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Reality - David Bowie


Year Released: 2003

Label: ISO, Columbia  

Year Bought: 2003

The 1990s was a strange time for David Bowie. Venerated by Britpop greats such as Brett Anderson and Noel Gallagher, and honoured by Kurt Cobain during Nirvana's Unplugged set, it could have been a decade of him carrying out endless nostalgia tours and cashing in on his place as the Grand Dame of alternative music on both sides of the Atlantic.

The trouble was, Bowie had done the whole be-your-own-tribute-act schtick in the late 80s with the Glass Spider tour - a period so unfulfilling it led him to forming Tin Machine. And no one needed that to happen again.

So Bowie spent the 90s doing pretty much the opposite of what people wanted him to do, and refused to bring back Ziggy or the Thin White Duke, instead focusing on experimental music (which is actually a very Bowie thing to do).

As the century ticked over, Bowie started making albums that were a bit more radio friendly, and after a well-received Glastonbury set and the Mercury-nominated Heathen, in 2003 he released Reality.

It starts off well, with the swaggering 'New Killer Star' boosting at least three choruses. It's followed by a version of 'Pablo Picasso' by The Modern Lovers - the first of two covers on the album, the other being George Harrison's 'Try Some, Buy Some'. Neither track is particularly great, but Bowie always liked to chuck a cover on an album, or even make an album of covers.

'Never Gets Old' is a good tune, with some great lyrics. Bowie delivers the verse in the hyper-English voice he used in the late 60s, and switches to his 80s timbre for the chorus, bellowing: "And there's never gonna be enough money! And there's never gonna be enough drugs! And I'm never ever gonna get old!"

Ageing, and the reality of ageing, is the theme of much of the album, although Bowie does slip into story telling mode on 'She'll Drive The Big Car': "She lugged her suitcase to the bus / Melted home through the snow / North along Riverside."

The most interesting part of the album comes with the final two tracks. Across an album that does sometimes feel a bit lacking in urgency, 'Reality' sounds like all the energy has been saved up for this track. It's a pounding, glam rock stomper. "I sped from Planet X to Planet Alpha, struggling for reality" Bowie yelps.

The final track knocks you completely off-guard. 'Bring Me The Disco King' was a song Bowie had been kicking around since the early 90s, and it finds its moment in the sun on this record. An almost 8-minute jazz piano led piece, with shuffling drums in the back of the mix, it's one of those songs where you want to keep listening as you don't know where it's going.

Little did we know at the time it would be the last record from Bowie for 10 years. Not a top tier album from him, but certainly has enough to make it warrant a listen.

6/10


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