Customer Reviews

Let's Dance [ECD]

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Hard core Bowie fans hate this album, because it was "commercial" and light, and lacked the angst of "Scary Monsters" or "Lodger." At the time, it seemed like it was an enjoyable album of the moment, picking up on the dance rhythms that had taken over the airwaves by the mid-80s. With hindsight, it is musically a lot more sturdy than that, and seems like a minor classic. Don't follow biography that closely, but I suspect Bowie was just in a good mood then, and that impacted his music, giving it a jolly quality his CD's typically lack. The beats are beautifully constructed, and it is a very pleasing meeting of rock and dance aesthetics.

Why so much disagreement over this album? I suppose it's because this time around, Bowie reinvents himself as a smooth progenitor of blue-eyed soul. This is a dance/pop fest ("Let's Dance"--get it?) with excellent fat guitar sounds from Stevie Ray Vaughan, great sax work, and some cheeky background vocals. The well mannered, tasteful sounds may disappoint those expecting rocker songs like "Cracked Actor," etc.

After the excellent, ironically romantic, "Modern Love" (with it's great opening line "I know when to go out; I know when to stay in"), Bowie follows with two other commercial hits "China Girl" and "Let's Dance." "Let's Dance" is a riot, an MGM musical of a number with a boy background chorus, impassioned vocals (listen to Bowie wonderfully over-emote on the line "tremble like a Floweeer!"), and an infectious beat. This song has stood the test of time better than any other song on the album. It's high drama seasoned with camp and it's one of Bowie's best efforts. With excellent jazz-infused sax, Latin percussion, and memorable lyrics, it's one of the funnest songs in the Bowie discography. I think he really took chances with this song, and he thoroughly succeeds. The final song on the first side, the laid-back "Without You," features some trademark falsetto, but is not up to the other songs.

"Ricochet" is a reggae track that gets a little tiresome, but it's a harbinger of his later work for kids, with great sci-fi voiceover effects, and a very sound-trackish feeling to it. It sounds like something important is going on, though I can't figure out what the narrative is. (It doesn't matter--this is all for fun.) "Criminal World" has a nice hook about three minutes into it, leading to the best guitar solo on the album--this is the time to turn it up LOUD. I just wish the solo were longer.

"Cat People" is another hit from the album, and features classic Bowie vocals: The big slow spooky voice over some ponderous drumming, then a breakout into his singular rock voice. With some snarling blues guitar by SRV, this is superb. The final song is reminiscent work by the "Tom-Tom Club." It has a zany, almost throwaway quality to it, but I think that's the intended effect... a funky little dance piece with no pretense. An underrated album if anything, this album delivers on its promise: It's infused with the sound and the spirit of rock/pop dance. Highly recommended, but remember that it's a bit of a departure from the Bowie you may have come to expect.

This presentation of Bowie's 80s album Let's Dance is in stereo, exactly as the album was originally presented (except now it is in the high resolution of SACD). While I'd very much have liked Bowie to have remixed it into 5.1 surround, we have no advance knowledge as to whether that will ever be done. So how's this current SACD? I'd say that although the tapes seem to have held up well, the presentation here is lacking in bass, and indeed, I wonder if this was even made from the original masters...I wonder if it may have been made from Rykodiscs' old digital backup (which would explain the lack of bass -- the old Ryko's having been lacking in bass as well). So I'm pleased with the clarity but profoundly dissapointed that this album doesn't have the kind of punch I feel it should have. In short, while this SACD is an ok substitute for the regular CD, it still doesn't do the album justice. Additionally, the lack of any of the standard bonus tracks from this period (such as the original version of Putting Out Fire) is another let-down.

I have always been a big Bowie fan, but I came along later in his musical career. In fact, Let's Dance was my 1st introduction to Bowie when I was about 12, so it always has a special place in my heart. The only earlier Bowie I listened to for a long time was from his greatest hits, Changes One. Anyway, I finally began collecting his earlier stuff and now own most of his pre=80's cannon. I never bought Let's Dance on cd, so when it came out as a hybrid SACD, I decided to get it. I don't have the original cd to compare it,with, but the SACD sounds great. Incredibly clear, incredibly crisp sound. Unfortunately, they released this as a 2-channel stereo SACD instead of the multi-channel, so it is limited in that regard. However, it sounds great and highly recommended.

In spite of its being commercial, and in spite of a considerable amount of disco content, "Let's Dance" is my favorite David Bowie album, tho others are close. Each track is excellent except for the throwaway concluder "Shake It" and the good but mild "Without You." David's singing is as usual very versatile, and he performs the dramatic extremely well in "Ricochet" and some other entries. He displays a soft but heavy touch on Iggy Pop's "China Girl" and in parts of other songs, reminding one a bit of Elvis.

Stevie Ray Vaughan makes a fine contribution with his guitar work on "Cat People," "Criminal World," and elsewhere, and there is also good saxophone, but most noteworthy is the songs' lively, catchy beats. The heavy "Modern Love" is the album's big rocker, very commercially successful and justifiably so. The title cut actually employs disco to make an excellent song, not just a dance number. Then, listen to that bass on "China Girl."

The production quality on this record is fabulous. Varied instrumentation is employed and mixed in very skillfully, with well-chosen dramatic flourishes, giving it its theatrical aura. One feels like getting up and dancing even when the beat is not disco.

So, unless you are a die-hard wed to the more characteristic Bowie sound, "Let's Dance" should be an interesting excursion.

Having read one of the reviews, I feel I have not add something about, what i believe, common misunderstanding.

Namely, when a SACD is marked as hybrid it does not automatically mean that it is recorded in 5.1 technology. What it means is that it can be played on both SACD player and a conventional CD player. 5.1 disc on the other hand are usually referred to as 'multi-channel' and can be hybrid or single layer (playable only on SAC players).

As far as DSD is conerned, it refers to a new technology of transferring recordings onto the new digital media.

To put it shortly, there is nothing wrong with the Bowie disc. It sounds absolutely great and reminds me of my youth :-))

On the one hand, 'Let's Dance' is the first album since his 1967 debut, where Bowie releases a record not worthy of the highest praise on this planet. But on the other hand, it is by far not as awful as some have made it. Also, it is very much 1983 in a bottle, as Ziggy was 1972, Heroes 1977 and Scary Monsters 1980. After all, it was the year of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' and Culture Club's 'Colour By Numbers' (of which the latter is by far the best of all three albums). It would be on 'Tonight' that Bowie, for the first time, was out of time.

'Let's Dance' opens with the brilliantly rocking pop gem 'Modern Love', which, as the third single off the album soared to a UK #2 / US #14 peak. It is deliciously disposable, utterly commercial, but not at all too self-conscious. It is followed by the second single (UK #2 / US #10), the now-stample-on-radio, 'China Girl', an arguably somewhat superior version of the song Bowie wrote with Iggy Pop for his 1977 comeback album 'The Idiot'. Here 'China Girl' is a soft & smooth danceable track with great rhytm & also retaining Iggy's haunting lyrics.
The title track, and also the first single off the album, a UK #1 / US #1, appears here in its full lenght, majestic & brooding, with darkening lyrics & joyous instrumental backing, that made it an instant worldwide classic.
The fourth single, which was released only in the US, and only scraped to an undeserved #73, is 'Without You', a simple but breathtakingly gorgeous song, which is my personal favourite on the record (due to overexposure of the three brilliant first singles). It is romantic & gentle & brilliantly sung, an underrated gem, if there ever was one. Also one of the most 'new romantic' tracks on the record.
'Ricochet', another of my favourites, has the most brooding text on the album, & also the strangest music, with rolling drums that underline, that 'Let's Dance', if nothing else, at least still is somewhat darker than 'Thriller'.
The cover of 'Criminal World' is excellent, & brings further neo-romantic mystique onto the record. It is followed by a re-recording of 'Cat People (Putting Out Fire)', a song Bowie originally wrote and recorded with Giorgio Moroder for the 'Cat People' soundtrack, in 1982. Released as a single at that time, it reached a low & undeserved UK #26.
Anyway, in its original state, it was a delicious piece of New Romanticism, the closest Bowie ever came to the wonderful, glammy dance of Duran Duran, & with lyrics & sound effects that made it haunting like any classic Bowie track from the 70s.
Here, on 'Let's Dance', however, it is tossed off in a blaze of hard rock. Not that it doesn't work, it's an almost excellent recording, but it pales so much compared to the original version, and worse = you can't stop thinking of how much better the original was.
'Shake It', which closes the album in a Boy Georgesque way, is a great dance track, poppy, & self-consciously disposable & irrelevant. It ends a record that, if released by anybody else, would have been seen as, at least, a near-masterpiece, but which, like its recording of 'Cat People' (a microcosm mirror of all the strenghts & weaknesses of the album), just didn't match the earlier Bowie. Still, if you already own everything from 'Space Oddity' to 'Scary Monsters', this album is well worth a thought, 'cos it harbours a warmth, that Bowie at least retained through the eighties, on to 'Never Let Me Down', before it was lost to experimentation for experimentation's sake (as opposed to experimentation for the sake of your life, as one could have called his 70's period).

So this album is great. But unlike 'The Man Who Sold The World', 'Station To Station' or 'Diamond Dogs', this one is far from the gods. Far, far from the gods...

Yes, this album is commercial, having spawned such hits as "Modern Love," "China Girl," and "Let's Dance." I am an avid Bowiephile, and I do admit that it took me a while to adjust myself this album, and to disregard its commercial aspects (I once heard a terrible remix of "Let's Dance" in a retail clothing store, which more than unnerved me), yet I eventually came to adore this album. The three songs which I just alluded to are not the best on this album, in my opinion, but one reason, I admit, for believing such is that they are extremely overplayed, everywhere from the radio to 80's clubs, to, aaaggghhh, retail stores (however, I must admit that the video to "China Girl" is extremely sexy, and I have fantasized about being so fortunate as to be the girl who is lying on the beach with Bowie in the video). . . Anyways. These songs are delightful in their own right (and I do wish that I had not heard them played quite so often), but it is the other songs which are really the delight of "Let's Dance."
Skipping the three aforementioned "hit songs," I'll critique the other songs in the order in which they appear on the album. . . "Without You" is a lovely, intense, and indeed heart-wrenching tune. . . Who would not shiver and delight in being the subject for whom this song was composed? Bowie's voice is especially emotive and emotional in this song. . ."Without you. . . what would I do?" he croons, and it makes me swoon. Wouldn't it be wonderful indeed if all men were so emotional, helpless, and passionate in professing their love? We can only wish. . . "Ricochet" is a captivating and urgent song, as it also somewhat sinister ("These are the prisons, these are the crimes. . . it's the sound of the devil breaking parole"). . . It is also refreshingly optimistic, especially when listened to after a long and interminable day ("It's not the end of the world," Bowie assures us). The beat is also unusual, rather reggae-like, but it is much more welcome than the reggae-like tunes to be found on "Tonight" (although I am an avid Bowiephile, I think that that album is pretty forgettable). But "Ricochet" gives a sense of a ricochet in itself. "Criminal World" is complex, compelling, and seems really personal. And Bowie's voice complements the music spectacularly: "It's a criminal world,/ where the girls like the baby-faced boys," he sings, to the sound of carefully-chosen and fervent riffs. The crescendo created in this song is truly amazing: it is a conceptual and complicated song which takes a few listens to fully realize and appreciate its rollercoaster-like artistry. . . And I must say that the guitar solo around the middle of the song is mind-riveting indeed. "Cat People," ah yes. I prefer the soundtrack version, but this is no ordinary song. It conveys a sort of wistful, vehement, and somewhat angry feeling, which transmits itself to the listener. . . and who has not at some time said to someone, "Well, you wouldn't believe what I've been through". . .? And I daresay, as well, that many Bowie fans know very well what it's like to "put out a fire with gasoline". . . Bowie is all about extremes, and many of his fans can surely identify with such an approach. "Shake it," well, um, this is not one of Bowie's finer moments, and will very likely be skipped on your CD player, unless you have had a few drinks, or enough drinks to "shake it" along to the, well, grating, chorus behind Bowie's attempt to. . . what? I seek the answer to this question, and seem to come up with no suitable response. "We're the kind of people who can shake it if we're feeling good," he sings, and I think that he must have really been feeling good indeed to have included this song on the album with sincerity. I adore Bowie unabashedly, but this song compells me to inquire of him as he sings this tune on my stereo, "Um, sir. .. ?!" "Sir. . .?!" Definitely should have been a B-side. Well, what is a great musician if he or she can't put out some embarassing songs every now and then? And we can surely forgive David Jones for such lapses in musical judgement, well, because he made such consistently outstanding albums as "Alladin Sane," "Diamond Dogs," and "Ziggy Stardust". . . Go ahead and "shake it," Bowie, all you wish, but my rock and roll heart will gladly gravitate towards "Without You," "Richochet," "Criminal World," and "Cat People" on the "Let's Dance" album. I might be in the minority here, but again, I insist that these are the greatest songs on this album. But it still remains a great album, commercial or not. And I just might put on my pair of red shoes and "dance under the moonlight, the serious moonlight," and even frolic, but I doubt that I'll ever feel compelled to "shake it." But even if I were to do so, well, it wouldn't be the "end of the world!" For those fellow Bowiephiles who snub this album, give it another chance, and if necessary, another, and yet another. . . for it has a lot to offer. . . it is a work of Bowie, after all. . .

I will begin this review with a tale of the distant past.
Once upon a time in 1983, a girl in her teens went on a plane trip to Disney World with her mother, a friend of her mother's, and the friend's young sons. The plane had a sound system in each seat, and the passengers were given headsets. There were several "stations" of music to choose from, and the girl had hers tuned to (at the time) contemporary hits.
The teen sat bobbing her head, tapping her feet, and chair-dancing to such tunes as "She Blinded me with Science" and "Hungry like the Wolf." This was FUN music! Then, it happened.
All of a sudden, the teenage girl's eardrums were caressed by a voice like that of an angel -- a very manly-sounding, sexy-voiced angel. As this manly yet angelic voice sang passionately about dancing and swaying and trembling flowers and red shoes, the teen sat there motionless, enthralled, spellbound, utterly enchanted, unable to believe a human voice could sound so gorgeous, so exquisite.
That girl was me, the song was "Let's Dance," and the fellow with the sexy angel-voice was none other than Mr. David Bowie.
I have read scathing criticisms of the album "Let's Dance," citing how it was more "commercial" than Bowie's earlier recordings. I don't know what that means, "commercial." If The Gentleman and his spellbinding musical stylings got more exposure, so much the better. As a Bowie fan in a BIG WAY, I am here to say that, in its own way, this sparkling disc of audio enchantment deserves to be as much a Bowie classic as "Ziggy Stardust" or the Berlin recordings
The "hits" hit the mark. I always feel like dancing when I hear the catchy "Modern Love," and I still find the title track mesemerizing, and "China Girl" is lushly romantic. But even better still are what I call the album's "basement tracks" -- those tunes that didn't get as much airplay and exposure.
"Criminal World," is smooth, seductive, and danceworthy, at once dreamy and dark, the hypnotic instrumentation the perfect foil for The Gentleman's beautiful voice.
"Cat People" sounds delightfully dark, as Bowie sings impassionedly of the plight of being under a supernatural "werecat" curse.
"Richochet" is a dark yet danceable musical tale of the plight of workers on an oil rig.
"Without You" is the heartfelt plea of a brokenhearted lover.
"Shake It" is a disco-tinted love song on the order of the title tune of this album and of "Stay" from Bowie's classic '76 album Station to Station"
Then there's "Under Pressure," a bonus track on the reissue, is a hard-hitting yet danceable collaboration between Bowie and the fine fellows of well-known rock band Queen. It may have been a Queen song featuring Bowie rather than a Bowie song featuring Queen, but Bowie just about took ownership of it.
I urge every Bowie fan worth his or her stardust to buy a copy of this wondrous work of audio art PRONTO. I recommend it highly.

David Bowie's 1983 opus, "Let's Dance" has become quite a controversial title in his catalog in the years passing since it's release. Some see it as a sellout, others see it as a nadir, but I think both views are a little out of hand.

Following SEVEN five-star albums (IMO) between 1974-1980 (Diamond Dogs, Young Americans, Station To Station, Low, Heroes, Lodger and Scary Monsters), anything less than perfection from the man was seen as a colossal disaster, and while Let's Dance is a great album, it is a slight decline from the albums he recorded in the mid to late seventies.

Another thing that really hurts the album is that it was his first album since "Young Americans" in 1975 that really is a product of its era. "Let's Dance" is as 1983 as Flashdance and Kajagoogoo. This album would not have been able to work in 1982 or 1984, much like "Young Americans" is a total product of 1975. It was totally the right album at the right time.

The album was highly commercial and provided him with more American success than he'd ever seen before and the videos made him a mainstay on the then-new MTV, but the commercialness of it has made the album seen as "David Bowie-lite" to most diehard fans. Truth be told, there is much to offer from this album.

"Modern Love", "China Girl" and "Let's Dance" are the one-two-three punch that starts this album off. These songs are solely responsible for bringing many new fans to the David Bowie party in 1983, and all of them are great singles. "Let's Dance" is presented as a 7 1/2 minute long 12" style mix of the song instead of the 4 minute version that made it a #1 single.

"Without You" was an afterthought choice for a single, and is a nice low-key new wave style ballad, although the Keith Haring portrait on the 45 cover might be more memorable than the album.

"Ricochet" is definately the closest thing to the Berlin trilogy as Bowie will get on an otherwise commercial album. I hated the song at first but it's really grown on me.

"Criminal World" was another single-in-the-making, it kinda reminded me of a slower Duran Duran style song, a very pleasing song.

"Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" is where the album falters. The original 1982 version of the song produced by Giorgio Moroder is a masterpiece and one of Bowie's most underrated singles. Here is a re-recording that turns it into a standard snoozeworthy 80's rock song.

"Shake It" is another bad track, ending the album with filler of the worst kind.

However, I love the first six of the eight tracks, and that is enough to make the album worth owning. It is nowhere in the league of Bowie's 1974-1982 work, but at the same time, this is the best album we'll get from Bowie until 1993 when his career begins its renaissance. Stevie Ray Vaughan fans also should check this album out.