#226
September 1 1984
David Bowie
Tonight
2.25 out of 5
10 years ago, during my Bowie retrospective I wrote: “How do you follow up one of the biggest breakthrough commercial albums of your career, let alone decade? Apparently, you hire a bunch of co-writers and make an album that sounds like Thompson Twins. Keyboard steel drums, faux raga, deep 80s percussion, programming, Tonight sounds more like an album from the era than I would expect. See, one thing Bowie's been able to do is utilize the fad of the era and make it sound timeless. Maybe it's the novelties of the era or maybe its something else, but Tonight is replete with forgettable missteps.”
I was not wrong. This is bad.
“Don’t Look Down” is worse than I remembered it. And I want to kick him in the shins for what he does to “God Only Knows”, one of the singularly most beautiful songs in the history or rock. “Neighborhood Threat” actually sounds like the direction he would go with Tin Machine but it’s not a good song…it tries way too hard. And “Blue Jean” sounds like a holdover from the “Let’s Dance” sessions. And before you @ me, no, it’s not a “highlight” because I’m pretty sure we were forced to like it by it’s MTV ubiquity. I guess “I Keep Forgetting” is sort of cute, like Bowie as Elvis.
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