running through it. The title track is a full on turn it up to 11 all guitars blazing rocker. We close on “Bring Me The Disco King”, a cool jazzy vibe led by Mike Garson’s piano and subtle brushed drums. It’s not at all representative of the rest of the album but it’s a real winner to my ears.

   I haven’t covered every song, there’s plenty more to discover in here. “Reality” overall sounds very up, optimistic, a result he claimed of becoming a father again. Bowie told Word magazine

   “I want the ultimate feeling after hearing it to be a good feeling. That there is something to be said for our future and it will be a good future”

   One last strange morsel, the cover artwork has been widely criticised by Bowie fans (!). The anime style Bowie on the sleeve was designed by Rex Ray who commented on the image in 2008 “I can’t begin to describe the enormous responsibility of coming up with a hairstyle for David Bowie“. For what it’s worth, I like it.

   Never Get Old - https://youtu.be/7NorNUMoewQ

2. 2023 Albums Thing 074 - David Bowie “Hours…”

   Posted on 9:20am Tuesday 11th Apr 2023

   Bowie’s last album of the 20th century, “Hours…” was 1999’s follow up to “Earthling”. Now, if you’ve already read my thoughts on “Earthling” you’ll know that I think it’s one of Bowie’s very best. “Hours…” subsequently had a lot to live up to. Both “Earthling” and the previous “1. Outside” had been particularly aggressive and experimental records, “Hours…” tempers the aggression and experimentation and sees our hero return to a more personal and dare I say “pop” style. After experimenting with a murderous concept (“1. Outside”) and then going on a hedonistic clubbing bender (“Earthling”) “Hours…” is more of a songwriters album, “songs for my generation” as Bowie described it.

   The songs for “Hours…” sprang from some different avenues. Many, including “The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell”, “New Angels Of Promise”, “The Dreamers” and “Thursdays Child”, were written in Bermuda, where Bowie was living at the time, with Reeves Gabrels (writing with him not living with him). Others were written for a video game Bowie had been asked to contribute music to and appear in, Omikron: The Nomad Soul. Seven songs by Bowie and his virtual band The Dreamers (featuring Gabrels and Gail-Anne Dorsey) that featured in Omikron would find their way onto “Hours…”, “Thursday’s Child”, “Something In The Air”, “Survive”, “Seven”, “The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell”, “New Angels Of Promise” and “The Dreamers”, alongside some instrumentals and songs that would appear later as B-sides. A couple of extra things to note about the songwriting, the whole album was a co-write with Gabrels, something which Bowie had never done before and “What's Really Happening?” has a writing credit for one Alex Grant, a fan who won a competition on BowieNet to finish the lyrics for this song. 

   So the music then, the opening “Thursday’s Child” is a lovely tune based on a lyric about a life redeemed. “Something In The Air” is a nice song but is utterly overshadowed by Reeves Gabrels out of place fret-wanking. Time to get something off my chest, I’ve never understood Bowie’s thing with Gabrels. Tin Machine was a disaster and it always struck me that every time you take notice of Gabrels in a song it’s not because his playing is great it’s because he’s doing something that shouldn’t be there, “Something In The Air” is a prime example. As Mark Edwards wrote in a contemporary review in the Sunday Times

   “Bowie has been capable of writing songs with all the melodic brilliance and lyrical quirkiness of his 70’s peak. Unfortunately, he then lets Gabrels smother them in unnecessary layers of guitar. Possibly Gabrels thinks he is avant-garde. He isn’t. He just makes pointless noise”.

   Anyway I’m glad I got that out there. “Survive” is a beauty, an old style 70’s acoustic ballad with Bowie using his “Cockney Dave” singing voice. Gabrels still manages to stick his nose in where it’s not needed but the song is strong enough to survive it (see what I did there 😉). “If I’m Dreaming My Life” is a bit of a plodder that rocks up for the choruses and features former Rollins Band member Chris Haskett on guitar and fades out on some “Moonage Daydream”-esque guitar noodling.

   After the gentle acoustic strum of “Seven” with its vaguely country slide guitar motif, Side 2 rocks out a little more. “The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell” comes on a little Stooges in style as well as title (and sadly contains yet another wildly out of place Gabrels solo). “New Angels Of Promise” is all heavy and brooding. “Brilliant Adventure” is a short instrumental piece in a similar vein to “Warszawa” and things close out with “The Dreamers” which on initial listens has you thinking he’s resurrected the “Shadow Man” (remember him from “Toy”) but on closer inspection the lyric is “shallow man”. There’s a nice 70’s sounding guitar riff to it and I was going to give Gabrels that one but the he gets all Van Halen to end so…

   “Hours…” is about the songs, no overarching thematic concept, no particular musical style being explored, it’s simply a collection of great songs. Sitting down with it, it feels quite short (47 minutes my digital copy tells me but it feels quicker than that when listening). Possibly because it is mostly about the songs and doesn’t sit at some pivotal juncture in his life or arrived in a way no record had arrived before “Hours…” feels like it gets somewhat overlooked, it certainly was by me for a long time. I shall be taking a lot more notice of it from here on.

   What’s Really Happening - https://youtu.be/1jFTxyYVATw

3. 2023 Albums Thing 073 - David Bowie “The Buddha Of Suburbia”

   Posted on 9:35am Monday 10th Apr 2023

   Is it a soundtrack or is it a Bowie album ? Well, both statements can be true. It is (almost) very obviously a soundtrack, based on music written for the BBC adaptation of Hanif Kureishi’s 1990 novel. But Bowie also regarded it as an album in its own right, saying about it himself

   “However, left to my own devices these same pieces just took on a life of their own in the studio, the narrative and 70s memories providing a textural backdrop in my imagination that manifested as a truly exciting work situation. In short, I took the TV play motifs and restructured them completely except, that is, for the theme song.” David Bowie, The Buddha Of Suburbia sleeve notes

   Bowie’s own website includes it in his discography as a studio album as do many Bowie writers and websites (Nicholas Pegg and The Bowie Bible website for instance). So what is it ? Well…in early 1993 Bowie was interviewed by Hanif Kureishi for a US magazine feature. Kureishi took the opportunity to ask if he could use some of Bowie’s 70’s music in the soundtrack of the forthcoming TV adaptation of his novel and would he like to compose some new pieces for it himself. Bowie’s answer ? “I thought you’d never ask”.

   Around 40 short pieces plus the theme song were prepared by Bowie at Mountain Studio in Switzerland with Kureishi there to oversee things. But once the soundtrack was finished Bowie took these short pieces and extended many into longer works. What was eventually released as the soundtrack to “The Buddha of Suburbia” was effectively a new David Bowie album

   “The album itself only got one review, a good one as it happens, and is virtually non-existent as far as my catalogue goes – it was designated a soundtrack and got zilch in the way of marketing money. A real shame.” David Bowie, ContactMusic, 23 September 2003

   The recording process was quick and used processes not used since the Berlin years. Short pieces were extended, the key was noted and then everything except the rhythmic parts were muted. New music was written to the rhythm tracks in the original key and, when the original music was re-introduced, any harmonic clashes were noted and extended upon. All very Brian Eno like which is perhaps why this album has a feel of “Low” and “Heroes” about it.

   The first half of the album is mostly instrumental, with differing styles like dance music and Jazz, which give it that sense of Berlin. The title song fairly accurately tracks the  narrative of the novel, a mixed race teenager who turns to acting and the theatre to escape early 70’s South London, and is a “lost” Bowie classic. It references “Space Oddity” musically and “All The Madmen” lyrically (repeating the “Zane, Zane, Zane, Ouvre le chien” chant) and possibly more that I just haven’t noticed. 

   The second half of the album is more song based including a first outing for “Strangers When We Meet” which would turn up again on “1.Outside” 2 years later. Considering this was only made a year after “Black Tie White Noise” it is a far more forward looking record than its predecessor which still had a foot firmly planted in the 80’s.

   Apart from the theme song none of the music released as the soundtrack of “The Buddha of Suburbia” was actually used in the soundtrack and neither was it meant to be. It had virtually no promotional budget, what little promotion that was done positioned the album as a soundtrack and Bowie’s name is almost invisible on the original artwork. It reached number 87 in the UK charts. Q Magazine gave it a four star review noting “Bowie’s music walks a knife edge once again”. Bowie said in interviews over the ensuing years that it was a personal favourite of his and “I really felt happy making that album”.

   The Buddha Of Suburbia - https://youtu.be/xHPIAFaKd1I