DEEP DISCOG DIVE: David Bowie

i still don't know what i was looking for and my time was running wild a million dead in the streets every time i thought i'd gotta made it seem the taste was not so sweet i look the same sweetwater lied to me they said if i blended 10 sm-57s drank them and went to sleep i would achieve clear skin and immortality a month and a half spent sleeping look what good it did welcome back to the deep discog dive we finally made it to the last artist that many of you voted on back in the last deep discog dive decision a few months ago thank you again to everybody who voted in that poll as well as any other poll that i've run this year of course you're still welcome to leave comments suggesting artists for me to cover i know i keep saying that every time i do one of these dives but i'm planning on changing up how i do voting and how i select artists in the next year so please don't think that i'm ignoring those comments also something that i didn't mention while i was filming for the first time the deep discog dive has a playlist in the description there's a link to a spotify playlist that contains all of the songs that i mention in this video plus a few little fun extras again the link to that is in the description now i was planning on doing one more dive this year one where i would get to pick the artist but because of my prolonged nap this will be the last dive of 2020. yes i know some of you were excited or even guessed correctly the artist that i was gonna pick but i promise my dive on broken side will come out eventually i feel like today's artist however is a fitting end for this season of the deep discog dive in part because of the sheer size of their discography but also because of their massive influence and impact on music and pop culture today we're talking about david bowie let's dive in [Music] david robert jones born in 1947 in london from an early age he showed much talent in art and music his artistic sensibilities were influenced by his father bringing home a ton of 45s and introducing him to american music like little richard and elvis presley his childhood wasn't perfect though a schoolyard fight with another boy over a girl damaged his left eye leading to a permanently dilated pupil that would become one of his signature features during his teens in the mid-1960s he was a part of numerous bands trying to find success and recognition wherever he could that pursuit led to his name change from davy jones to david bowie since he wanted to avoid confusion with the monkey's lead singer or with the nautical locker by 1967 he had a stage name a manager with ken pitt a few underperforming singles under his belt including one that was basically his version of alvin and the chipmunks he was ready for the prime time i've always wanted to peek into an alternate universe where david bowie was a folk star and now that i've seen it i don't want it anymore yeah controversial opinion time david bowie's first album isn't that good it's a folk pop record with vaudevillian leanings but it has a very stilted and staged feeling to it like this is bowie's first open mic nighter vocal recital i'd almost say it's as if the beatles for the benefit of mr kite was stretched out to a full album but that would be unfair because sergeant pepper and this album came out on the same day the best songs on here are more interesting than good closer please mr gravedigger is an unnerving piece of sound design as bowie sings over thunder and rain we are hungry men sees bowie take on a persona for the first time some omniscient figure delivering decrees but just as i'm starting to click with it these horns come in that make me feel like i'm playing yoshi's island [Music] if you're really curious about bowie's beginnings i i can't say you'll hate it but i do not recommend it for anybody starting out album one made virtually no impact upon its release so bowie's label said you know what'll work this time doing the same thing again bowie's second record was originally released in november 1969 as david bowie in the uk and man of words man of music in the us in later years however it was renamed after the opening track space oddity tom released five days before the apollo 11 launch space oddity was initially considered a novelty record but its release could not have been better planned but we plays with persona again this time as major tom being launched into space reckoning with its monumental vastness it is without a doubt the first great bowie song the rest of the album is mid it's just more of the full pop that made up the first record but it's a bit better one specific highlight is signet committee which hints at bowie's skill at writing a long song that can hold one's attention throughout space oddity and signet are worth checking out on their own but as a whole this just isn't necessary to enjoy bowie fully while space oddity did incredibly well for bowie the album as a whole did not oh he decided to shake things up and form a band both for artistic motivation and because he just wanted some guys and dudes to pal around with by the time recording for his third album started his gang of dudes consisted of mick ronson ralph mace mick woodman z and tony visconti and we're gonna put a little star next to visconti because a he produced this album and b we're gonna see a bunch more of him throughout bowie's career the fruit of their recording sessions in london was the man who sold the world released in november 1970. and with it our boy was officially a hard rocker bowie left behind the folk picked up his electric guitar and made some pretty alright music the sounds of prog rock psych rock and a dash of heavy metal surprisingly fit well on bowie as do the darker lyrical themes bowie and his dudes will do rock music better than this but i've still revisited tracks like width of a circle and the title track the album cover also garnered bowie some attention the uk release featured bowie in a blue fishnet dress which he is clearly just ripping off from young thug it was bowie's first display of experimenting with costumes and with gender identity however the cover was rejected for the us and they went with the original artwork no i'm not crazy for it personally but i have no problem recognizing it as bowie's first good album and we wouldn't have to wait that long for his first great one the man who sold the world might have sold the world but he didn't sell many units once again it sold poorly in the uk but it fared better in the us where radio stations were all about the rock music his label decided to send him off to the u.s to give numerous radio interviews and during this trip he wrote over 30 songs inspired by american artists like bob dylan andy warhol iggy pop and lou reed he also began creating a character an androgynous alien rock star called um the name the name's escaping me i'm sure i'll think of it later after he got back to the uk he enlisted a new band with these blokes got ken scott to co-produce hopped onto rca records and released hunky dory in december 1971. this one is great it's a detour from the hard rock of the last record into singer songwriter territory along with inspiration from the us artists i mentioned earlier most of the songs here were written on the piano as opposed to the guitar the result is the best collection of songs bowie's done so far changes oh you pretty things queen [ __ ] kooks all are well produced and immediately catchy also if i'm being real here between bowie's two space theme songs so far i'm going with life on mars every time i love this one the way bowie hits the high note at the end of the course oh my god [Music] so now that bowie has made a truly excellent album this is where he'd finally see commercial success right hunky got the best critical reception bowie had seen thus far but once again it sold poorly part of that was due to rca not being sure how to market the record since they had no clue where bowie was gonna go from here by the time hunky dory released however bowie and his bandmates were already in deep working on a new album now i mentioned before oe wrote about 30 songs while in the u.s about half of them went on to hunky dory but what happened to the rest well the rest were recorded alongside hunky with bowie's band realizing they needed another record with songs that could thrive in a live setting but in order to truly thrive bowie needed a full-on character to inhabit and so he created ziggy stardust the character's debut came out in june 1972 as the rise and fall of ziggy stardust and the spiders from mars what do you want me to say it's a classic [Music] a number of things distinguished this record from the last unlike hunky dory's piano centric writing ziggy songs were primarily done on the guitar bowie's backing band consisting of the two mix from before and trevor boulder had a name and a visual aesthetic the album as a whole had a loose concept about ziggy coming down to earth before its end gaining love and affection from everyone until he's eventually undone by his own success there is one thing that both hunky and ziggy have in common though the songs are really damn good five years moon age daydream ziggy stardust it ain't easy all tracks that reach new heights of glam rock hookiness and dramatics my personal favorite has to be starman that guitar line after the chorus is one of the most simple yet affecting bits of music in bowie's whole career in fact it was his performance of the song on top of the pops that was credited with making him a star finally bowie had made an album that garnered attention from both critics and the general public you want to know how popular this album was following its release most of bowie's past records got a massive boost in sales hunky dory finally charted as did space oddity even the laughing gnome got on the charts you get your air gun at school you look like a rolling nose [Music] after ziggy bowie was a phenomenon in the uk and a modest success in the us he and his spiders embarked on a tour in both countries but once again while he was in the us he got to writing songs these songs were inspired by his thoughts on america as a country as well as his growing exhaustion from touring between legs of the tour bowie brought in everyone who worked on ziggy well except ziggy because bowie created a new persona for this album aladdin sane was released 10 months after ziggy in april 1973. the concept behind this one was ziggy goes to america and as such aladdin sane feels like a bigger louder more aggressive version of ziggy and i love it the whole album is playful and debaucherous and constantly introducing new textures and hooks trying to one-up itself like ziggy was a well-prepared meal that filled you up just enough but aladdin is an all out buffet where you just throw everything on the plate you're eating saxophones honky tonk pianos distorted guitars you probably broke a few teeth this metaphor doesn't make much sense you know what else doesn't make sense watch that man not being a bigger hit what an excellent opening track this album is great and easily on par with ziggy stardust in my eye in fact i might actually prefer it over ziggy stardust that's not to put down ziggy it deserves its classic reputation through and through it's just looking out to months after this video comes out between the two i'm probably re-listening to aladdin sane first let me put it like this one of these albums led to a bowie cake on great british bake off is that not the true mark of success but hey let's move past that potentially controversial thing i just said and look at it this way over just three years bowie's put out three excellent albums in a row can he manage four so bowie was at the highest peak he had seen in his career thus far and the world was his glam rock oyster his next project was intended to be a musical adaptation of george orwell's 1984 but his label pressured him into capitalizing on his ludicrous success he decided to make a covers album featuring songs from 1960s british artists as an attempt to introduce said artists to the americans exactly six months after aladdin sane we got pinups in october 1973 no ifs and or butts this album has songs these songs are composed of sounds made by various instruments which play notes and what a variety of notes we have here if you're lucky you might even catch bowie singing words and before anyone gets concerned yes they are in the english language and when it comes to having album art oh this sure has it what else do i need to say it's pinups and i'm not even sure if i've listened to it before and i'm listening to it right now after that one album that i already forgot about bully was at a bit of a crossroads with where he wanted to go artistically he had ideas for a number of potential projects he thought of doing that 1984 musical but orwell's widow denied him the rights which wasn't anything against bowie she was just very protective of the rights up until she passed in 1980. he thought of doing a ziggy stardust musical but that also fell through so with these two projects in limbo bowie decided to combine the songs he had written thus far for both and turned them into his next album tony visconti also came back to help he had become well known as a producer since we last saw him mostly for his work with t-rex the post-apocalyptic lamrok concept album diamond dogs was released in may 1974 at this point bowie could write glam rock bangers in his sleep and i really like how many of the songs here move seamlessly between each other the four-part suite of sweet thing into candidate back into sweet thing and finishing off with the classic rebel rebel excellent stuff as a whole it's solid but not not only am i starting to get a bit tired of this glam rock sound but it's starting to feel like bowie was too in fact diamond dogs has light touches of soul and r b sprinkled throughout and i'd honestly love to hear his take on that kind of music and he took my advice oh we went on tour to promote diamond dogs the first leg of which was captured in his live album david live between the first and second legs of the tour however bowie worked on his next record one that would go full in on the r b and soul stylings that were popping up on diamond bowie was inspired by the soul scene in philadelphia even going to philly to work with artists like guitarist carlos alomar and a vocalist new to the scene luther vandross following the second leg of the tour which sounded more like what they had been working on in the studio bowie and visconti finished up the record in new york city where at this point bowie was living in march 1975 young americans was released but we described this album as plastic soul meaning a transparent shameless pastiche of soul music and um yeah yeah that's probably the best way to describe this album to say it wears its inspirations on its sleeves would not be enough this album has its inspirations tattooed on its chest now for me personally i really enjoy this kind of music so to hear bowie do it is enjoyable on some basic level even if it is just a full-on imitation the opening title track is certainly a great way to open the album it's one of the best tracks on here [Music] was that a beatles reference i read the news [Music] nice touch i guess in fact this album has a ton of connections to the beatles i mean it it has three but hey i was expecting zero there's the reference to a day in the life there's a full cover of across the universe which is and it's it's okay and john lennon himself helped bowie write his first number one song in the us [Music] i'd say the title track and fame and maybe fascination are the best tracks on here overall even though it's a blatant copy of another genre it's lovingly made and i think it's good the same year as young americans bowie moved across the country to la with dreams of becoming a movie star he starred in the cult classic the man who fell to earth a role that garnered him critical acclaim the character he played ended up influencing his next musical persona the thin white duke his acting however was not the only thing impacting his next music you see the thin white duke wasn't just a reference to bowie's physique at this point because ever since around the aladdin sane days bowie had succumbed to a very nasty addiction to cocaine at this time bowie was living on the now infamous diet of coke milk and red peppers and his visual appearance such as in 1974's bbc documentary cracked actor caused concern for his well-being it's this knowledge of bowie's personal struggles that makes me feel a bit conflicted about stationistation the album he released in january 1976 because i know of the psychological pit that he was in during its making but i also know this is one of the best albums of his entire career the name of the game here is this shouldn't work and yet it does so well the opening title track starts with a lumbering groove with flange drenched white noise and a melodica and a vibra slap go to jail bowie and then halfway through it turns into an art rock disco jam talking about how the european canon is here it's 10 minutes long it's bowie's longest song it shouldn't work and i've played it every day since i first heard it the whole album is a dichotomous anomaly it's six tracks long and yet it's expertly paced the band whips between genres from track to track and yet it feels cohesive i think what makes it all work is that bowie manages to balance tension between his drug-addled state and his desire to find love and connection and it culminates with his rendition of wild as the wind which features some of his best most emotive singing of the decade it's not the side effects of the cocaine i'm thinking this album is outstanding now putting aside station's greatness i want to re-emphasize that bowie was not in a good place during its making he would eventually say that he did not remember making the album at all and called it the darkest days of his life and so later in 1976 looking to beat his addiction and get away from the hell hole he considered la to be bowie moved all the way to first switzerland and then with friend iggy pop to berlin germany it's there where he took fondly to the german music scene specifically kraut rock artists like noi and kraftwerk this is also where he met brian eno the two became quick friends and soon enough they were working together along with iggy pop and tony visconti the first record to come from this four-way partnership was icky pops the idiot which then laid the groundwork for the first album in bowie's so-called berlin trilogy low released in january 1977. [Music] even this far into his career bowie managed to find a way to subvert expectations and deliver a delightfully off-kilter album as with station to station many of these tracks just shouldn't work and yet they do but on songs like speed of life breaking glass always crashing in the same car you can feel a new found openness to these recordings as opposed to station to station which often kept things very tight and anxious also sound and vision is the closest bowie had come to being a country star and makes me wish he made a full-on bluegrass record i think part of this album's unique success is bowie's willingness to take a step back and allow other instruments and textures to take center stage and by a certain point in the album he all but disappears the second half of this album is essentially all ambient instrumentals and it's here where i think low truly earns its classic reputation it's quite possibly the most musically daring set of songs bowie had done thus far playing with these electronic textures his own voice becoming one with the sound stage it's like rock but after rock you know it's like um it's like post post rock that should be the name of a genre yes while he may not have solely invented it bowie is often credited as being a major influence on post rock and post punk and low went on to influence bands like joy division gang of four the cure and the countless bands that would in turn be influenced by them a remarkable album through and through fans didn't have to wait that long for a fall low up bowie and co recorded their next album in the summer of 1977. ironically this one was the only album in the berlin trilogy to be recorded entirely in berlin it was recorded in the hantatan studio which was well known for its concert hall and for being very close to the berlin wall but he also recruited robert fripp who was the guitarist for king crimson exactly eight months after low heroes was released in october 1977 [Music] basically everything good i said about low applies to heroes as well though i will say heroes songs are a bit poppier and accessible on first listen once again we have a quality opener with beauty and the beast and other tracks like joe the lion and sons of the silent age are just as propulsive also like low the second half is primarily instrumental ambient tracks though i think the ones on low were a bit better but heroes does bring the vocals back on closer the secret life of arabia which is one of my favorite closing tracks by bowie the most famous track on here is the eponymous heroes and for good reason because this is one of the finest songs that i've ever heard it's such a powerfully melancholic song there are many interpretations of this song but my personal interpretation is that whoever's singing it is in a rough part of their life getting drunk with a friend and singing how they could be heroes even though they know deep down that they'll wake up tomorrow and nothing will change i think part of that interpretation is due to bowie's delivery which eventually morphs into one of his most powerful vocal performances ever here's a quick bit of context by the way since we're basically about halfway through bowie's discography bowie's debut record turned 10 years old this year within 10 years bowie had given us 12 albums and arguably half of them could be considered classics i hope what i've said so far in this video has confirmed to you bowie's incredible musical talent and built up enough goodwill towards me for when i get to the 80s anyway bowie spent 1978 touring for low and heroes on the isolar 2 tour if you want to listen to some of that check out the stage live record it's also worth noting that by this point bowie had largely kicked his drug addiction and that deserves a lot of credit i feel like a broken record saying this but between legs of this tour bowie and most of the company from the last record worked on a new record the final part of the berlin trilogy recorded in switzerland and new york and released in may 1979 we have lodger one thing that separates lodger from the other two berlin records is that it's a concept record following a traveling lodger which allowed bowie to explore more worldly musical ideas outside of his wheelhouse another thing that separates it is that it isn't as good as the last two records but even if it's not as good as the last two i kinda like its place in bowie's discography it's a proper come down from the sheer excellence of low and heroes allowing bowie and friends to play with concepts and textures that might not have worked on past albums like on dj african night voyage look back and anger it's still a good record the 80s are here by the time he got back to new york bowie was living like a king and despite having recently been divorced he was feeling pretty alright about life that optimism carried into the studio as he began work on his 14th album brian eno didn't join in this time but tony visconti now more in demand than ever came back for producing duties as did bowie's rhythm section one spring time of recording later scary monsters and nice sprites was no way scary monsters and super creeps was released in september 1980 and um this one didn't do much for me i know the talk around this album has it pegged as bowie's quote unquote last great album and i understand the appeal to some extent it feels like a synthesis of the past five or so years of bowie's work but in practice i i don't know i mean it's got some good tracks it's no game parts one and two the title track kingdom come especially teenage wildlife it's also worth noting lead single ashes to ashes which became very successful in part due to it being a good song and because of its music video which remains one of the most expensive ever made and before anybody who watches me frequently mentions it yes i am aware of a live performance of brit daniel from spoon and matt berninger from the national performing the song but i want to finish this video properly before i complete my ascension so i i know about it thank you overall like lodger i respect its place in bowie's catalog and i do think it's good on some level but i'm just not super crazy for it goalie bounced around after scary monsters his most notable music being his iconic team up with queen for under pressure guaranteeing he would be heard in karaoke bars for the next millennium eventually bowie met up with nile rogers famed guitarist who co-created equally famed disco band sheik the two hit it off immediately and decided to make an album together with rogers as producer this move soured bowie's relationship with tony viscotti and the two wouldn't work together again for another 20 years despite that the recording sessions went very smoothly and quickly they had recorded everything in just 17 days in april 1983 as bowie's first album with emi let's dance was released [Music] the critical reception at the time of its release was fairly mild with the main sticking point against it being that bowie had sold out and there is some truth to that it is easily the most pop-centric collection bowie had made up to this point but that shift paid off because this was and continue to be bowie's best-selling album yes more than ziggy stardust so that begs a question why was this album so successful even with its less than stellar praise one answer lies with the then new mtv and the rise of the music video i feel like i don't need to tell you this you could probably figure this one out on your own but bowie's theatrics lended themselves very well to the visual medium of music videos and with mtv's rise a whole new generation of fans were getting to know bowie apart from his glam rock roots putting all that aside is let's dance good yeah it's not too bad it's not too consistent in quality especially in the back half but tracks like ricochet china girl the title track modern love they're all great pop songs that don't sacrifice what makes bowie bowie it's how do i say this it's a well-aged product of its time like these songs sound like the 80s but they're good songs even when you remove the sonic signifiers of the time period that sounds kind of vague but you'll know what i mean by the time we get through bowie's 80s period so was this bowie's sellout album absolutely no doubt but if bowie selling out meant that we could live our lives knowing the sack solo on the outro of modern love exists then to me he could sell out as much as he wanted i really hope i don't end up eating those words in a bit it's here where we enter bowie's self-described phil collins ears bowie toured let's dance on the serious moonlight tour in which he sold out every single show the label told bowie he needed to make a follow-up to capitalize on his success something that bowie wasn't all that jazzed about he gathered up most of the let's dance crew minus nile rogers and in september 1984 tonight was released you know this album's lackluster reputation made me dread the worst going into it but i didn't think it was that bad i just thought it was boring as heck there's no song on here that comes remotely close to modern love or let's dance the closest would be what blue jean the biggest song off this record the rest is so down tempo and plotting in its pace opener loving the alien hints at this record being a darker moodier version of the last album but that hint is all but dashed by the end like with let's dance bowie didn't play instruments on any of the songs here but unlike let's dance he didn't give much musical input to begin with and that might be the thing most of these songs feel like anyone could have done them and bowie just happens to be singing them but like i said not bad just boring which might actually make it the worst bowie record to me a bad bowie record doesn't have to have the worst music on it it just needs to leave your head as soon as you're done listening a bad bowie record can still leave a mark in your memory and if you want an example of what i mean despite the middling critical reception bowie saw more commercial success with tonight it also helped that he scored his most famous acting role possibly ever as the goblin king in jim henson's labyrinth along with acting he also contributed a couple songs to the soundtrack wait to use the phil collins analogy from earlier does that make labyrinth bowie's tarzan but after labyrinth bowie wanted to move beyond the pop leanings of his last two records and meld that pop sound with the rock of his earlier albums something that would thrive in a massive live performance with incredible visuals sponsored by pepsi in april 1987 bowie released never let me down okay so this one's fascinating it's not good by like any means many people consider it his worst and i totally get why but hear me out on this the songs from a writing perspective aren't anything terrible most of them are b and c tier bowie songs but that's not enough to earn widespread derision also bowie and co sound lively they sound like they're having a good time no the thing that derails this album is the production it is the worst most dated production on any bowie record why does mickey work pop up on shining star and deliver the most monotone rap in history what's with this weird pitch shifting on the start of zeroes is is it supposed to be like the opening of station the station cause that was good and this isn't overall it's just a lot of weird production decisions that distract more than they if we could turn the snare down please it's it's so loud it's like a shotgun in the years following it bowie's opinion on the album soured and he even publicly wished he could redo it and that leads me to never let me down 2018 a reworked and reproduced version of the album led by engineer mario mcnulty the stems are the same but the production is more in line with that initial goal of melding the pop and rock sides of bowie i won't say it improves the album dramatically but songs like time will crawl and bang bang get a chance to be heard in their best light if anything it's just interesting to hear these two versions side by side but still never let me down was a letdown between never let me down's poor reception and the equally panned glass spider tour sponsored by pepsi but he realized that something needed to change he got himself a new gang of dudes featuring reeves gabriel and the hunt brothers fun fact the hunt brothers were the sons of comedian soupy sails that doesn't have any bearing on the music but it did give me an excuse to say soupy sales which when the hell am i gonna get to say that again the gang recorded new tracks in switzerland under the name tin machine and they released their first record in 1989 and their second in 1991. the material on both is easily the hardest sounding rock bowie has done since maybe man who sold the world i don't think much of it is memorable on a songwriting level but they might be worth checking out to you as a piece of history or if you want to hear bowie say the f word i mainly bring them up because of their place in bowie's career and how they helped revitalize his artistic drive in between the two tin machine albums bowie went on the sound and vision tour the hook of which being that bowie would retire those songs once the tour ended most of them would come back though young americans never did i heard the news today oh boy anyway after that tour the second tin machine album and marrying supermodel iman oe released black tie white noise in april 1993. the closest comparison i can make here is to let's dance in that it too is a well-aged product of its time bowie pulled influence from house music r b and even rap production another similarity is that nile rogers came back on to produce and once again the two seem like they really enjoyed working together tracks like the wedding jump they say you've been around the title track are all highlights i also found myself enjoying the instrumentals on here quite a bit opener the wedding intro looking for leicester palace athena especially what a good groove on that track definitely an underrated part of bowie's body of work and an excellent way to kick off the 90s the same year as black tie bowie released a soundtrack album to the bbc show the buddha of suburbia though soundtrack is a bit of a misnomer aside from the title track none of the music was used during the show bowie decided to flush out what he had written for the show and write lyrics inspired by the series so it's like bowie's black panther album to use a modern comparison considering it is a soundtrack album it's not too shabby the production feels more dated than on black tie but songs like the title track strangers when we meet and dead against it have enough enjoyable songwriting to justify their existence for some weird reason most articles and resources i found say that this isn't one of his mainline albums which i don't get like why is this one not considered part of the main discography but freaking pinups is what is wrong with people owie's next album was a reunion with brian eno as the two hadn't worked together for over 15 years both were interested in as bowie put it nibbling at the periphery of the mainstream and boy did they nibble released in september 1995 one outside the nathan adler diaries a hyper cycle is a concept album about a dystopian future where people kill each other as a form of artistic expression bowie and eno experimented with their songwriting and production as well bowie used computer software to garble his lyrics and eno gave instructions written on flash cards each day of recording such as you are the disgruntled member of a south african rock band play the notes that were suppressed i really admire bowie being 20 albums now into his career and still wanting to make this kind of experimental left field kind of music that doesn't mean i want to listen to it again but you know i admire it yeah this is one of those times where an album reflects an uncompromised artistic vision come to life which i respect but it doesn't reflect music that i want to listen to you know the hearts filthy lesson is a highlight a more industrial sounding take on the buddha of suburbia soundtrack and there are some interesting experiments sonically like hallows space boy and wishful beginnings but as a whole it feels like an awkward stepping stone between black tie and suburbia and whatever would come next even still i mean bowie was 20 albums in he could have been giving us let's dance copies for the rest of his life the fact that he was still doing stuff like this is on some level commendable not long after finishing the tour for outside bowie went back into the studio looking to continue the left field songwriting and production of the last record bowie's approach this time saw him bring in more influence from drum and bass music the result released in february 1997 was earthling to use a comparison to a past bowie album one that bowie actually made himself earthling is to dnb what young americans was to philly's soul it takes the same sonic experimentation of outside and pairs it with more accessible songwriting highlights include opener little wonder looking for satellites dead man walking and especially i'm afraid of americans which features trent rezner of nine inch nails i said it with outside and i'll say it here the fact that we got this out of bowie instead of modern love 2 electric bowie lu is remarkable and this time i can actually praise the songwriting this this is a good album and i recommend it bowie had held many titles throughout his career thus far but he was about to add a new one oe and tin machine partner reeves gabriel were brought on to do the soundtrack for omicron the nomad soul the same year the game came out an album featuring re-recorded versions of those songs among others also released that album was ours now the first thing i have to say about hours is [Music] this thing is pretty boring the first half moves at such a glacial pace and though the back half does pick the speed up it's too little too late i don't even really have any tracks i want to recommend it's just a boring album i'd say the most notable thing about ours has more to do with how it was made and released i mentioned the video game connection earlier but ours was also the first album by a major artist made available to download off the internet ours was many things an extension of bowie working in a new visual medium a way for him to use new technology it just wasn't a very good album at least 2190 hours after hours was released bowie began work on his next album which would feature both new and old tracks that album was toy and you probably haven't heard it because it was never officially released emi shoved the record in 2001 even though it was basically finished but the work on toy wasn't a total loss tony viscanti was brought on for string arrangements and he and bowie were able to rekindle their working relationship the two decided to record another album which was released in june 2002 as heathen the mood for this record was more dour than anything bowie had released in recent years a big influencing factor as many have believed was the then recent 911. even though most of the album had been written before it the events did impact the recording and production process another factor was bowie's own outlook on his career and his place in pop culture at that time there's an undercurrent of grieving throughout but that doesn't make the record unenjoyable in fact i personally enjoyed sunday slow burn and everyone says hi for their emotive balladry and unique place in bowie's discography as a whole though i wish there were more diversity with the production and as for the lyricism without spoiling the rest of the video bowie would do this kind of somber retrospecting better on other albums in my opinion i do not like that album cover i'm sorry i know we haven't even gotten to the music yet but there's something about that rendering of bowie that puts me off it's like a delicatessen made an anime character writing for the next record began shortly after heathen's release with recording taking place in new york city and tony visconti once again handling production after taking most of early 2003 to record reality was released in september of that year and i must say i like this as much as i dislike that cover this might be the most buoyant and dynamic bowie has sounded since earthling or even black tie maybe new killer star pablo picasso fall dog bombs the moon even slower tracks like the loneliest guy and the jazzy bring me the disco king which had been written all the way back in the 90s all in total an unexpectedly engaging album which is a shame considering it would be his last for a good while bowie went on tour to promote reality but during one of the concerts he unfortunately suffered a heart attack and the remaining dates were canceled the break between reality and the next album was the longest bowie went without releasing a full-length project but that doesn't mean he wasn't busy he made various one-off musical appearances tv on the radio the shrek 2 soundtrack scarlett johansson's tom waits cover album a holy trinity if i've ever heard one he also continued acting he played nikola tesla and christopher nolan's the prestige he did some voice over work in a spongebob special he played himself and ricky gervais's extras though his most famous acting from this time was probably his judging a model off in zoolander disqualified oh here's something cool he wasn't in it but wes anderson's life aquatic with steve zuzu featured bowie covers by brazilian guitarist sue georgia the covers of starman and queen [ __ ] are worth checking out especially also in 2011 that album toy i mentioned earlier got leaked onto the internet given his reduced profile and concerns about his health many believed that bowie had effectively retired from music and all things considered that's fine bowie had given us an obscene amount of incredible music during his time and it would be fine if he just wanted to scale back and enjoy the twilight years of his life if i had that opinion i would love having it until january 2013 that january bowie's website announced that he had a new album coming out and the following march it came out the next day now this was actually the first bowie album i ever heard in full since that was when i took more of an interest in music and i remember not caring for it much i i just didn't get the appeal but after having listened to everything he had done up to this point i can safely say that young mike had no taste and this album is pretty good it's a record primarily focused on the passing of time as it applies to one's legacy which you might have guessed from its graphic design is my passion-esque album cover something else you may have guessed from the cover is that sonically it pulls from the berlin era and despite being nearly 40 years old that style of production still sounds great the first six tracks might be one of the most consistent runs of songs oh he ever made from the next day to valentine's day and the back half gives way to some fascinating experiments like if you can see me with its disorientating pitch shifting even at the ripe age of 66 bowie still had something to say also worth highlighting is the next day extra featuring a ton of bonus tracks including a steve reich inspired remix of love is lost done by james murphy of lcd sound system it is one of my favorite bowie related pieces of music and i highly encourage you to listen to it bowie didn't tour for the next day so his public appearances afterwards were minimal he popped up to do background vocals on arcade fire's reflector he helped write songs for that spongebob musical he also wrote the opening music for tv series the last panthers and oh oh mike oh my god this this is excellent this should be the opening title track on his next album and he took my advice on january 8 2016 black star was released and it might just be the recency bias talking but i love this one it pushes forward the somber lyrical tone that heathen and the next day had and supplements it with jazz bowie brought in a new york jazz group led by saxophonist donnie mccaslin and again recency bias is a fickle mistress but i love this backing band dearly it's the first time since low where it feels like the rest of the musicians have as much impact on the music as bowie and together they lend these songs a dynamism that i also haven't felt in bowie's work recently one minute you're head deep in a multi-part prague jazz suite like on the title track the next bowie's reaching the emotional climax of a song with the line [Music] but aside from that one hilarious line and also [Music] the rest of the album once again tackles legacy and mortality let me put it like this if the next day was bowie looking back on his career black star is bowie looking back on his life the connections he made the things he was able to do and the things that he might not get the chance to death is probably the biggest through line in all of bowie's lyrics on here and okay i wanted to hold off on mentioning this because i didn't want it to impact your impression of this album but i feel like it kind of has to be said at this point uh two days after this album's release and david bowie's 69th birthday he he passed away he had been battling liver cancer for a year and a half something that had been kept secret up until his death and while black star has been irrevocably shaped by the close timing of bowie's death i want to make clear that this album is great on its own and one of my personal favorite bowie records play a new composition for you it's called requiem for a laughing nun it's for recorder the years since bowie's passing have mostly seen retrospective box sets live albums album remasters that remake of never let me down i mentioned earlier we also had lazarus the stage musical bowie was working on that was based on men who fell to earth and featured past bowie songs that premiered right before his death and that's been it as of this video i don't think a short blurb can really do justice to david bowie as a artist a creative a performer so i hope this little journey of mine has shown you his incalculable impact on music and pop culture as a whole and inspired you to check out some of his work if you haven't done so already and on that note if you want to get into david bowie how do we do this um let's try this here are the albums that are considered his classics here are the ones that i enjoyed personally the most here are the most underrated ones that i think you should check out after you've checked out the classics and if you have a favorite david bowie album song or performance or related thing i would love to know about it in the comments thanks for watching and since this is the last dive of the year i want to give a thanks to all of you who have watched any of the other dives i've done this year uh it's been interesting to see not only the series blow up in terms of you know who's watching it and who's suggesting artists but also the morphing production behind it if you've been watching since the start of this year or especially last year when they first started the series doesn't really look the same as it did when the year started and that's in part because i think there's a lot of potential for the series and a lot of places it could go in the future but for right now thank you for watching [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Mic The Snare

Views: 91,356

Rating: 4.9688921 out of 5

Keywords: micthesnare, mic the snare, music analysis, video essay, david bowie, bowie, ziggy stardust, let's dance, space oddity, the man who sold the world, hunky dory, life on mars, blackstar, lazarus, heroes, starman, fame, modern love, rebel rebel, changes, labyrinth, under pressure, aladdin sane, the next day, shrek 2, full album, review, reaction, live, deep discog dive

Id: gAl1WGoKy2Y

Length: 46min 50sec (2810 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 06 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/nahaalne]

This channel might honestly be my favorite music channel at the moment. The DDD's honestly give a great overview of if and how I should get into a certain artists discography

[u/Koolkatkeeley]

So glad he’s back! Was wondering when a new video would be posted.

[u/maddy12222]

I LOVE HIS CHANNEL. so underrated!! I recommend his end of year lists as well, they’re so well edited and thought-out.