Earthling

by

David Bowie

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When I think of 1997, this album comes to mind. On the heels of the brilliant Outside came Bowie's followup less than 16 months later.

If Outside reestablished Bowie as cutting edge, Earthling reaffirmed him as the coolest rock star ever. Bowie set out to do a dance album without any of the "anthem" pretences, and it works. The album starts off with Little Wonder, which was a great club hit in early 1997, and also proved the ability to be clubby and rocky at the same time. The album scored a #1 hit in Asia with Seven Years In Tibet.

Virgin released the album 97 but it went out of print a few years later, Columbia has reissued the cd for a new generation, as well as adding 4 remixes. The highlight of these (as well as the entire album) is the Trent Reznor mix of I'm Afraid Of Americans. The original album version is good too, but the Bowie/Trent collaboration probably opened the door (and showed none has come close) for the Michael Jackson/Justin Timberlake and Madonna/Britney collaborations. Bowie is Trent's biggest influence, and the meeting of the two of them was powerful and is a highlight of both careers.

This is a GREAT Bowie album.

If I were a cynical little bugger, I might be inclined to say that Earthling finds Bowie in reactionary mode, hopping onto a trend instead of culling one of his own. I am not, however, a cynical little bugger. I fancy myself an open-minded, fair individual who judges things on their actual merit instead of first impressions. Therefore, being the wonderfully insightful person that I am, I am willing to accept that Bowie came about his obsession with the drums-and-bass branch of techno in a less than cynical manner, immersing himself in this style because he genuinely liked it, and not because it was perceived by other critics (much more cynical than myself) as the latest and greatest, bound to be next-big-thing.

Needless to say, `drums `n' bass' never was the next big thing. In reality, it barely got off the ground, since it appealed only to club-fiends with dilated pupils, who liked their music to be as underground as possible. That's quite a shame for them, though, because Earthling just might be one of the best drum-and-bass-style techno albums ever made. Unlike the huge majority of artists who dabble in the blips, bleeps and hyperkinetic rhythms that define this style, Bowie does not choose to neglect other more fundamentally sound ingredients, such as a real `song', or a genuine `melody'. In the rush to be the hippest DJ on the block, most purveyors of drums and bass don't even try to create `songs' or melodies, with the end result sounding as though it was created by some kid who forgot to take his Ritalin. Bowie was and always will be primarily a songwriter, and this album is all the richer for it.

More than half of Earthling consists of near spastic syncopations, all of which are imaginatively constructed under some very good songs. `Under' is the key word here, since the songs could exist without the production and still sound pretty damn good. The arrangements here are genuinely fun, though, with sounds panning left and right, stopping and starting on the head of a pin, all in service to the song. To hear what this could sound like without the context of a talent like Bowie at the helm, check out just about anything by, say, Aphex Twin. There, the rhythmic skeleton exists for its own sake. Here, Bowie provides meat for the bones, giving you something to hum and think about while contorting yourself. A song like "Little Wonder" is a little wonder of its own devices, as is "Dead Man Walking". The songs that aren't so kinetically inclined are just as interesting; "I'm Afraid of Americans" is a humorous depiction of paranoia, with Bowie recoiling from a culture that inspires instant gratification and consumerism (as well as a free pass to the next big thing). Of course, Bowie's tongue is buried deep in his cheek here, especially considering that he remains one of the best purveyors of contemporary culture that we have. God bless him. A- Tom Ryan