Welp, they can’t all be zingers.
This album … is pretty bad. Bowie has been quite vocal in his distaste for this one, especially the production process. I can’t help but agree, as there are a few songs here that could have been great with the right producer. As it is, this is way down there as one of my least favourite albums of his. How would I rank this sorry selection of songs?
You can check out some of my other album rankings below (trust me, they’re better albums than this one):
Bad
10 – Beat of Your Drum
I don’t go around dishing out the “Bad” accolade often (usually each song has some sort of redeeming factor), but what the hell is this?!?
This might be the least catchy, least interesting chorus I’ve ever heard in a Bowie song, and the rest of the arrangement is so broad and vague that it never shows off Bowie’s immense talents. Disappointing.
Meh
9 – Bang Bang
Get ready for a long streak of “Meh” songs.
I guess this is fine as cheesy 80’s songs go, but I’m not here for run-of-the-mill tracks; I want to see Bowie flexing his creative muscles, and this isn’t that at all.
8 – Glass Spider
Bowie’s subsequent 1987 tour was named after this track, but I’m not sure why since it isn’t the most scintillating track to advertise to the world.
7 – Zeroes
This is a prime example of production gone wrong, as nothing here comes together and we’re just left with a dissatisfying mess of a track.
6 – New York’s In Love
Yep, half of the tracks on this album are pretty bad.
This is probably the last of the tracks that I’d skip in a hurry – I guess there is some creativity on display, but it isn’t enough to keep me hooked.
OK
5 – ’87 and Cry
Not particularly interesting, but I find the choruses to be fairly catchy so at least there’s that.
4 – Never Let Me Down
Not the greatest title track from the Thin White Duke, but not bad either. I don’t mind listening to this one, but it’s hardly worth writing home about.
3 – Day-In Day-Out
That’s 8/10 songs being “OK” at best.
This is actually not a bad song at all; if you said this was your favourite from the album, I’d be okay with that – it just isn’t really my thing.
Good
2 – Time Will Crawl
This is actually one of Bowie’s personal favourites, and while it’s not a favourite of mine I can still enjoy it. Still, it’s not that good.
Great
1 – Shining Star (Makin’ My Love)
I find that every single Bowie album has at least one song that mildly redeems it, and in this case I think “Shining Star (Makin’ My Love)” is a very underrated track in his catalogue.
It’s a well made track, with the catchiest vocal performance on the entire album. It isn’t enough to save this train-wreck of an album, but at least it stops me from shooting myself when I give the entire record a whirl.
Aaaaaand that’s the list – thank goodness, it can only go up from here. Until next time, you should check out some of my latest blog posts below:
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