A whole album like this would have been a more suitable follow up to Let's Dance. Irony is that album exists scattered across various 12".
Listening so far I am not really fond of Tonight except for the two obvious tracks. Never Let me Down on the other hand is really much better thank expected. I just bought an old cd for "too dizzy" but waited with the real listening for the box. Might be that I grew up in the 80s and am used to the typical 80s production.
I thought it was the waveform of "Let's Dance", and not of Let's Dance. Now I understand why it looked that horrid. As you zoom out it, those brickwalled albums look even worse. Now it looks "not very promising" only. I'm probably not going to get this box until next year, so my ear judgement will have to wait.
Regarding Let's Dance: It doesn't sound horrid as some suggests. DR 7~9. Definitely louder and compressed than the previous box sets, but doesn't sound like any other ear-fatiguing or brickwalled-to-death recordings. Live albums have better DR range, but sounds like there's something missing. Both sounds thin, and the '83 show is incomplete. Take your time, listen to them and judge for yourself.
Feel NLMD 2018 is a big improvement on the original album but anyone else somewhat annoyed with Reeves Gabrels that he supposingly talked Bowie out of redoing the album for years...Bowie should have just done it without him. Do people think this will get a stand alone vinyl release?
Tonight is an album that's been gathering dust for decades here, and it had turned into a memory of the genius 'Loving the Alien', the decent 'Blue Jean' and seven awful slices of muzak. Gotta say that there were a few great surprises when it went on the stereo last night. 'Don't Look Down' was utterly lovely. And 'Tumble & Twirl' is rather wonderful as well. I can now honestly claim to like a song that Mark King plays bass on. The title track is still a dreadfully mangled wreck of Iggy's classic, though. Among others. If only he'd bothered. In a nutshell, Never Let Me Down was Bowie trying too hard and Tonight was him not trying at all ...
It is a shame that EMI didn't agree to there being a live album released in 1984, if Tonight had come out a year later, he would have had time to write and record more songs. Around the time of Live Aid he was recording a lot of the soundtrack stuff that filtered out in 1986, the band that recorded Dancing In The Street also recorded Absolute Beginners material. When I look at the track listing of Tonight, there isn't a lot really that I don't like, although the title track is one of his worst and should never have come out, I was pretty shocked when I first heard that. Tonight, with a little more effort could have been so much better. It is ordinary and that is probably the biggest crime Bowie could do, be ordinary. As you say, with NLMD it was kind of the opposite, he was trying too hard. It was an album that was made specifically for the tour, the fact that nearly every song was played on the opening leg proves this. Yet he opens the album with Day In Day Out instead of Glass Spider. Having GS open the second side was a mistake, especially when the album is translated to CD, so that GS is slap bang in the middle of the track list, as least opening a side made more sense. Day In Day Out shouldn't have opened the album and shouldn't have been the first single either. It was way too noisy and cluttered, it is a song I have never overly liked that much. The sad thing is that at the launch of the tour and album he was so excited, he really thought he was back on track and so did I, some of the things he said at the launch he repeated verbatim two years later at the Tin Machine launch. NLMD was a misfire I guess, it was an attempt to get back to a more hands on, exciting kind of music, but it was out of step with what people wanted. I have a soft spot for both these albums, Tonight was the first "NEW" Bowie album I bought and NLMD gave me the chance to see Bowie live on my 21st birthday.
Well said. That tour was light entertainment for the masses - it wasn't rock or art. Glass Spider was much better, even if it went too far.
What's curious is that the booklet in this new box says they recorded 7 Bowie penned tunes during these sessions.
Damn, I wish I felt the same. Alas..... Glass Spider is a muddled mess of a thing. For me it's just as poor as Serious Moonlight, albeit different. I really can't find much to like about GS. It was just a mistake, imo.
Interesting. Chilly Down has the same band as Absolute beginners and there was an earlier version called Wild Things. It’s possivle that some of the other Labyrinth songs were debuted at these sessions.
I had the same immediate response to those guitars. They seemed really heavy and out of place. Like the drum track on SS and the strings on BB and BOYD, but at least the strings are somewhat throughout, unlike one random song with a metal guitar
The black triangle absolutely is, and I assume the other masterings at release were too. Let’s Dance is an extremely well recorded and produced album.
gotta say enjoying things a lot so far taking my time and dwelling on tonight for awhile. honestly I really dig the album no it's not the greatest but its a chill little album. happy to have most of the remixes now, when I was first getting into bowie in the early 2000s I would grab anything I found in the dollar bin so needless to say I ended up with a nice collection of 80s material and 12" singles I had some fun once or twice playing tonight through but swapping in the remixes so lots of changing records and turntable speeds! now I can just do it with a quick sequencing on my computer(I think it is better with the remixes in...)
True enough. I was thinking of the single new "Modern Love" waveform screencap someone posted. No real baseline. Yes, this: Let's Dance Waveforms.pdf demonstrates a big ol' mess.
Okay I have heard the Let's Dance 2018 remaster... It's compression city and it's thick with EQ, it's overdone, it's sludgy, it doesn't breathe at all. It's not a patch on the original JPN CD which has actual slam and is airy and grooves. You could listen and dance your feet off to it all day. Another disappointing Bowie remaster to avoid IMO.
I haven't heard about this, but if Reeves was "talking Bowie out if it" in order to encourage Bowie to keep his focus on creating new music, then I think it worked out for the best.
I hate the Tonight album and have droned on for years about much preferring Never Let Me Down, but like your post and words. Interestingly I don’t mind the title track as much as you. It’s side two that’s a horror for me, apart from Blue Jean. I love good pop, listen still to a lot of 80s stuff, but side two is just terrible for me
I'd be interested in knowing the source. Bowie recorded after Reeves moved on, so if he'd wanted to do NLMD again, surely he could have?
I've been learning to enjoy Tonight since the box hit. For sure, it's the final three tracks on Side Two that are the biggest issues. I'm coming to the idea that it's "fun" because it's so unlike anything Bowie had done before. It makes me smile if nothing else.
I’ve spun Tonight 4 times in last few weeks and enjoying it more than ever. Just enjoying it for what it is. Nothing groundbreaking. I used to view it as the album with LTA, BJean and other “stuff”.
