I feel that album represents a drop though. It’s not as interesting as its predecessors.
― Trϵϵship, Sunday, 25 November 2018 21:14 (five years ago) link
Few songs sounded like "Modern Love" in 1983 even in this year of peak New Wave MTV crossover
― I like queer. You like queer, senator? (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 25 November 2018 21:15 (five years ago) link
Perhaps not a dip in quality but a huge change in thesis. It feels (songwriting-wise) like cynical pop pastiche-- the "cynicism" being the overly trite lyrical approach rather than, say, the intentional cynicism of genre-precedent-to-"Let's Dance" songs like "Fame" and "Young Americans"
― fgti is for (flamboyant goon tie included), Sunday, 25 November 2018 21:15 (five years ago) link
His image on that album was very much of its time
Exactly.
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Sunday, 25 November 2018 21:16 (five years ago) link
Plus his version of "China Girl" blows.
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Sunday, 25 November 2018 21:17 (five years ago) link
Fgti otm. The album is a return to the kind of warholoan “pastiche” that he had left behind starting with Low.
― Trϵϵship, Sunday, 25 November 2018 21:20 (five years ago) link
To be clear, I'm not defending the album besides "Modern Love," "Criminal World," and listening to Chic shimmy in "Without You."
― I like queer. You like queer, senator? (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 25 November 2018 21:51 (five years ago) link
I will also step up for "Cat People"
― sleeve, Sunday, 25 November 2018 21:55 (five years ago) link
LD came out my senior year of high school and was considered at least OK even among the fanatics I knew, as Alfred notes Tonight was the dealbreaker in my scene for sure
― sleeve, Sunday, 25 November 2018 21:56 (five years ago) link
I remember having a conversation with a Bowie fan who was old enough to experience every album as they were released, and he described the disappointment felt in the Bowie fan community with the arrival of "Let's Dance" as being seismic, and that the subsequent revisionism of that album as being "good" was frustrating. I never really got it until "Modern Love" came on in the coffee shop yesterday morning when I was feeling annoyed and I listened and thought "he's right this is really disappointing"
this was me and my friends except Let's Dance was the FIRST Bowie album to come out since we'd all become fanatics. We were incredibly excited, and utterly disappointed. All but two of us skipped the tour - who wants to hear that stuff? We liked "Modern Love" OK but it was a giant, giant letdown.
― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Sunday, 25 November 2018 22:05 (five years ago) link
The Hunger was released the same year as Let's Dance, right? Like, that movie has got (soon to be defunct) Bowie fanatics Bauhaus playing 'Bela Lugosi's Dead' at the very beginning... also, didn't he do 'Under Pressure' with Queen in between Scary Monsters and Let's Dance? The lyric to that was apparently written almost completely by Bowie.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Sunday, 25 November 2018 22:17 (five years ago) link
the classic karaoke conundrum: what to do during the intro:
Mmm num ba deDum bum ba beDoo buh dum ba beh beh
then you think you're in the clear. then twenty seconds pass, and fucking
Um ba ba beUm ba ba beDe day daEe day da- that's okay
― Karl Malone, Sunday, 25 November 2018 22:34 (five years ago) link
on the other hand, one time i saw someone NAIL all of those little lyrical burps and it was transcendent
that's why I always pick the Bowie part. Friends go for the flamboyant Mercury part while I hang back and go "oooh ooh oooh ooooooh"
― I like queer. You like queer, senator? (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 25 November 2018 23:41 (five years ago) link
If you glue the two LPs together so that you have side two of Lodger followed by side one of Scary Monsters you get Bowie's second-best album. In my opinion. Don't do this with actual records.
― Ashley Pomeroy, Sunday, 25 November 2018 23:59 (five years ago) link
Under Pressure has the unique distinction of being both featured act’s worst hit single— I prefer friggin Dancing In The Street, Blue Jean, even Thursday’s Child if we’re getting down to it
I was sure that I liked the re-recording of Look Back In Anger but I’m surely ambivalent about it now. The drums on the original are... amazing
― fgti is for (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 26 November 2018 03:21 (five years ago) link
fuckin’ dennis davis
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Monday, 26 November 2018 05:37 (five years ago) link
ok you goon tie although I don't agree, I can see how you might hate "under pressure" and I can accept an argument that "blue jean" is better but preferring "dancing in the street" cmon now that thing is a catastrophe
― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Monday, 26 November 2018 12:03 (five years ago) link
I prefer an innocuous catastrophe like "Dancing..." over a song that is so lazy-in-execution and trite-about-a-social-issue and inexplicably refuses to exit the popular canon or my ambient listening experience. I once thought that if music obeys some karmic laws, then I should be grateful for a turd like "Under Pressure" because it allowed an perfect song like "Gypsy Woman" to exist
― fgti is for (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 26 November 2018 15:37 (five years ago) link
an innocuous catastrophe!
― I like queer. You like queer, senator? (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 26 November 2018 15:43 (five years ago) link
"Dancing in the Streets" was more of an outrage than a catastrophe though. I like "Under Pressure" btw.
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Monday, 26 November 2018 15:46 (five years ago) link
"Dancing" is aggressively embarrassing!
― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Monday, 26 November 2018 15:47 (five years ago) link
i don't care if everyone's seen it, it was all worth it because of the version of the video that takes out the music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHkhIjG0DKc
― Karl Malone, Monday, 26 November 2018 18:11 (five years ago) link
I couldn't disagree more with this!
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Monday, 26 November 2018 18:27 (five years ago) link
Well, honestly, a large contributor to my allergy to that song is that it seems that the rest of the world disagrees with me and will continue to celebrate it, I'm pretty sure I'll be having my guts eaten by crows in Hell to the sounds of "prshr ON! PEEP! ULL! ppl ON! STREETS!"
― fgti is for (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 26 November 2018 19:41 (five years ago) link
Apparently Mercury and Bowie argued like mad while mixing that track.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Monday, 26 November 2018 20:40 (five years ago) link
I keep saying this every time the video for 'Dancing...' gets posted, but it's glorious, Bowie and Jagger trying to out-do each other in every frame.
― Chequers Plays Pop (snoball), Monday, 26 November 2018 20:42 (five years ago) link
I wonder what Keef thought of it (not a lot, I'd be willing to bet)
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Monday, 26 November 2018 20:46 (five years ago) link
I imagine he thought quite a bit of it, actually. `Course it was all negative. But, y'know, no good deed, etc. etc. . . .
― Totally different head. Totally. (Austin), Monday, 26 November 2018 20:47 (five years ago) link
Well, yeah... that's pretty much what I was saying!
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Monday, 26 November 2018 20:52 (five years ago) link
I know there was some tension in the Stones camp regarding Jagger getting a solo deal to begin with (Keef says as much in his book), but I can just picture Keef watching the 'Dancing in the Street' video all like "christ, look at this pair of twats" ...
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Monday, 26 November 2018 20:55 (five years ago) link
Wasn’t Let’s Dance his first album for EMI? Didn’t the label do that extravagant “Let’s rent a mansion and invite the media over for a decadent press conference” thing? I decidedly feel like part of that record’s aesthetic was forged in “I need to justify this giant wad I just banked.”
― Naive Teen Idol, Monday, 26 November 2018 20:58 (five years ago) link
I still find it funny that albums like Station to Station and Low (indeed all of his classic albums, for that matter) were issued on RCA, which never struck me as being a particularly "cool" record label. Although this might have something to do with the fact I first saw those orange labels on older relatives Paul Anka/Jim Reeves LP's etc.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Monday, 26 November 2018 21:11 (five years ago) link
Yes they were a pretty square label, they had Nilsson, Mike Nesmith, er... Lou Reed!
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Tuesday, 27 November 2018 01:31 (five years ago) link
Oh yeah, Metal Machine Music was on RCA too! Feels like the kind of thing that would have been more at home on Virgin Records or something.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Tuesday, 27 November 2018 21:04 (five years ago) link
Well Lou claimed he wanted Red Seal, RCA's classic division to put it out and I hope the story is true cuz the idea of the insectoid drug-bug era Lou playing a rough of "MMM" for some suited square trying to convince him it was "modern composition" is too good
Lodger is the correct answer.
― chr1sb3singer, Tuesday, 27 November 2018 21:34 (five years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Friday, 14 December 2018 00:01 (five years ago) link
Teenage Wildlife wot swung it
― kraudive, Friday, 14 December 2018 17:44 (five years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Saturday, 15 December 2018 00:01 (five years ago) link
gah, the mythos of the “Berlin” trilogy
― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Saturday, 15 December 2018 00:09 (five years ago) link
and the reality that side 2 of Scary Monsters kinda sucks
― sleeve, Saturday, 15 December 2018 00:28 (five years ago) link
I’ll allow it
― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Saturday, 15 December 2018 01:29 (five years ago) link
i expected it to be closer.
― Trϵϵship, Saturday, 15 December 2018 02:17 (five years ago) link
me too
― sleeve, Saturday, 15 December 2018 02:19 (five years ago) link
I had a feeling that Lodger would take this, to be honest. Those that like the album seem to really like it, and there's quite a lot of people on here that have passionately praised it. Scary Monsters is highly praised too, but not to the same degree on here.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Saturday, 15 December 2018 22:12 (five years ago) link
Scary Monsters
Happy 75th DB!
― Davey D, Saturday, 8 January 2022 20:18 (two years ago) link