David Bowie – Diamond Dogs (Vinyl)
More than any of his seven previous albums, Diamond Dogs feels and sounds like a solo album. Recording without any of the musicians that had formed the Spiders from Mars, Bowie played most of the instruments himself, with the addition of Herbie Flowers on bass, Tony Newman and Aynsley Dunbar on drums and a handful of other guests.
Moving away from the glam pop gems of the Ziggy years, the stylistic choices here range widely across a spectrum from synth freakout to hip-grinding blues to jazz balladry and disco posturing, with strange filigrees of sound and texture hanging off the edges of songs like stray threads.
Bowie originally intended to create a stage-and-screen musical production based on one of his favorite novels, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, but Orwell’s widow refused to grant the rights. Having already written half the songs, Bowie had to change course.
It may have been a blessing, as it forced him to concoct original material that cohered with the Orwell-inspired pieces without hewing too closely to the source or being thematically limited. The result is a rough concept album that sets a much bleaker tone than the starry-eyed vision on The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
An early lyric – “As the last few corpses lay rotting on the slimy thoroughfare” – strikes a sinister tone from the beginning, and the dystopian mood persists across 11 songs. “This ain’t rock ‘n’ roll,” he hollers over canned applause at the opening of the title track. “This is genocide!”
Vinyl, LP, Reissue, Remastered, 180g, Gatefold
Tracklist:
A1 Future Legend 1:00
A2 Diamond Dogs 5:50
A3 Sweet Thing 3:29
A4 Candidate 2:39
A5 Sweet Thing (Reprise) 2:32
A6 Rebel Rebel 4:21
B1 Rock 'N Roll With Me 3:54
B2 We Are The Dead 4:48
B3 1984 3:24
B4 Big Brother 3:25
B5 Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family 1:48
More than any of his seven previous albums, Diamond Dogs feels and sounds like a solo album. Recording without any of the musicians that had formed the Spiders from Mars, Bowie played most of the instruments himself, with the addition of Herbie Flowers on bass, Tony Newman and Aynsley Dunbar on drums and a handful of other guests.
Moving away from the glam pop gems of the Ziggy years, the stylistic choices here range widely across a spectrum from synth freakout to hip-grinding blues to jazz balladry and disco posturing, with strange filigrees of sound and texture hanging off the edges of songs like stray threads.
Bowie originally intended to create a stage-and-screen musical production based on one of his favorite novels, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, but Orwell’s widow refused to grant the rights. Having already written half the songs, Bowie had to change course.
It may have been a blessing, as it forced him to concoct original material that cohered with the Orwell-inspired pieces without hewing too closely to the source or being thematically limited. The result is a rough concept album that sets a much bleaker tone than the starry-eyed vision on The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
An early lyric – “As the last few corpses lay rotting on the slimy thoroughfare” – strikes a sinister tone from the beginning, and the dystopian mood persists across 11 songs. “This ain’t rock ‘n’ roll,” he hollers over canned applause at the opening of the title track. “This is genocide!”
Vinyl, LP, Reissue, Remastered, 180g, Gatefold
Tracklist:
A1 Future Legend 1:00
A2 Diamond Dogs 5:50
A3 Sweet Thing 3:29
A4 Candidate 2:39
A5 Sweet Thing (Reprise) 2:32
A6 Rebel Rebel 4:21
B1 Rock 'N Roll With Me 3:54
B2 We Are The Dead 4:48
B3 1984 3:24
B4 Big Brother 3:25
B5 Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family 1:48
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