The album that many Bowie fans pinpoint as David Bowie’s first big miss, a soulless exercise in commercialism, also happens to be the biggest success of his career.
1983’s Let’s Dance was indeed crafted with a broader audience in mind. Bowie described it as “a refocusing of Young Americans” and the singles do share the catchy exuberance of that album’s title track.
David Bowie entered the 80s with the release of Scary Monsters, an album that brought the experimental rock of his Berlin phase into more commercial territory. It’s a far more accessible album but still an adventurous one.
It’s also, according to popular consensus, the last great album Bowie ever recorded. Just about every one of his future releases was compared unfavorably to this one, or more charitably called his best work since Scary Monsters.
The third album in David Bowie’s Berlin trilogy doesn’t have the critical reputation of the first two, but for my money it’s the best of the lot.
Lodger gets away from the Brian Eno-influence instrumentals and instead offers up 10 tightly constructed avant-garde pop songs. Instrumentally dense but melodically clean, these tracks sound like they could play at an underground college bar on the moon.
We pick up the David Bowie retrospective in the middle of his Berlin phase, with the release of 1977’s “Heroes”. On this album, Bowie followed the same pattern he established on Low, placing a selection of electronic rock songs on Side A and ambient instrumentals on Side B.
I like “Heroes” better than its predecessor, in part because the balance is tilted a little more toward the songs than the instrumentals.
It’s nice to see the title track of Billy Joel’s 1978 album 52nd Street pop up on a Random Weekend so soon after my trip to New York City to see Hamilton.
I’ve always considered this jazzy rock classic one of the quintessential New York City albums, from its cover photo of Joel leaning against a wall on 52nd Street and Seventh Avenue to city settings like Zanzibar and the Herald Square of ‘Rosalinda’s Eyes.’
Meet Me In Montauk 