Scary Monsters [ENHANCED] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REISSUED]

David Bowie

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 28, 1999)
• Original Release Date: 1980
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced, Original recording reissued
• Label: Virgin Records Us
• ASIN: B00001OH7Y
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (83 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #35,202 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

Some would argue that this is the last great Bowie album, and certainly his only great album of the '80s. While it lacked the bite of its punk brethren at the time, it appealed to some fans of that genre and to middle-of-the-road rockers as well. Muscular playing met with no-frills production, and the product as a whole was infused with a gloriously arty style. "It's No Game (Part I)" opens the album, and is sung in Japanese, and "It's No Game (Part II)" closes, in English. New York punker Tom Verlaine even contributed a track ("Kingdom Come"), and "Scream Like a Baby" tells a dark and violent story with a howl. The drug-oriented "Ashes to Ashes" confesses that Major Tom was a junky while sounding all sleek and alluring, and the dance floor hit "Fashion" took aim at its very subject. The crowning jewel is the title track, with Robert Fripp's guitar ripping the place up at a relentless pace. It's been a long time since Bowie sounded this inspired. --Lorry Fleming

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Pivotal Bowie Experience, June 8, 2002

By	Ace Jones (Singapore) - See all my reviews

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.

32 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One flash of light, but no smoking pistol..., January 6, 2000

By	O. Buxton "Olly Buxton" (Highgate, UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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 Scary Monsters is 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. What a clever chappie he is. And there is the celebrated attempt, in Ashes to Ashes, to write off Space Oddity as a heroin song. Now Bowie has never been averse to making up all sorts of nonsense about his past, and this is no exception; he might have whiffed a doobie or two in 1967 but a junkie he was not. The album is very strong and Carlos Alomar has made a real impression on its overall sound, particularly in 'Ashes to Ashes' and 'Fashion', which cross back and forth between disco, funk and new wave - an odd combination which no-one else (except possibly Queen in the dreadful 'Hot Space') has ever tried. Tiresome though he is, you have to take your hat off to Rock's 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. 'Teenaged Wildlife', seemingly the paradigmatic 'silly voice, random lyrics' Bowie song, 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. How post-structuralist...) 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 a minimalist fashion. It sounds just like 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.

24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars i don't even know where to start about scary monsters, January 5, 2006

By	the man with two names "stevedug" (TN) - See all my reviews

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.