DIAMOND DOGS

This is probably the first Bowie album that I can appreciate as a whole, not only the odd song. It has an interesting overall concept and gives the listener much variety and many ideas over its course. Still there is a considerable amount of material that is not to my taste. I don't insist that everything I like (or that I'd review positively here) has got to be "progressive", but there are some ways of being "unprog" that I don't appreciate, and Bowie has a talent of using (or in my view overusing) them. One of these is cliched Rolling Stones type rock'n roll as is Diamond Dogs and Rebel Rebel; Rock'n Roll With Me is a bit more muted and subtle but still not really my taste. Probably these are meant in a somewhat ironic fashion but still I can't help, they sound as they sound. We Are the Dead is fairly intense and haunting in some places but lacks substance in others. 1984 uses some disco rhythms that surely were very fresh at the time and to my surprise they are still and this is a fun piece that works quite well. My favourites are firstly the quite dynamic sequence of Sweet Thing - Candidate - Sweet Thing (reprise) on the first side, starting off as a ballad and then increasing in intensity, ending up in a quite unexpected dark, strong and driving instrumental part. Secondly, toward the end, Big Brother is another garbled pop composition of Bowie that throws some very catchy moments together with rather unexpected twists, and it leaves you with the hard and crazy Chart of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family, probably the most experimental thing to be found on a Bowie album up to that point, which is a welcome shake-up and I like it a lot. And... it's not your system that's at fault at the end. ;-)

I tend to not care for lyrics and will not therefore comment on them but if you're interested, there's something to be found here. I appreciate the concept in a musical way, it is possible to feel how it is all connected and follows some logic. This is overall pretty good and original despite a number of songs I could do without.