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Scary Monsters

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Bowie's albums are like a fine wine. Scary Monsters is a particular vintage which still sounds excellent today. It's the artistic vintage of Bowie which continues to surprise people like myself.

Every new Bowie album in the 70s was a new experience for its listeners - literally. With the exception of the Ziggy / Alladin Sane period - Bowie's albums from the mid-70s onwards were refreshingly different from one another. This is no exception. It's been mentioned in other reviews that Scary Monsters was Bowie's last significant release from a historical perspective. That's pretty true. If he'd died after this was released - his legend would've certainly been sealed on a high note.

The New wave artists who were about to arrive on the UK scene worshipped Bowie. Scary Monsters shows why: Bowie was a law unto himself.

Cryptic yet accessible; raw yet melodic - Bowie's lyrics drive this album, as does the great guitar work of Fripp and a cameo by Pete Townshend. This is a far more sonic work than Bowie's previous albums, and plunges the listener headlong into his inner world. The iconic tracks here that everyone knows are Ashes to Ashes; Fashion and Scary Monsters. The lesser known tracks (ie not heard on his compilations) - form the rest of the snapshot. Scary Monsters is very much like a portrait of Bowie, of which the better known songs are simply parts of his overall psyche.

Scary Monsters capped a tremendous musical decade that blew critics and audiences away, and belongs in any Bowie collection. Many of his ardent fans wish he would or could return to this form -and some believe he has with his 90s releases, but don't believe it...For some reason, Bowie has never sounded as artistically immersed in a one particular work after this one.

So get this vintage for its raw passion. And if you can, do get the rykodisc for the extra tracks which are worth it.

sometimes music can be a life altering experience. when this album came out, i was a freshman in high school in a small midwestern town. i stumbled across it, probably from a review in rolling stone or cream, and listened to it through headphones in my bedroom for hours on end. as i grew up, the age of the cd came along and this album sat in the 2 crates of albums i refuse to let go of.

my 9 yr. old son got one of those mp3 player things for christmas and we have spent the last few nights downloading the songs he likes onto it. well, once again i stumbled across scary monsters out there in internet land and downloaded it onto my computer.

i am now sitting here again with headphones on singing all these songs and dancing like a wildman. the lyrics of 25 years ago just flow out of me like breathing even though i have not heard them forever. the music is just as fresh now as it was then.

people more knowledgable than i can review the merits of each particular song in objective and analytical ways, but i cannot. they can compare this album to other bowie albums, but i cannot. i cannot because this album is impressed upon my musical soul. it opened my ears to all kinds of music i never knew existed. i could have been a top 40 listener for the rest of my life, but i did not and it was because of the power of this masterpiece.

If the 1970s were a hellish journey for David Bowie, Scary Monsters represents the first night home, a blanket wrapped round the shivering figure, cup of cocoa in one hand and a series of really awful flashbacks and nightmares everytime he falls asleep.

Okay, that sounds stupid, but I mean that in Scary Monsters we find Bowie finally attempting to take stock of the situation (which, in 'It's no game (ii)' he concludes he really doesn't understand).

Cutbacks and cross-references to his earlier material abound: the intro guitar chords to Up The Hill Backwards are the same as the intro chords to 1973's Panic in Detroit - only played backwards. And there is the celebrated attempt, in Ashes to Ashes, to write off Space Oddity as a heroin song. Bowie, of course, has never been averse to making up all sorts of nonsense about his past, and this is no exception: he might have whiffed the odd doobie in 1967 but a junkie he was definitely not.

This album is generally very strong: Carlos Alomar makes a real impression on its overall sound, particularly in the epochal single Ashes to Ashes (fairly grim aside: I once met the keyboard player from the session. He now plays children's birthday parties in North London as one half of a duo called the "Rock N Roll Pirates".) and Fashion, both of which cross back and forth between disco, funk and new wave - an odd combination which no-one else (except Queen in the dreadful Hot Space) has ever tried. And, tiresome though he is, you do have to take your hat off to Rock's own crashing intellectual bore Robert Fripp, who cuts this record up with some stunning, incandescent guitar playing.

The second half of the album is a more "interesting" prospect than the first which, with Ashes to Ashes, Fashion and the title track, is about as strong a side of vinyl that has ever been recorded. Flip it over and you find Teenaged Wildlife, seemingly the paradigmatic "silly voice, random lyrics" Bowie song, but which has the makings of a great, confessional work - perhaps more personal even than Ashes to Ashes, but it's a pity Bowie sings it as if he's trying to impersonate a Leslie rotating speaker. Scream Like a Baby, Because You're Young and Kingdom come (the last featuring once again the rotating speaker impersonation) are less essential, but the album, and the decade, are brought around quite nicely by It's No Game (ii) (where old smarty pants cross references the very album he's singing on) and finally a very odd sound effect, which sounds like someone pouring cement (perhaps to "finish" the album?).

The Rykodisc pressing I own also contains an extraordinary re-recording of Space Oddity, dating from about the time of this album, which Bowie has rearranged in minimalist fashion to resemble Lennon's 'Mother'. Weird, but true.

I used to think this was the best Bowie album of the lot, but now I think there's too much fat in it for that. But, to quote the old chap, "when it's good it's *really* good". If you're serious about Bowie when he was important, this is one you can't do without.

Olly Buxton

From the opening verses sung in Japanese, there's a distinct sense that something dark and sinister is going on just beneath the surface of this record. It's a very visual album, and as Bowie takes the listener through this journey, he confronts his psychological shadow head on over and over again, ultimately gaining control over it. This is apparent in the arrangement of the songs, especially with Robert Fripp's barely controlled guitar work. Between Fripp and Carlos Alomar, it's as if Bowie had unleashed two deadly snakes from a wicker basket, only to coax them back at the very last second before allowing them to do any harm. Chronologically, Scary Monsters came after the Berlin trilogy albums of the mid to late '70s, which marked the peak of Bowie's experimental period. As he confesses in 'Ashes to ashes', he apparently wasn't just experimenting musically on those previous albums, but also with heroin (and God only knows what other strange drugs). This may very well be the last of Bowie's truly classic and timeless albums from beginning to end. The SACD version is well worth getting, as it adds another dimension to a spectacular recording.

That's how you'll feel when you crank up the bass on this SACD. This is a hybrid disc, so you can play it on regular CD players as well, but to get the full audio range you'll need a SACD player. I'll say it again - SACD and DSD remind me of playing a brand new audiophile vinyl record - there's just something else there that CD can't provide, and SACD blows the doors off of DVD-A. So even if you don't have a SACD player, buy this copy now and hang on to it until you do get one. You can't go wrong with a disc that has "Ashes to Ashes" and "Fashion," and the incredible guitar work of Robert Fripp.

'Scary Monsters' is perhaps the pinnacle of Bowie's long career in music. Firstly, it features perhaps Bowie's best ever backing band with Robert Fripp providing some stunning guitar work. Also, because this album was created without the assistance of Eno, it survives as one of Bowie's most personal. The persona adopted was the world-weary traveller of 'Lodger', only this time tackling more personal issues. The lyrics are probably Bowie's best ever, especially on 'It's No Game' and 'Teenage Wildlife' and another standout is his consistently strong, often exaggerated vocal performance. There are also a number of important guest performances from the likes of Roy Bittan and Pete Townsend as well as Tony Visconti providing some inspired and eccentric touches to the production. Although every song is a highlight, the best are the two versions of 'It's No Game' that bookend the album, the excellent number one hit single 'Ashes To Ashes', 'Scream Like a Baby' and the best of the lot, the aforementioned 'Teenage Wildlife'. The bonus tracks on the CD make this even more essential.

This is my very favorite Bowie album and I honestly think his best. It follows the excellent "Berlin Trilogy" of "Low," "`Heroes'," and "Lodger" and is actually a culmination of Bowie's entire career so far. As such it is loud, manic, desperate, paranoid and even political. Its also simply great music with intriguing lyrics sung with the strongest voice Bowie can muster.

Like many of his albums, "Scary Monsters" has a structural continuity. While this one isn't a concept album like "Ziggy Stardust," "Diamond Dogs," or "1. Outside," it has a beginning, middle and end. The album begins and ends with two highly different versions of "It's No Game." The opening version is loud and angry. Bowie virtually screams out the lyrics as a woman concurrently shouts them out in Japanese. All the while is a screeching guitar and a tense build up to Bowie's closing cry of "Shut up! Shut up!" It's a powerful, confusing and even scary start of a wild ride. In contrast, the closing version of "It's No Game" is deliberately spent. Where Bowie was trying to punch his way out of a straightjacket in the opening number, by close he has given up. His power is gone. The lyrics are easier to follow, and although their meaning is somewhat obscure, they come across as resignation. The listener is also spent by this point. It's as absolute an ending as can be, even more so than "Rock N' Roll Suicide" at the end of "Ziggy." This is why any "bonus songs" tacked on to the end of this album detract from it.

As an interesting side note about "It's No Game," the lyrics borrow from a highly obscure song Bowie wrote in the 60's called "Tired of My Life." More evidence that "Scary Monsters" is a summation of all his work.

In the middle of the two versions of "It's No Game" are eight of Bowie's best songs, many of which were too complex and disturbing for top-40. The two best known are "Ashes to Ashes" and "Fashion." "Ashes to Ashes" puts to rest any question about whether Bowie's first hit, "Space Oddity," was a drug song. This time, "we know Major Tom" (the hero from "Space Odditiy") is a junkie. "Ashes to Ashes" does a better job of conveying the addiction experience than John Lennon's screams in "Cold Turkey" or The Velvet Underground's droning guitar in "Heroin." Musically, "Ashes to Ashes" is one of the milder songs on Scary Monsters, which is probably why it became a hit. The irony is that most casual listeners probably had no idea of what it's about.

"Fashion," on the other hand, is probably the most obvious song on the album. Bowie compares popular culture style shifts with politics. Fashion with fascism. "Fashion! Turn to the Left. Fashion! Turn to the Right." No mystery in the meaning here, but a clever parallelism.

"Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)" (the song), "Teenage Wildlife," "Scream Like a Baby" are driving and desperate. They feature some of the best guitar and percussion on any of Bowie's songs. They lyrics are obscure but vaguely disturbing. Is Bowie singing about some sort of future-fascist takeover, a drug-induced hallucination, or something else entirely? One thing he's doing with these songs is harshly criticizing his own past-- and possibly future-- work, in part by offering a superior alternative. "Teenage Wildlife" mocks Bowie imitators - "Same old thing in brand new drag" -- while anticipating "Let's Dance" - "So you train by shadow boxing, search for the truth." "Let's Dance" would be Bowie's next album, three years later, and his biggest hit, and features Bowie shadow boxing on the album cover. It's also considered to be a commercial sellout by many fans. Could he have been thinking about doing a pop album somehow linked to boxing back when he was making "Teenage Wildlife"? Here he sings; "Break open your million dollar weapon, And push your luck, still you push, still you push your luck, A broken nosed mogul are you, One of the new wave boys."

The galloping "Scream Like a Baby" is more about the transformation from raw to cooked, as Bowie and all his qualities get pounded into submission by something like the quasi governmental force from "Diamond Dogs" until he learns "to be a part of soc-society." "Scream Like a Baby" features some recycles gimmicks, like a "Ch-ch-ch-changes" stutter and an "All the Madmen" style insane-elf voice. But this time Bowie takes those devices and makes art from them.

The two last songs before the final "It's No Game" are amongst the most depressing in Bowie's catalogue. In "Kingdom Come," Bowie laments, "Well I walked in the pouring rain, And I heard a voice that cries `It's all in vain,' The voice of doom was shining in my room I just need one day somewhere far away"

The song recaptures and updates the hopelessness of "Hunky Dory's" "Quicksand." Again, an old theme done better this time around.

"Because You're Young" sounds more optimistic, but if anything is actually bleaker. "A million dreams, a million scars." The song is about a dashed vision of hopeful, youthful love. The delusions of recently exited youth is another theme of the album. "Because You're Young" is a warning for all the "little metal faced boys" and "Psychodelicate girls" who may be listening.

"Scary Monsters" is more of an experience than an album. It should be listened to repeatedly for a full appreciation. It is rock music in its very highest form, and the highlight of David Bowie's contribution.

Side One of Scary Monsters is, in my view, the single best side of music to be found on any Bowie album - not least because of the astonishing musicianship of King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp ('I've been spraying burning guitar all over David Bowie's new album', as he said at the time) and the supple bass playing of Bernard Edwards. And the songs themselves - from the throat-tearing opener 'It's No Game' (with a frantic Japanese commentary in the background), to the searing title track (check out the guitars on this one!) to the Space Oddity follow-up 'Ashes to Ashes' and the metallic dance track 'Fashion' - rank among his best. It would be surprising if the high standard could be maintained on Side Two - and it isn't. 'Teenage Wildlife' is a highlight - a mini rock-opera that has wonderfully expressive singing and inspired playing - but the tracks that follow it - 'Scream Like a Baby', 'Because You're Young' - are weak in comparison. Still, if I had to choose one album by Bowie to take to a desert island, it would be this one - the perfect antidote to sunshine and blue skies. (It's remarkable to think that the album that followed this, three years later, was the appalling 'Let's Dance'.) If you want to sample the music of David Bowie when he was at or near his creative peak, then order this CD. Highly recommended.

Whether or not this is THE best is debatable, but it's a close call.

This was the first ever Bowie album I bought, back in September 1980. As a 13-year-old, I had never even heard of Bowie until Ashes To Ashes (still my favourite Bowie song!) and so I was totally unaware that the single came in four different sleeves, with stamps inside. I bought my copy from Woolworth's but only found out that the stamps even existed more than a year later - thanks Woolies.

So Ashes To Ashes was a revelation and even the b-side, Move On (from Lodger) was palatable, so I went and bought Scary Monsters. It is undoubtedly a big and scary album for a young teenager and it was years before I really liked tracks like Scary Monsters (which is even more wonderful live) and Kingdom Come, let alone understood the meaning of Because You're Young. On this note, I later bought Stationtostation and thought Bowie was singing "It's not the side effects of the cooking..."

This is a monster sound, with some ace guitar licks. Certainly an essential part of any Bowie collection.

Finally, I'm not sure if the latest reissue has any extra tracks, if so, then why didn't they include Under Pressure?

This album is so brilliant, that it is hardly describable by words. It boasts many huge guests and fine musicians such as Robert Fripp ( of King Crimson), Pete Townshend of the Who and Carlos Alomar (Bowie's bandleader). Every track is good, but the tracks Scary Monsters, Ashes to Ashes, Teenage Wildlife, Scream Like a Baby, and Because You're Young, are some of the finest of his career. This personally my favorite album, having brilliant, yet disturbing, paranoid lyrics, but fantastic singing showcasing his range and ideas from other albums into one of absolute peaking brilliance. This album will disturb you, scare you, delight you and about everything else. It has satires, influences of metal, classic rock, glam rock, soul, blues, and about every other kind of music very very successfully melded. THis is not a good Bowie to start with as it takes much getting used to but if you like it then i recommend Low, Heroes, and Lodger, his three eno, berlin period albums, all of them are great. It doesn't get much better than this, this is the finest of wine, the most expensive of gold. If you purchase this you'll not be disappointed. It's too bad that after this his career declined until a brilliant ressurection with Outside, i'm not sure if i'm allowed to recommend this , but if u like read my review on Outside and maybe you'll decide to give that one a shot too.