David Bowie is a prolific, innovative, musician who has played a large role in the development of pop culture and rock’n’roll, dating back to the 1960’s and continuing to the present day. Any criticism I offer should be interpreted in that context.
The new record is hit-and-miss for me; more miss than hit. At its best, it has some interesting Jazz/Rock fusions reminiscent of what Ornette Coleman was doing in the mid 80’s. The other 60% of the record finds Bowie singing in a sleepy, dead-pan tone that feels like his goal may be to generate just enough material to satisfy a record deal. I admit to not being the biggest Bowie fan, not having studied each of his records in detail, as many, I’m sure have. Feel free to speak up in the comments if you think I’m missing something.
Track 2, ’Tis a Pity She Was a Whore, starts with some interesting jazz sounds and a tempo to keep me awake. It picks up where Bowie’s 2013 The Next Day left off (example If You Can See Me). It would have played better as the first track IMO. Unfortunately, to get to this point, we have to wait through the 10-minute opening title track. boring.
Lazarus falls on the boring side again, but the tempo picks back up with Sue. Girl Loves Me has some strange vocals and Dollar Days some interesting instrumentals, but really, it is left until the last track to pick back up with the interesting themes moving around in this record. So, 3 songs out of 7, about 15 minutes out of 41, where Bowie’s creativity and spunk can shine. My take: interesting at times, but ultimately disappointing.
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