Bowie, David Survivor - Reality

[cobl04]

in at the end.

Sunday and Slow Burn are through to the playoffs.

Now we move on to Reality. Some say Bowie liked this album and the subsequent tour so much that he got too excited and it took him more than 10 years to calm down and make something new.

Vote for one song.

 

[iron yuppie]

There is only one correct vote here, and that is Bring Me the Disco King. His best song probably as far back as Heroes.

 

[cobl04]

Really enjoyed my first spin through, perhaps even more so than Heathen. Will have to listen again to pick a song, though Bring Me the Disco King was pretty impressive. Interesting to note that it was recorded for both Black Tie White Noise and Earthling but didn't make the cut for either.

 

[lazarus]

At least he re-recorded it for this album, unlike how he just copied Strangers When We Meet onto another album, one it didn't even belong on.

I'm leaning towards Disco King as well. Other candidates would include She'll Drive The Big Car and Fall Dog Bombs The Moon.

The Harrison cover is great.

Heathen is still better overall.

 

[bono_212]

I haven't heard this one, but I'm really excited to, since it's surrounded by two of my favorite albums of his.

 

[cobl04]

I think I like every track. This is great. I'll vote for Disco King, but there's heaps of other great moments like Never Get Old, Looking for Water, Fall Dog Bombs the Moon (great guitar)...

 

[LemonMelon]

Fall Dog is probably my pick, I'll skim through this later.

Of tracks not mentioned so far, New Killer Star is also really good.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

it was really tough to pick one for this one. i was tossing it up between a couple songs. ugh.

 

[LemonMelon]

I forgot how good Disco King is. This is tough.

 

[cobl04]

Hmm, I think I'm gonna change my vote to Fall Dog, I love the guitar too much.

 

[LemonMelon]

Laz is going with Disco King, so if you're switching over to Fall Dog, I'll vote for it too. I want both to go through.

 

[cobl04]

So it seems clear to me that Heathen and Reality were very much a step up on pretty much everything since Super Monsters, if not further back. Where do people rank the two in terms of his discography? I saw some rate Heathen in the top few. Does The Next Day shape up compared to Heathen and Reality?

 

[lazarus]

I think Heathen and Reality are a bit more consistent than The Next Day, which has a couple disposable tracks.

 

[bono_212]

I haven't ever heard anyone give a lot of praise to Reality before today, so this is an interesting change of direction. I'm about to listen to it. I'll be back.

 

[LemonMelon]

I wouldn't call Reality consistent by any stretch. The sequencing is bizarre (the title track into Disco King is WTF), Days has never been a favorite of mine and two covers? Really?

Obviously with three extra tracks, yeah, The Next Day has a couple of clunkers, but it feels a lot more natural as a full album than Reality does IMO. Heathen is pretty consistent too.

 

[lazarus]

Well, there are THREE covers on Heathen so I can't penalize Reality too much. And I find his cover of Try Some, Buy Some genuinely moving.

The sequencing on Reality is a bit off, but I'm talking about consistency of the song quality, not the impact of the album as a whole. I just don't find any of the tracks particularly bad. But on The Next Day, I often actively skip Boss Of Me, If You Can See Me, sometimes How Does The Grass Grow.

Heathen has the edge because it's consistent and feels all of a linear piece.

 

[LemonMelon]

Holy shit, there are 3 covers on Heathen. Outside of Cactus, it never occurred to me. Good work by Bowie and Visconti making the album work so well as a whole.

In hindsight, it's impressive that The Next Day is all original material. Or it would be if he hadn't made us wait 9 years for it.

 

[bono_212]

Well...I think I'll end up throwing my vote away...my favorite tracks were "Never Get Old" and "Days"...and by a wide margin, at that.


REALLY enjoyed the album, though.

 

[iron yuppie]

I haven't listened to The Next Day all that often on account of finding it really underwhelming the first few times through. I'd place both Heathen and Reality significantly above it, though I'm interested to see how I feel about it when I give it another listen.