How would you rate "Let's Dance" (1983) by David Bowie?

Scary Monsters was brilliant and totally captivating - IMHO the last album that really consumed you as much as you did it. Let's Dance needed more of a subconscious push to keep listening to, but on the whole I still thought it was pretty good, and the start of the title song remains one of the most joyous things to hear.

 

First three songs are great - the rest is quite forgetable. I'm a huge fan but don't remember one of them. Perhaps I should give it another spin.

 

I agree, apart from Black Tie, White Noise, The Buddha of Suburbia, Outside, Earthling, Heathen, Reality, The Next Day, and BlackStar. And Tin Machine, and various live albums.

Tim

 

In the top 25% of his releases

 

Corrected it for you.

 

Corrected it for you

 

Corrected it for you

 

How would the next guy after you rate "Let's Dance" (1983) by David Bowie?

 

Is it just me, or does "Modern Love" sound poor compared to the next two tracks. I wonder if it was recorded digitally or at some other studio?

 

I was never a fan of SRVs overdubbed and out of context blues riffing. He was a great guitarist for sure, but this record could have used someone like Fripp, Belew or Ribot to give it some dimension.

 

Fantastic record; great song craft all the way through. I think the mix of SRV's blues guitar and Nile Rodgers' funk guitar was a brilliant idea.

 

I didn't like it. I never cared for Bowie's 80's pop phase, though I did really like Scary Monsters.

 

That's not what I hear.

 

A so-so for me.
When it appeared, I loved it. It fitted perfectly with the times, the 'orrible 80s and all that. I had just met my wife to be and we were enjoying London and everything, and we saw him at Wembley Empire Pool arena. Fabuloso.
However it soon dated and I don't think I've played it since!

 

I relistened to it recently. It's halfcut and half hollow but nowhere near as bad as Tonight, which is a complete shambles of an album which has only one 7" single's worth of decency about it.

 

"Let's Dance,

Put on your red shoes

And then put them away in a cupboard for the rest of time.."

 

I think this album is worth a listen.
It was the first "Bowie" Cd I ever owned, and ultimately the only 80's Cd [by him] I still have. Lots of great (good) singles after that, but nothing like the trio on Let's Dance.

 

I voted pretty great, mostly because of Criminal World which I absolutely love. I can listen to it ten times in a row, which is something I don't often do with Bowie's songs.

Then, the album had different goals from what he was trying to achieve earlier, but I think it does its job quite well. It's really not trying to be as good as Station to Station, that's not the point here.

Too bad it's not Moroder's version of Cat People on the album.

My only problem is that almost everyone around me in France thinks that he only did Let's Dance. But well, that's their problem.

 

While not his best work, if I were to recommend a Bowie album to a casual listener, I would recommend this one. Whether it is commercial crap or not is irrelevant.

 

Voted so-so. Not as bad as many would have you think, but surely a step down from what came before. Still like the production, and the singles off it. Bowie only brought 5 new songs to the table, Let's Dance, Modern Love (both good), Ricochet (ambitious, but not very good), Shake it and Without You. Given that it had been 2,5 years since he finished Scary Monsters, it was clear he was entering writer's block. However, the real disaster came the next year.....

 

Really interesting interview from 83 about the album and what prompted it. Moving away from the nihilist, experimental approach to a more general, constructive way and writing simple honest songs. The change came since his son began to ask him the bigger questions. In the interview he talks about working with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Oshima, about making films, his other albums and liking Lodger, people not buying Iggy's albums and wanting to direct movies himself and doing non commercial stuff. This offers insight into the man's state of mind, which apparently was more than just wanting to be incredibly successfull. The interviewers are good and start by pointing out that Bowie seems to be extremely positive these days ...

 

It's due to the problen with French media (for decades).

 

Outside and Earthling make Scary Monsters seem tame.

 

I read an interview with Bowie around that time and he said his back to basics approach was due to Lennon's murder. Around the Ziggy era Bowie thought he might be murdered on stage. When it happened to Lennon he thought it was time to stop all the excess and get back to basics.

 

Never play it. Come to think I'm not sure I have it. China Girl video was good though.