Opting for a slightly lesser known album this time. Track listing: -Heaven's in Here -Tin Machine -Prisoner of Love -Crack City -I Can't Read -Under the God -Amazing -Working Class Hero -Bus Stop -Pretty Thing -Video Crime -Run (CD exclusive) -Sacrifice Yourself (CD exclusive) -Baby Can Dance -------------------------------------------- Here is a recap of the series so far: "Heroes" poll Rating: 4.28/5 "Let's Dance" poll Rating: 3.58/5 "Hunky Dory" poll Rating: 4.79/5 "Reality" poll Rating: 3.47/5 "Diamond Dogs" poll Rating: 4.27/5 "Outside" poll Rating: 3.81/5 "Station to Station" poll Rating: 4.73/5
Both Tin Machine albums--essential listening, a true classic. And it's always struck me as ridiculous that that's not the consensus view of them.
I'm fairly fond of the two Tin Machine albums. They're not exactly groundbreaking stuff but they should keep you entertained for 50 minutes.
Another one of Bowie's great science fiction albums, this one takes place in Crack City, where the master dealers lurk in subways, streets, and the gutters of hell. While the nation's turning blue, Bowie begs his girlfriend to "just stay square" and vows to break any thug who "maps out her passage to ruin." Crack City is a place where skinheads beat on blacks with baseball bats and is so violent, "tribesmen wouldn't want to live here." Bowie cries, "take me anywhere," the rock icons "play guitars that bequeath you pain." They're corrupt with shaky visions, and "crack, and coke, and alcohol." It is such a bleak place that even "a man at odds with the Bible" gets on his knees and prays at the bus stop.
Essential. My first 'Bowie' album and where it all started for me, 28 years ago. That's it for now...
Had the cassette. Crack City and I Can't Read --- I played those a lot----but after a few months, I moved on.
Wikipedia: Bowie later rejected the idea that Reeves, Hunt and Tony were backing members of his band. "The Sales brothers would never accept having another boss. They are far too stubborn and aware of their own needs. They're not in the market to be anybody's backing band, either of them. You do not f*** with the Sales brothers, or Reeves Gabrels."
Its a weird case where I swore up and down I loved it when it came out originally, and have never listened to it since then. Maybe I should?
-Heaven's in Here - One of my all time favourite Bowie songs, sounds stunning today. The 1991 BBC Evening Session is awesome too. -Tin Machine - A very capable song, not quite in the same league as Heaven's in Here -Prisoner of Love - I love this song, the opening guitar into the dramatic vocals and change in tempo is beautiful. Haunting song. -Crack City - Another favourite, great relevant lyrics of its time. -I Can't Read - A little long for my tastes this song. I would happily but this down, love the twisted ending though. -Under the God - This one is a MASTERPIECE!!! A brave anthem for or about a broken generation, powerful, political, passionate and Bowie gives one of his most underrated performances during the Hamburg gig. YOU'RE DEAD YOU JUST AIN'T BURIED YET -Amazing - This could be sung by many of the 90s Grunge bands, love, love, love this track. -Working Class Hero - Not a fan. The original is just too powerful for me. (as an aside, I prefer the Anthology version) -Bus Stop - Nothing wrong with this, not a classic but I quite like it. -Pretty Thing - I am not a fan of this track. The drumming just annoys me and the silly vocals are off putting. -Video Crime - Love this track because a parent hated it. The teenager in me breaking out there. -Run (CD exclusive) - I like this track very much. Very smooth song. -Sacrifice Yourself (CD exclusive) - Not a favourite, I wouldn't miss it. -Baby Can Dance - A great ending to the album, a very cool track. Italics above are mine. One of my favourite albums ever. I picked Essential as I believe it is an essential album that receives a poor reception for reasons that escape me. This album has a lot to say and its relevance is as 'essential' now as ever before.
It's somewhere between "So-so" and "Pretty great" for me. It's good and it was his best since Scary Monsters for sure, after a string of creative duds. It was like - David's back.
i can only vote so-so for both TM albums as they are, IMO, only 50% decent. for me the gap between the considered tracks and the knocked-off "filler" is too big for them to ever be considered great, let alone classic. some truly dreadful lyrics and ill-fitting political posturing. BUT i rate some of this album very highly, namely Heaven's In Here, I Can't Read, Amazing and Baby Can Dance, and enjoy the title track, Prisoner Of Love and Under The God (some cringeworthy lyrics aside). had it been trimmed to 10 songs it would have been much stronger. TMII has both better and worse songs, the best of the two combined might make people reconsider this maligned period.
Crack band, rockin' tunes. And you can dance to it! I give it an 85 Dick! Seriously, this is a respectable rock record and one that I return to often.
It's important to look at the songwriting credits here: David Bowie: Heaven's In Here Crack City Under The God Pretty Thing Baby Can Dance Bowie/Gabrels: I Can't Read Amazing Bus Stop Bowie/Sales/Sales/Gabrels Tin Machine Prisoner Of Love Bowie/Sales/Sales Sacrifice Yourself Video Crimes Armstrong/Bowie Run On Tin Machine II, only one song (A Big Hurt) is credited solely to Bowie.
I like it pretty well, but not every song is memorable and Bowie's catalog is littered with better albums.
Well, the production is miles better than Tonight or NLMD, but hard rock just bores me to death. So except for I Can't Read which I quite like, and a bit of Amazing and Baby Can Dance that are "good-enough" for me... I mostly never listen to this stuff. Not that it's bad, just not my cup of tea. Tin Machine II is a bit more pop-oriented and slower, so I tend to prefer it.
I went with pretty great. The album always felt too long for me, though, so I would have preferred if they had kept a few tracks off ("Working Class Hero" for instance).
