Young Americans

by

David Bowie

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"Young Americans" still surprises me to this day with it's amazing R&B. The sound was more clearly mixed than "Diamond Dogs" and it was a real departure for Bowie. The regular remastered CD with, "John, I'm Only Dancing", "Who Can I Be Now?" and "It's Gonna Be Me" sounds even better than the original CD. The extra three tracks are on par with the other songs and its bewildering that in an era when 12 songs per album were standard, Bowie released an eight song album. "John, I'm Only Dancing" is a much more improved R&B version than the rock version.

The 5.1 mix surprised me. It is not perfect and I like it that way. Luther Vandross's back-up vocals come mostly from the rear speakers and you can hear him much more clearly. The congas on "Young Americans" are a little loud for the mix, but it makes the whole experience seem more like a live studio recording instead of a carefully remastered remix. In fact, Bowie mentioned in the liner notes that he liked recording this album with all the instruments playing at once while he sang. There are other surprises. On this DVD you can hear John Lennon speak briefly after one song and the finale of "Fame" has each word of 'fame' descending going around the room from speaker to speaker, but the loud shout of 'fame!' before, 'what's your name, what's your name, what's your name...' is missing. It catches you!

The Dick Cavett interview is a treat, with Bowie sniffing and wiping his nose while fidgeting with his cane. So he did a lot of coke during this period. Who cares? The album is a perfect choice for surround sound. And that sound will vary from system to system.

Young Americans is one of many great David Bowie albums and the star rating here is not on Bowie's performance but on this particular re-release (the 5th CD version so far). It is not SACD (as stated by Amazon) or DVD-Audio (which it was originally mixed for by Tony Visconti) but DVD Video which produces an annoying hissing sound throughout due to the poor compression rate (Shame on you EMI when you are doing such a good job with the Depeche Mode SACD's). Having said that it is fun to hear in surround sound mixes, although I am not sure about the stings added to It's Gonna Be Me! Overall it is worth it if like me you are a Bowie fan but I would highly recommend to anyone to buy the original RCA release of this album if it is sound quality you are after.