I'm listening to Reality and realizing it's a reeeeeel turd.

Edit: Had to put on Earthling to cleanse the palette.

fp

Good guacamole, Reality is so much better than Never Let Me Down, which I think is the only full turd he's ever put out (even then there's a few decent tunes on it).

I feel very strongly about this album being utter garbage:

I can't say I'm all that familar with Bowie's stuff over the last 20 years(!)
From his early stuff, I would go with Diamond Dogs as being his worst.

Steve

Yep. That's the beastie.

That one with "The Laughing Gnome"... the stupidest song ever released by an important rock god.

Love You Til Tuesday

From that odd-ifact I do like "Please Mr. Gravedigger," "Love You Til' Tuesday and "When I Live My Dream", even though they're studiously naive Peter Pan/Mary Poppins numbness on close inspection.

that tin machine crap.

I love this album, it's always been one of my favourites actually. I like it way better than Let's Dance, Tonight, Black Tie/White Noise or any of his latter day stuff.

I loathe this one. A highly unfortunate career detour between his early R&B-ish, Shel Talmy-produced singles (the Rhino compilation of said singles, Early On, gets much love from me) and the first real Bowie album.

Latter day lame, I'll go with Hours, not one single note of which I can conjure up from memory. At least the Tin Machine albums had some life in them.



Also, I'm leaning DumpJack's way. Comparing Never Let Me Down and Tonight...



...convinces me that Tonight can only get the edge over Never because he covers a bunch of old Iggy and Lieber & Stoller ringers. Of the new songs on each album, I only really like two on Tonight ("Blue Jean," "Tumble and Twirl"), but I'll go to bat for at least three on Never--the title cut, "Zeroes" and "Shining Star," an unbelievably silly song that's just way too much fun to dismiss (cf. "Emotional Rescue"). Ah, throw in "Time Will Crawl," too.

Some musicians only have a finite number of melodies in them, and I think Dave's used up his quota. I'll only buy new Bowie used nowadays.

Y'er daft.

Lump went to bat for the four songs I like on Never Let Me Down. Still his weakest album, though.

I like Hours quite a bit as a complete listen, but damned if any of the songs ever stick with me individually because they don't.

Tin Machine made a nice little racket. I liked it. Though the live album was unnecessary.

I agree. Tin Machine rawks. Very unusual stuff.

fp

I was in awe of how the songs sped up live. They took on a whole new (cranked) life.

Tin Machine were tremendous live. They played Gen Admit clubs, you got to stand 10 ft. from Bowie. Oh yeah, they were mufuggin' tight, and Hunt can *sing*.

I can't believe anyone could even mention Diamond Dogs with a straight face -- that's my favourite album, moreso than even Ziggy.

My sister always thought that Bowie died, and the anti-Bowie replaced him with Tonight, so I leave the Bowie-expert stuff to her.

I too love Diamond Dogs. But I can see how some people wouldn't.

Tonight is the last one I own chronologically and really all I like Blue Jean and especially Loving the Alien. I haven't paid much attention to anything else since and probably won't unless something really changes.

I think he is one of the most brilliant artists of our time, but think he ran the gambit years ago.

Yup.

Let's Dance is quite a dud as well, save for the title track.

There's a lot of crappy stuff on Scary Monsters as well.
Although "Ashes to Ashes" alone makes it worthwhile.

Another vote for Never Let me Down. It's one of his weakest albums.



Reality was good, people.

I don't currently own a copy of the live one. Maybe I should listen to it again. Haven't heard it in years.

Tin Machine was great -- ESPECIALLY the first album! I also quite liked Reality, thank you very much. I could do without Never Let Me Down and Earthling, but just about all Bowie albums have at least a couple of worthwhile tracks. Of course, I LIKED Tonight, so take all of this with a grain of Mick Jagger.

Ditto on the Never Let Me Down hate. I don't own Reality... is it worth checking out or no? Last one I bought was Heathen.

I actually liked certain aspects of Earthling and ...Hours, but not his greatest by any stretch. Tonight and Let's Dance... hmmm, that's a weird one. I didn't like the sheer commerciality of either, but there were a couple of gems on each. Hey, guess David has to pay the mortgage too.

While down in der Bumbershoot, the most popular shirt (by far) was the Bowie pic with caption "I Fucked Mick Jagger". Kinda funny the first time I saw it; kinda embarassing by the 10th.