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David Bowie

Scary Monsters

Virgin | 1999 | Album

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Considered by some to be Bowie's last great innovative album, 'Scary Monsters' is heavy on the flashy backing guitar work of Robert Fripp and further guided by the formidable ax and ever-present producing skills of Tony Visconti.. Fresh off the experimental electronic and weirdly satisfying collaborations with Brian Eno that foreshadowed the New Wave 80's sound, full of synthesizers and textured beats, 'Ashes to Ashes,' 'Up The Hill Backwards,' and 'Fashion' stand out, defined by Bowie's consciously exaggerated vocals and peculiar instrumentation. Not heavy on substance, but overflowing with weird, innovative flourishes, recycled disco rhythms and a feel for the future, this doesn't stop Bowie from covering Tom Verlaine's 'Kingdom Come' or slowing down the basic song structure of his seminal 'Heroes' into the freshly worded 'Teenage Wildlife' that drags on for nearly seven minutes of excessive guitar soloing and repeated refrain. This is an odd album without the focus of much of Bowie's earlier work. He's trying hard, exploring all the histrionics at his disposal, but the dubbed Japanese vocals supplied by Michi Hirota on the opening 'It's No Game (Part 1)' seem unnecessary and out of place. Closing the album, 'It's No Game (Part 2),' has more of a reflective feel as Bowie restrains himself well, allowing the music to bolster rather than compete with his near monologue delivery. Although indulgent and paranoid, 'Scary Monsters' is not exactly pop-friendly or so unconventional that it should be dismissed as mere transitional fodder before Bowie moved from RCA to EMI to record only his second #1 hit with the title track single 'Let's Dance.' The shortcomings Bowie offers up are chinks in an armor fused by artistic and commercial contradictions; the mark of risks taken by a most unusual musical maven.

Sean Lambert