“Hours…” Songs Ranked

*yaaaawwwn*

There’s not much to say really, it’s “Hours…” – there’s a reason everyone has forgotten about this Bowie album since its release. It’s not necessarily a bad album, but my goodness is it sooooo booooring. How would I rank these unremarkable songs?

You can check out some of my related Bowie lists below:

Bad

10 – Brilliant Adventure

Why? What was the point of including this?

This is Bowie clearly trying to rekindle the magic of the instrumentals from the Berlin Trilogy, but it falls flat on its face. Completely boring and uninspired, I can’t help but scratch my head at this track’s inclusion in the first place.

Meh

9 – Survive

Quite a few songs on “Hours…” has a stripped back, almost acoustic feel. It makes for unique listen in fairness, but it also means most of the songs are under-developed and completely skippable.

I guess you could say there are some nice melodies on display in “Survive”, but there’s nothing here that hooks me.

OK

8 – Something in the Air

Another forgettable track to add to the collection, but I feel that every track from now on has at least one redeeming factor (that’s the thing about “Hours…” – it may be boring as hell, but I wouldn’t call it “Bad”).

I like the intro / bass sound / general synthy vibe, but the chorus doesn’t do enough to grab my attention.

7 – If I’m Dreaming My Life

The definition of passable.

There are some decent riffs / sounds / melodies, but this is just one of those tracks you could easily fall asleep to if you tried.

6 – New Angels of Promise

In all fairness, the intro to this one is vaguely intriguing, and the vocal performance / melodies do enough to keep me listening.

I think a common problem on this album is the production – there’s nothing interesting going on, and most of the time the tracks just feel lifeless and empty.

5 – The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell

Thank goodness there are rockin’ tracks like this, otherwise “Hours…” would be a complete slog from start to finish (it pretty much is already, but more so).

This is far from Bowie’s best rock song (it’s kinda far from anything at all), but at least it’s a little more exciting than the others so far.

Good

4 – The Dreamers

Definitely the most improved song on a re-listen, but even then this is a pretty underwhelming finale – although I expect nothing less from an album as monotonous as this.

At least there’s more of an energy to this song, which is exactly what the rest of the album so dearly needed.

3 – What’s Really Happening?

This is one of those weird times where I think the verses are more interesting than the choruses – the melodies and guitar riffs are full of lots of energy, and then the choruses feel like a bit of a step down.

That’s not to say the chorus is bad – it’s completely listenable, but I find the repetitive nature of the lyrics / melodies / the annoying “yeahs” knock this one down slightly.

2 – Seven

A lovely acoustic track, but similarly to all of the others, I feel like this one could have been great if handled slightly better.

What we got in the end is still a good song and a clear highlight of this mundane record, but it still left me wanting more by the time it finished.

1 – Thursday’s Child

By my calculations, I reckon this is the only album without a “Great” tier song -even albums like Bowie’s 1967 debut and “Never Let Me Down” have at least one stand-out that I’ve listened to multiple times since.

Maybe I’m being harsh not putting this in “Great”, as “Thursday’s Child” is clearly the best track on here. It’s quite a chill / relaxing song, and possibly that’s the reason why I don’t revisit this one that much. A very solid album opener, but as the supposed “best” song on here it isn’t sensational.

Aaaaaand that’s the list (thank God!). We have a great album up next, but until then you should check out my latest blog posts: