Re Al B Sure, my understanding was that Lenny Kravitz was the first choice for dueting on the title track.
Pretty sure they use the vocal tracks from the other versions, but wouldn’t like to say all from disc 1 or disc 2.
I think a lot depends on where you were on your Bowie journey when you first heard certain albums. Re BTWN, I'd expect someone who got into him around Let's Dance to be more receptive to BTWN than someone who'd been there since the 70s...and for those for whom it was their first Bowie album, well, it's probably the same phenomenon that explains why some people think In Through The Out Door is the best Zep album
I think Bowie himself was conscious of this. I remember an interview he did in 1999 on, I think, VH1. He said something along the lines of "depending on when people started listening to my music, they seem to have a completely different idea of what I do".
I got into Bowie when I was in middle school, and at the time I got into him Earthling was his latest album. hours… was the first new album Bowie released since I got into him and I listened to it multiple times because it was the new Bowie album and I was smitten with all things Bowie. Even back then I preferred an album like BTWN (although I inexplicably didn’t like Let’s Dance at the time). I haven’t had the urge to listen to hours… since then. I’ve listened to NLMD more to be honest.
Thank you. It sure sounds like that to me but didn’t know if it was confirmed anywhere. It makes many of the unplugged tracks sound “off” to me since his vocal style for those tracks were recorded for loud electric instruments, not soft acoustic guitars.
Surprised by the “Hours” bashing here. I always thought it was very well regarded, at least when it came out. The first five tracks are certainly as good as anything he produced post “Scary Monsters”. Far better as a whole than Heathen and The Next Day in my option. Back on topic, I’m loving the vinyl “Toy” package. The 10” vinyl concept is really cool and the pressings sound flawless.
Again I think it differs with each listener. I first got into Bowie aged 7 in 1980, seeing the Ashes to Ashes video on Top of the Pops. Then a friend lent me the Ziggy album, and it snowballed from there. But to this day I adore Let’s Dance, Tonight and Labyrinth too. Was never keen on BTWN, but loved Buddha, and Outside, but wasn’t so keen on Earthing through to Reality, but adore Next Day, the Sue EP and Blackstar. Hours, Heathen and Reality just seem strangely ‘dull’ to me, like Bowie was very aware by that point of his position in the music world, aware of what the fans expected, rather than just going for it and seeing where the pieces fell… perhaps it’s partly the production too which seems ‘vacuum packed’ to me, with little real life (my opinion of all this material is FAR more positive when he performed them live). For myself, I think I tend to ‘judge’ each track on purely musical terms first & foremost, does it ‘hit the spot’, does something in it real me in, rather than looking at it from a perspective of being a track/album by Bowie per-se. I have noticed I do tend to gravitate towards his music where he’s playing a roll/character and one gets that transported into the ‘Bowie-verse’ sense, which is hard to nail down in words (!) but you know it when you hear it… I adore Blackstar for the same reason, it seems 100% ‘pure’ undiluted Bowie, not surprising given the circumstances of its creation.
I repeat what I said in the other thread... I seriously hope whomever squashed this release back in the day has nothing to do with the music industry anymore. They are obviously clueless as this is a great album.
I enjoy You've Got a Habit of Leaving, Conversation Piece, Shadow Man, In the Heat of the Morning, You Turn to Drive, and Let Me Sleep Beside You, which is easily his greatest song prior to 1969. However, I do tend to prefer the original version of the songs.
Bowie is so diverse that it’s impossible to tangibly pick his worst album as it depends on the person. As you say vive La difference.
I got bitten by the Bowie bug in 1993, so BTWN was my first "new" Bowie album, and that will probably always color my opinion of it. I played it endlessly at the time. Nowadays, I think about 1/2 of it is excellent ("You've Been Around", "Jump They Say", "Miracle Goodnight", "Nite Flights", "I Feel Free") and the rest is more mixed. If I had to broadly categorize the albums from the Brilliant Adventures era, I'd rank them like this: GREAT Outside GOOD Buddha of Suburbia, Earthling FAIR Black Tie White Noise NOT GOOD Hours It's too early to classify Toy, for me. Right now, I'm spinning it a lot and really enjoying it, and would call it Good for pulling off the same trick as Buddha: recalling Bowie's past with a mostly fresh spin. But only time will tell; the new-ness/novelty of it may be artificially inflating my assessment.
Those are the better tracks, but the production lets them down. Like that vocal effect on You've Been Around, it's like singing while burping underwater, or that cheesy siren like guitar sound on Nite Flights. And the horns sound off on the entire album, which wasn't Lester's fault. So for those reasons I'm glad I was born a bit earlier.
Yeah. It sounded cheesily dated to me when it first came out, and that feeling has never gone away, with the exception of Jump which I consider a masterpiece, and somewhat out of place on this album.
As a music heretic, I personally believe that Outside, with some additions and modifications, can go toe to toe with any of his previous work and come out on top.
...and down... The production, and the arrangements. eg to me, the track BTWN almost sounds idiotic in a way, as does Miracle Goodnight. I think Nile screwed up completely this time, burying half a decent album's worth of songs in overly dense mixes or production, whatever. When I think of BTWN as a whole, it evokes 4am coked-up nightclub superficiality. Not that I've tried that, you understand...
Listened to this last night. Honestly, this is a pleasant little diversionary released, larded into something that the art doesn't really support. If this had been a detour album released around 2000, the way it was supposed to be, it would have been fine. Not essential, but not bad. But magnified into this massively overpriced deluxe box as its first stand-alone release...no. Can't see myself revisiting this one too often.
As I’ve said numerous times before: if ALL of Outside was as good as the best 60% of Outside… then it would be my #2 all time favorite Bowie album (after Blackstar at #1).
Which is why I was hoping that a Separate Mini Box Set(that was instead made for Toy) was going to be made for 1.Outside with the Leon Sessions, which has been discussed as originally part of that project. I would have had it ordered and in my hands already, despite the likely Brickwalled DR Numbers, if similar to the Toy Album and 2 other CDs in that Mini Box Set. Oh well, hope we still get this potential 1. Outside/Leon Sessions Mini Box Set in the near future. Outside(no pun intended) of Station to Station and Scary Monsters, my Favorite Bowie Albums are the ones he collaborated on with Brian Eno.
I am really enjoying the ‘acoustic’ stuff on disk 3 of this set. Might become my go to way of hearing this material now
Love this album. Love this set. Especially love the cover art and how it’s upsetting and disturbing people. What a grand lark from beyond the grave.
I listened to Uncle Floyd last night. What a beautiful piece. It deserved a better home than Toy. On a separate note, I have rearranged the Toy tracks and added some extras to make a complete 'Toy Sessions' album. Chronological order of original song dates works much better in my opinion. It seems to flow better than the official release. I really struggle with Karma Man. It's far and away the most horrid thing on it. The strings on Silly Boy Blue are pure Love Kraft-era Super Furry Animals.