What are your two favourite David Bowie albums post 'Scary Monsters'?

Outside is weight down by its fair share of filler, in particular the Seague pieces and for been too long. But if you trim it to its highlights i really consider it to be equal to some of his 70's output. Give a chance to songs like I'm Deranged, Through These Architect Eyes, Strangers When We Meet, The Voyeur, Outside and Hearts Filthy Lesson.

 

Outside doesn't work for me as "an album" (all the little segue pieces wreck it) - but there are a BUNCH of tunes on it that I really like. I see the post right above mine (snuck in before me!) says exactly what I would have said...

Every one of those tunes is top-drawer Bowie in my book.

 

I prefer the vinyl track sequence of Outside. Leaner and more focused, but it needs the segue links IMO. I agree with you that 'I'm Deranged' & 'Filthy Lesson' are up there with his great 70's work.

 

That's funny. I don't know. Maybe I was just really enthusiastic in my fandom, but I found his earlier albums (well from Man Who Sold the World to Lodger anyway) more consistent over all.
I'd say they break down like this...
Man Who Sold the World - 9/9 - my favorite album
Hunky Dory - 9/11 - a couple I'm not crazy about but overall great.
Ziggy - 9/11 - Great album... but not a big fan of "It Ain't Easy" or "Five Years"
Aladdin Sane - 10/10 - although to me Ziggy reaches higher heights
Pin Ups - 7/12
Diamond Dogs - 4/11 - the good songs are great... but lots of filler to me
Young Americans - 7/8
Station to Station - 6/6
Low - 8/11 - but that's mostly due to the instrumentals which I'm lukewarm on
"Heroes" - 9/10 - I like these instrumentals better
Lodger - 9/10

 

I'll have to revisit. Although I feel like I've been down that path before on this album.

 

Agree that the highlights on Outisde are great work. Strangers when we met, despite being a lovely song, always felt a little 'tacked on at the end' to me though. As if it didn't really fit but wanted to end the record on an up. He may have just wanted more people to hear it - Buddha of Surburbia wasn't a big seller. Sadly.

 

Although there are a couple of blatant omissions on the vinyl, i think you're right. The MOV release is a vey nice pressing too.

 

Cheaper than an original, that's for sure.

 

I don't think the original cover helped. Worst artwork on any Bowie release.

 

Gack, I'd forgotten all about that cover (mine is the revamped issue, 100x better).

Yeah, that original cover was just appalling.

 

Outside with Earthling

 

Let's Dance, and does Tin Machine count?

 

Yeah, "Strangers" definitely doesn't fit on Outside, but I agree it's a great tune.

Don't blame Bowie for wanting to elevate it beyond the Buddha soundtrack, but it does seem like a total afterthought tacked on the end of Outside like that.

 

Hard to choose, since I think that most of his output since Scary Monsters, while not always as great as his 70's work, have some fantastic material.

Let's Dance stands the test of time.

Tonight and Never Let Me Down only shares a handful of memorable songs between them.

Unfortunately Bowie, like many others, fell for the need to include more material on his albums because the CD medium made it possible.

An album like Tin Machine 1, would for me have been among his greatest albums, had it not included the over-the-top half-baked tracks between Bus Stop and Baby Can't Dance.

Tin Machine II are okay.

Black Tie, White Noise has some extremely good material, again plodded down by some half-baked tracks.

I like Buddha Of Surburbia, though, and find it fine in length, except the reprise of the title track (why...?)

1.Outside is the same. While the best of the album rivals his 70's work, there are too many segue's and the tracks generally plays for too long.

While Earthling and '...hours', Heathen, Reality and The Next Day are more edited efforts, they could all have lost a track or two.

My two favourites among all of these albums are Let's Dance and a toss-up between Heathen and The Next Day (can't choose among those two).

 

buddha of suburbia is the best one! i sort of date his recovery to that album nobody heard....

 

Let's Dance and Tin Machine.

 

Tough to choose but I will vote Reality and Outside

 

heathen & reality, followed closely by outside.

 

Tin Machine and Outside. I still play Outside constantly, and good lord this record is nearly 20 years old now! How did that happen...?

 

Well, I guess Outside's gotta go, if you insist.

 

But soundtracks rarely are, unless the movie is a hit. It wasn't really promoted as a Bowie album either as I recall.

 

Yes! That 3rd disc of the Live at the Beeb CD is pure awesome! The live version of "Let's Dance" is just astounding.

As for my two faves post-Scary Monsters, it would have to be Heathen at #2 and The Next Day at #1. Although I was surprised to realize a year or so ago that Reality is actually a much more even release than Heathen. Unfortunately, it lacks the 1-2 punch of "Slow Burn" and "Slip Away".

Also, I disagree with the notion that The Next Day is Bowie's best album since Scary Monsters. It's actually his best album since "Heroes"... I don't know WTF happened to *that* guy between 1977 and 2012, but he suddenly cropped up again in January, 2013. Bizarre.

Other acts have had "comebacks", but I've never seen an artist truly "come back", as if from the dead, like that before. We had three decades of records put out with the name Bowie stamped on them that - even at their best - seldom really approached what the actual artist named Bowie was able to accomplish from '69 - '77. And then out of the clear blue sky drops The Next Day, like some artifact that passed thru a wormhole from another time, one that's - for the first time in decades - recognizably crafted by the same guy who'd brought you "Drive In Saturday", "We Are The Dead" and "Moss Garden" back in the day.

 

May you post the vinyl sequence,please?

 

Let's Dance and Heathen!

 

I always thought The Motel, Outside and Strangers When We Meet were the strongest tracks on Outside.