THE BEST OF BOWIE

I think David Bowie is one of the definitive names in the history of music videos. This 47-track package covering over three decades is a notable evidence. My generation who witnessed the hayday of MTV remembers many fine videos from the early 80's, such as 'Ashes To Ashes', 'China Girl' or 'Blue Jean', but what's so great about this DVD is that it has so much to offer from all phases of Bowie's long career. I'm not into his later works, and the second disc finds its way much more rarely into my player than the first one, even if some of the videos from the 90's are actually pretty good. David Mallet is perhaps the most frequent director for Bowie. I'd like to mention Mark Romanek (e.g. 'Jump They Say') whose rather clinical visual style you may have seen also in the film One Hour Photo.

Naturally the early videos like 'Space Oddity' or 'Life on Mars?' are quite simple, concentrating solely on Bowie, but nevertheless they are pretty good ones, whether you estimate them from the nostalgic point of view or against the artistic level of music videos of the time - which usually were simply live-in-the- studio, and often appearances on TV programmes such as The Old Grey Whistle Test ('Five Years') or Top Of The Pops ('Starman'). At least the technical quality remains surprisingly good all the way. If you have seen several compilation DVD's you know it's not for granted.

As is the case with singles collection CD's, the track list is not - and can't be - your ideal Bowie track list; I would prefer for example 'Changes' or 'Time' instead of boring rock songs like 'Jean Genie' or 'Rebel Rebel', and I wonder why the film songs 'When The Wind Blows' and 'This Is Not America' are not included. Last but not least, the edition (I'm referring to menu sections) is excellent and user-friendly. You hear extracts from 'Sound + Vision' and some instrumental Eno collaboration (I can't spot the exact track right now). 3½ stars rounded up.