Slice of Pieta 'hours...' One listen to 'hours...' and you know the album's subtitle could be 'ours'. These 'ours' belong to the writer and himself, his lover, his god(s), their losses, dreams, their past and his future. David as narrator, lead character and waterboy articulates those moments of truth that dawn on one at a certain point in life. Upon peeling off the plastic wrap from my new copy of 'hours...', I opened the booklet that accompanies the retail album and began reading the lyrics as if they were a novella. Good reason why the lyrics are included, they're among DB's most well-crafted ever. (Fear not, this is Bowie, so any words about relationships will not be trite.) The ten songs were written and produced by David and his tenured guitarist Reeves Gabrels, with lyric writing contest winner Alex Grant chipping in some fine work on What's Really Happening?. Alex's lyrics fit in well with the overall theme, and Reeves soars with some of his most delicious instrumental flavorings ever. Reeves gets better with every album, and 1999 sees a wider range of colors on the palette and more discreet shadings. For those Bowie faithful who mourn the loss of Carlos Alomar, this may be the album with which Reeves wins you over. The guaranteed score is The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell. Bowie held out til the end of the decade to sink his best hook of the 90's. This song rocks! It's the closest David has come to throwing an Aladdin Sane moment our way since, well, Aladdin Sane. Fitting, since the man queen-bitch-slaps his glam heritage about, then cuffs it a couple times for good measure. "Life's a bit and sometimes you die." Yes indeedy, They wore it out but they wore it well. The 'hours...' version is a touch more commercial than the remix on the Stigmata Soundtrack, but is all the tastier for it. It's bound to be a concert staple for tours to come. If life is a bit, the important question is, who holds the reins? The sense of loss in some of these songs brings Bowie close to performing classic saloon songs that would do Sinatra proud. In Thursday's Child Bowie takes on Sinatra's ultimately self-satisfied September Of My Years and turns it on its head. Where the king of the Rat Pack crooned about a life of exponentially increasing success in the timeless It Was A Very Good Year, Bowie takes the same moment and sings it for the rest of us who weren't driving around in limos with heiresses by the age of 35 (got a beer to go with that menthol, Gracie?). Thursday's Child had far to go, and as with many folks, things never quite fell together for the character in this song, despite his best efforts. The voice reluctantly acknowledges a life that may amount to nothing more than a two bit part, but celebrates the solace and renewal found in a healing new love. One can imagine that this lucky old son is now rolling around in the hay all day! New Bowie fans harvested during the days of Earthling and 1.Outside will finally be challenged by the real Bowie - the restless eclectic dodging expectations. 'hours...' presents the same challenge to comfy chair Bowie fans that Low did following Station to Station, Young Americans following Diamond Dogs, Let's Dance following Scary Monsters. Easy to say in retrospect that most of those are classics, not so easy to welcome the new shock to the system, huh? You might find 'hours...' easier to get acclimated to in smaller doses and greater frequency. King Phil's home CD player radio network has half the album on endless repeat right now til I get to know it, the first round being What's Really Happening, The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell, Brilliant Adventure, Thursday's Child and Seven. I could easily listen to those liquid guitar lines on What's Really Happening for hours on end - literally. Commercial considerations: 'hours...' is the first album in history to be available for internet download. Available in two formats, Liquid Audio and Windows Media, 'hours...' has a price point that varies depending upon which source you choose to download from. As a special incentive, the downloadable CD includes an extra song, No One Calls , not on the retail release. For those who don't want to cough up for a CD that they have to burn themselves, with no artwork or lyrics, take comfort that the bonus track is available as one of the "extra" tracks on the non-video CD single for Thursday's Child. Given a choice, I'd go for the retail CD that has all that lovely packaging and artwork, and lyrics too. The retail CD has a cataleptic cover. No, that's not it, is it? Whatever word it's supposed to be, it basically means "3D". Such a deal: a music CD, a small book that tells the story in ten acts, a fancy 3D cover and a multimedia demo on the disk for Bowienet. Now all we need are pictures of Bettie Page. Rant: For all the talk over the past few years of the Internet enabling new, heightened capabilities for guerilla marketing by cutting out the leverage of powerful distribution channels, this one is being made available through the websites of the usual suspects *koff* I mean, retail channels - Tower, HMV and about 50 others. Tch tch, dancing with the big boys when you could be doing the hand jive by yourself. Hopefully in the future DB will offer his fans direct subscriptions to, say, five years of his CDs, CD singles and videos, so the middle class doesn't have to subsidize unnecessary meddling from middlemen and middlewomen. hours.... Thursday's Child Something In The Air Survive If I'm Dreaming My Life Seven What's Really Happening The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell New Angels Of Promise Brilliant Adventure The Dreamers CD 1 Thursday's Child CD Singles CD 2 Short Art Inspection: It's September 21st, the two CD singles for Thursday's Child just made it into one of my favorite local indie shops today. Grabbed 'em both, but after one cursory listening, I was sold on the one that had the video on it. Hallelujah, it's been a long time coming but DB is finally putting the video for each song on its CD single. The software to play it is self- contained on the CD, nothing needs to be installed, and it played smoothly on my PC, with minimal artifacts, even full-screen. The video is subtle, which is a big plus in my book. At the end of the night David and his "wife" (I expected to see Iman, forgetting that David was in character) are at the bathroom sink, she taking out her contacts, he seeing younger reflections of themselves in the mirror. She offers occasional gestures of tenderness, familiar but mostly autopilot. He ruminates on the confident and alluring flirtation in the reflection of her younger self. The reflection of DB's younger self looks an awful lot like Marilyn Manson, a rather grim and pasty-skinned young goth creature prone to mannekin-like posturing. This is not a video, this is a short film, one of the man's best since the classic Ashes to Ashes. It's refreshing to see somebody break out of the cupboard mold that most vids fall into, of the images having nothing to do with the writing, and neither having any content at all. If you want to see things explode, empty-V is full of Beavis and Butthead imagery. If you want to see things implode, this short art film might be a starting point. Now about the music on the CD singles. I'll update this section with images and more info as I get a chance to listen to these CD singles more. We All Go Through could stand to be sped up some, but as is, the production and arrangement reminds me of something like I Am The Walrus for some reason. The rock version of Thursday's Child nudges the vocals up to the top of the mix. Reeves' guitar is spotlighted, yet maintains a good balance as part of an overall ensemble. About thirty seconds before the end, there's a nonsequitur vocalization by a female, well, vocalist. Since her voice isn't apparent throughout the earlier part of the song, there's a slight "where did that come from? feeling when she does her funky wild thing that these girls do. The Bowie needed to squeeze her more often throughout the song to make her squeal more consistently. This brief, two second moment is more subdued and not particularly noticeable in the preferred regular version of the song. 1917 is an instrumental. Perhaps originally intended for a movie soundtrack? What happened in 1917? David could be thinking of the October Revolution in the USSR, and the music would bear that out, but I like to think that there are other inspirations for Bowie's 1917. "Nine-tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in time" - Teddy Roosevelt, 1917.       Special Stardust Edit:       Medley: 1917 / Thursday's Child (2:23) Thursday's Child - CD 1 Thursday's Child (Rock Mix) (4:25) We Shall All Go To Town (3:56) 1917 (3:27) + Thursday's Child (Video)   Thursday's Child - CD 2 Thursday's Child (Radio Edit) (4:25) We All Go Through (4:09) No One Calls (3:51) CD 1 Survive CD Singles CD 2 Bowie's latest duplex planet offers one live CD recorded in Paris and one studio CD single saved by the inclusion of the video for Survive. Apart from the video, the studio single doesn't really offer any serious temptations, but the live CD includes both a live video of Bowie performing Survive as well as a sweeeet - in the WOW sense of the word - live version of Thursday's Child. Oh lordy I hope Bowie plans to include backing vocalist Holly Palmer on his next CD, she really adds that perfect finishing touch to his songs. Thursday's Child as performed live has a more soulful touch, especially to the guitars, making it more commercial and appealing than the studio version which seems a little stiff by comparison. Given a choice between these two CD singles I'd take the red one with all the live tracks, no doubt about it. Survive - CD 1 Survive (Marius de Vries Mix) (4:18) Survive (Album Version) (4:11) The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell     (Stigmata Film Version) (4:46) + Survive (Video)   Survive - CD 2 Survive (Live) (4:10) Thursday's Child (Live) (5:37) Seven (Live) (4:07) + Survive (Video - Live in Paris) CD 1 Seven CD Singles CD 2 CD 3 THREE CD singles for one song? Are we pushing the envelope here or stuffing it? Okay, so I shelled out $27 USD plus tax for these things. And what does that investment net us? 8 tracks, plus 1 quicktime video for I'm Afraid of Americans available in two resolutions (no video was made for Seven). Ouch! For a little less than that you can snag Belinda Carlisle's new greatest hits album with two CDs, 28 tracks including eight extended dance mixes, two rarities, three new songs, a booklet, credits and no whining. And it's a UK import too. Another UK import that I just picked up was a very cool 4CD box set, Doughboys, Playboys and Cowboys, which documents the history of the best western swing. 99 tracks. Price? $22.99 USD. Okay, so maybe those recordings are in the public domain now. Still, this hurts. We're not on the same kinda budget DB is. The last album, Earthling, had five CD singles. 1.Outside, three. We've already got seven singles of three songs from hours.... Of the eight tracks on the Seven singles, six are old songs in new winesacks and five are different versions of Seven. I suppose for Bowie's next album we'll get four different versions of a song called Three? Okay, let's take it single by single: The blue #1 CD single. Marius de Vries mix. Tries to make Seven into a bit of a pop song and does a decent job of it. If you're familiar with the song, you'll be able to tell that Bowie's voice has been sped up just a tad to accomodate the more chipper pace. Postcard #1 Then there's the Beck mix. Big name, pointless mix. I guess this is Beck's attempt to relive his "anti-folk folk" roots or something? I mean, you can tell he did some work, but he didn't get anything done. The little white circle on the insert that says "includes Beck remix" counts on you buying it for the name without hearing it first. Then there's the "demo version" of Seven. The appeal of a demo is that you're getting something raw, recorded in a suitcase or an old cardboard box with just the acoustic guitar trying out the chords. You know, first draft. This is polished enough to be polished off. Matter of fact it might even be better than the final version. Clean, professional, pleasant, articulate, more like a tidy little man than a ruffian demo. The green #2 CD single with the video comes with the standard album version of Seven and the previously released V1 Nine Inch Nails mix of I'm Afraid of Americans from the CD single for that song. If you don't already have the I'm Afraid of Americans CD single, V1 is probably the best mix on there. You wanted the much talked about video for that song featuring Bowie and Trent Reznor? You got it right here. Oh yes, I almost forgot. CD2 also gives you a small six-fold poster of 'hours...' era Bowie that fits inside the jewel case. He's got his arms folded across his chest, holding up a cigarette, wearing a blue shirt that comes to his knuckles, looking like a slightly demonic schoolboy. The purple #3 CD single has three live versions of songs from 'hours...'. We've already gotten a live version of Seven on the previous set of CD singles for Survive. This is the same song recorded somewhere else. To our live Bowie catalog we also can add the best and worst of 'hours...', The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell and the stinker that escalates cliche to grandiosity, Something In The Air. Is this song about breaking up or breaking wind? Unlike the album Low, which dealt with failure and regrouping in a reflective manner that indicated a certain sense of awareness, Something In The Air snags Bowie in full Carmen Miranda self-consciousness, capturing the soap opera pity party mid-stream. Ever have a flame that, when you broke up, started catastrophizing and spouting scripted hysteria? Yeah, here it is, first person. Enjoy it all again. Turn it up and then slam the door on it and go out for a beer. Let the neighbors deal with it. Maybe by the time you get home this song will have gone over to its sister's for the night. Although all three tracks on CD #3 are live, no performers are given credit on the sleeve. I'd expect that from something released on the Pickwick label, but not from Bowie. Oh yeah, CD #3 comes with four nicely done black and white "postcards" sized to fit inside the jewel case. I put the word postcards in quotes because the backside of 'em doesn't have a little box in the upper right hand corner that says, "lick here. post office will not supply postage." Three CDs, eight tracks, one video, 27 bucks. The marketing implies, "If you can't go long, go deep". Keep licking. Seven - CD 1 Seven (Marius de Vries Mix) (4:12) Seven (Remix by Beck) (3:44) Seven (Demo) (4:05)   Seven - CD 2 Seven (Album Version) (4:04) I'm Afraid of Americans (Nine Inch Nails V1 Mix) (5:31) I'm Afraid of Americans (Video) (4:25)   Seven - CD 3 Seven (Live) (4:00) Something In The Air (Live) (4:50) The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell (Live) (4:10)                     Links             Bowie Music Question?                             Home     Designed for viewing with Netscape Navigator 3.0 Copyright © 1996-2004, Philip Drenth. All rights reserved.