Released on September 2, 1991 by Victory Records, Tin Machine II is the second and final studio release from the band as it marks a continuation into loud, abrasive rock n’ roll as well as experiment into the world of industrial rock and other forms of music that was part of the culture of alternative rock. Produced with Tim Palmer and Hugh Padgham, the album has the band not just up the ante into their sound but also add more melodic elements as vocalist/guitarist/saxophonist David Bowie, guitarist Reeves Gabrels, bassist/vocalist Tony Sales, and drummer/vocalist Hunt Sales along with guitarist/keyboardist Kevin Armstrong provide an album that is all rock and nothing else.
The album’s three singles in Baby Universal, One Shot, and You Belong in Rock N’ Roll showcase a band coming into its own as Baby Universal is this fast, upbeat rocker with some hard-hitting rhythms, soaring guitar work, and Bowie’s blaring vocals as it includes some very intense lyrics about a world gone wrong. One Shot is this mid-tempo cut that owes a lot to the style of the Pixies in terms of being soft in some parts but loud in other parts with Bowie singing joyful yet fun lyrics with his voice and some bopping rhythms from the Sales brothers that really make the song stand out. You Belong in Rock N’ Roll is a song that mixes elements of folk with a bopping rhythm that includes Tony Sales’ melodic bass lines and some guitar spurts from Gabrels as Bowie sings some very cool lyrics that expresses the world of love. A cover of Roxy Music’s If There is Something has the band giving the song a more upbeat approach with some hard-hitting drums while Gabrels provides some blazing solos with Bowie bring very calm in his vocals until its coda as he sings Bryan Ferry’s abstract lyrics as it’s a fantastic cover.
Amlapura is this slow, folk-based ballad that has Bowie singing some calm, somber lyrics while playing a 12-string acoustic as it is later filled by some intense instrumentation by the Hunt brothers and Gabrels’ soothing yet wailing guitar. Betty Love is a track that features mid-tempo rhythms, crunchy guitar riffs, and soothing vocals from Bowie that also has him playing saxophone while the more driving rocker You Can’t Talk as Bowie sing some weird vocals with some pulsating rhythms as well as displaying some playful riffs with him and Gabrels where the latter provide some solos. Shopping for Girls is one of the album’s darkest tracks as it relates to the world of child prostitution where it’s this mid-tempo track with some swirling guitars by Gabrels and folk-based guitars where Bowie sings very fast as it plays into some dark imagery in the song.
Hunt Sales sings lead vocals on two tracks in the blues-based Stateside that features a slow, steady rhythm, only to go fast in its bridge, with some wailing solo from Gabrels with Hunt providing some bluesy lyrics to a growling vocal with Tony Sales and Bowie singing backup. The other in Sorry is this folk-based track with acoustic textures and low-key saxophones from Bowie while Hunt Sales sing some somber lyrics in his wailing vocals with Gabrels providing soft textures into the guitar. A Big Hurt is this hard-hitting rocker with blazing drums and squealing guitars with Bowie being very confrontational and playful while singing in a wailing snarl that showcases a sense of energy to the song. The album closer Goodbye Mr. Ed is this driving, mid-tempo track that has Bowie sing some strange, dream-like lyrics as it plays into the world gone wrong as it features a steady rhythm as well as some cool guitar textures from Gabrels. The song would feature a secret track called Hammerhead as it is this upbeat instrumental filled with bopping rhythms, wailing guitars, and a blaring saxophone from Bowie.
Tin Machine II is a marvelous album from Tin Machine. Not only is it a more focused and realized album from the band but it also showcases that the band can provide something that is accessible but also loud. In the end, Tin Machine II is an excellent album from Tin Machine.
Studio Releases: David Bowie (1967 album) - David Bowie (1969 album) - The Man Who Sold the World - Hunky Dory - The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars - Aladdin Sane - Pin Ups - Diamond Dogs - Young Americans - Station to Station - Low - "Heroes" - Lodger - Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) - Let’s Dance - Tonight - Never Let Me Down - Tin Machine - Black Tie White Noise - Outside - Earthling - ‘Hours…’ - Heathen - Reality - The Next Day - *
Live Releases: David Live - Stage - Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars - Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby - Bowie at the Beeb - (Live at Fashion Rocks (w/ Arcade Fire)) - (Live Santa Monica ‘72) - (Glass Spider Live) - (VH1 Storytellers) - (A Reality Tour)
Soundtracks: Christiane F. - Labyrinth - The Buddha of Suburbia
Miscellaneous: Peter and the Wolf - Baal - Sound + Vision - (Early On (1964-1966)) - (All Saints) - Toy - (Nothing Has Changed)
© thevoid99 2016
Released on September 1, 1984 by EMI Records, Tonight is the sixteenth studio album by David Bowie that has him doing something uncharacteristically in his career which was to repeat the successful formula of his previous album. Produced with Hugh Padgham and Derek Bramble, the album features not just a few new songs that includes a couple of collaborations with friend Iggy Pop but also remakes of some of older songs Bowie made with Pop as well as covers. Also featuring contributions from longtime collaborator Carlos Alomar as well as appearances from Pop and Tina Turner. The album would mark a period of mediocrity and questionable choices for an artist who was used to not playing by the rules.
The album’s high points come in the form of two of its singles in Blue Jean and Loving the Alien. The former is an upbeat dance-based track with blazing horns, a steady rhythm, and Bowie’s low-baritone vocals that play into playful lyrics about flirting and scoring with women as it’s one of Bowie’s finest singles. The latter is a mid-tempo yet somber track with loud and big rhythms from Omar Hakim’s drums and Carmine Roja’s smooth bass that also includes some marimbas in the background and ethereal guitar flourishes. Bowie’s vocals in its mixture of falsetto and baritone is a highlight as well as its lyrics that play into the many conflicts that revolve around faith.
Another single in the album’s title cut is a remake of a song that Bowie co-wrote with Iggy Pop from 1977’s Lust for Life as it’s given a smooth and playful reggae makeover in a duet with Tina Turner. Removing the song’s original intro that was much darker in its original version, Bowie would go for something that is more pop-driven with its slow and steady rhythm that suits more to Turner’s vocal range as it’s a good interpretation but cuts a lot of what made the original song so special. Two other remakes of songs that Pop did are also presented such as Don’t Look Down from 1979’s New Values and Neighborhood Threat from Lust for Life. The former is given a more smooth, bass-driven jazz-inspired take that sounds good but its flourishes of reggae and Bowie’s vocals to the song definitely gives the overall presentation a dull one. The original version was more interesting in its mixture of rock and jazz but what Bowie does isn’t very good.
In the latter, it’s a song where the production really suffers as it is clear Bowie wants to create a song that is a full-on rocker but the added elements of synthesizers and backing vocals just ruins it as it just indicative of the kind of music made in the 1980s. Two songs that Bowie would co-write with Pop in Tumble and Twirl and Dancing with the Big Boys showcases Bowie’s take on the world of pop music. The former is this bopping and funky track with blazing horns and mixtures of driving guitars by Alomar as it features very silly lyrics of beach-based imagery where it’s a song that wants to be upbeat but it’s all over the place. In the latter that is co-written with Alomar and serves as the album closer, it’s a song that features big drums, a blazing horn section, big backing vocals, and a driving guitar. It’s a song that is 80s in terms of its production yet Bowie and Pop manage to do some excellent work in the vocals as they interplay while singing lyrics that play into the struggle of man vs. conformity.
The album also features two covers as the first is a cover of the Beach Boys’ God Only Knows as it is one of the worst things Bowie had ever done as his baritone-heavy vocals doesn’t fit in with the song. The presentation with its mixture of string arrangements in the background as well as a bopping mid-tempo rhythm and a soft brass section is just very misguided. The other cover in Chuck Jackson’s I Keep Forgettin’ is a song that that is also indicative of 1980s production with its mixture of synthesizers, horns, and drum machines in a song that is rock n’ roll but in all of the wrong places as it includes those fucking awful marimbas.
From the 1995 reissue from Virgin Records come three bonus tracks of songs that appeared in different film soundtracks as two of them were from films that Bowie starred in such as Absolute Beginners and Labyrinth. In the former, the song’s title track is considered one of Bowie’s underrated singles as it this mid-tempo track filled with reflective and somber lyrics that play into the plight of the film as it features some of Bowie’s best vocal works as well as great piano flourishes by Rick Wakeman. The latter in the ballad As the World Falls Down is a song that features Bowie’s great vocals in this smooth, synthesizer-driven track with some bopping rhythms as it plays into a young woman’s plight into childhood and adulthood. The third bonus track is a song Bowie collaborated with jazz guitarist Pat Methany on the song This is Not America from the 1985 film The Falcon and the Snowman. A mixture of synth-pop and jazz fusion, the song play into the sense of terror and paranoia as it includes synthesizer flourishes from co-writer Lyle Mays as it’s one of Bowie’s finest gems.
Despite two of its singles and the bonus tracks in the 1995 reissue, Tonight is a terrible album from David Bowie. It’s a record that showcases someone being compromised and needing to make hits rather than make something that is worthwhile. It’s also an album that sounds very dated due to its production as it indicates why the 1980s was such a polarizing period in the world of popular music. In the end, Tonight is an album by David Bowie that pretty much fucking sucks.
Studio Releases: David Bowie (1967 album) - David Bowie (1969 album) - The Man Who Sold the World - Hunky Dory - The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars - Aladdin Sane - Pin Ups - Diamond Dogs - Young Americans - Station to Station - Low - "Heroes" - Lodger - Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) - Let’s Dance - Never Let Me Down - Tin Machine - Tin Machine II - Black Tie White Noise - Outside - Earthling - ‘Hours…’ - Heathen - Reality - The Next Day - *
Live Releases: David Live - Stage - Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars - Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby - Bowie at the Beeb - (Live at Fashion Rocks (w/ Arcade Fire)) - (Live Santa Monica ‘72) - (Glass Spider Live) - (VH1 Storytellers) - (A Reality Tour)
Soundtracks: Christiane F. - Labyrinth - The Buddha of Suburbia
Miscellaneous: Peter and the Wolf - Baal - Sound + Vision - (Early On (1964-1966)) - (All Saints) - Toy - (Nothing Has Changed)
© thevoid99 2016
