David Bowie - could there be a more barefaced attempt to jump on a bandwagon (4 years too late)?

So, no acapellas or backing tracks.

It is to YAWN!

That said, I don't see anything wrong with him providing this, and I'm sure it could be fun (although moreso if he provided the acapellas).

If I were Sean Combs, I'd ask for my money back, though.

But I wish they would have included acapellas and instrumental tracks so that people could really have a go at it...

...and the energy of Earthling has aged better than I thought it would, so lay off. :-)

Actually, he WAS way ahead of the game on disco rhythms in the early/ mid '70s....(a decade or so before he started sucking complete ass)

People who say that also think he was ahead of the game in Metal (Man Who Sold The World) and ahead of the game in blue-eyed soul (Young Americans). He was just the most popular artist dabbling in that, not a trailblazer in a fashion.

pls delete all music criticism that uses the phrase "jump on a bandwagon" now k thnx.

Big difference. Metal was around a few years before 1970, and blue eyed soul was around at least a decade and a half before 1975. So nope - not ahead of the game on those genres at all. But there are moments on his early '70s albums where it sounds like Bowie has stumbled upon disco rhythms, before disco even had a name. (Michael Freedberg, one of the two or three most important disco critics ever, swears that Bowie's rhythms and vocals were as important in disco's development as James Brown's, believe it or not!)

Yes, and how. As of Reality interviews, he still regarded it as his best post-relevence (not his words, obviously) album, and "I'm Afraid Of Americans" as one of his best songs.

(Not defending that position at all of course)

-- chuck (cedd...), May 7th, 2004.

Interesting. I never heard this before or made the connection myself, but thinking now about the dramatic strings, wah-wah guitar, and Bowie's high-ranged vocals on "1984," I can see where Freedberg is coming from. Although, I'm not sure how anything Bowie did that was disco-like back then was much different than what Curtis Mayfield and others were doing at that time. Is it Bowie's theater background that makes the difference? What examples does Freedberg cite? I need to pull out my albums and do some listening.

The drum 'n bass rap against "Earthling" is largely based on tepid air. There are two tracks that use those beats, and those are the two sucky songs--there are no other allusions to the style.

"Dead Man Walking", "Battle for Britain" and yes, "IAOA" are brilliant genre cut and pastes, among his finest. "Little Wonder" is aforable and smart.

It would seem that 'relevance' is defined and measured in most cited cases as people under twenty five with good CD collections (Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Hives, Strokes etc) and the ability to mime their favorite discs. This is a tiresome, glib and intellectually shallow argument.

Not at all. I meant it in terms of commercial/critical relevance (which really can't be contested in Bowie's case - sales of everything since Tonight have been decent at best, and the critics didn't really jump back on board until Heathen), not personal. There are a couple good songs on Outside and Earthling, and Heathen and Reality are solid. I probably should have said "post-crash" instead, which would've got the point across as well.

This is a pet peeve, especially when people dis Bowie but go to bat for fellow seniors such as, say, Mark Smith or Dylan, claiming relevance that strikes me as most often mainly based on vapors, no matter what.