David Bowie - Reality

Sun 18th Apr, 2004 in Music Reviews

Seemingly, David Bowie doesn’t age. After twenty-six studio albums and a career that traversed five decades, Bowie returns with Reality, a quietly artistic and emotive album filled with both nostalgia and youthful vigour.  Teaming up, once again, with producer Tony Visconti, Bowie creates a sound that recalls the past without shame or hesitation and yet gracefully marches forward into the present on the strength of Bowie’s vast reservoirs of artistic ability.

Musically, Reality is a natural extension of his 1980 release Scary Monsters (1980) but without the dark omnipresent despondency. This time, Scary Monsters and all the albums preceding it, serve as old vestiges of the glory days as Reality boldly attempts to revise history with a smile on his face and his hand raised in the air.

The first track, New Killer Star, captures this mood perfectly. The guitars are unassuming and the song is propelled by the infectious hook and melody. It’s neither nervous or uncertain. Bowie’s voice strides out confidently as a he proclaims, ‘I got a better way’ and you can’t help but believe him. The energy is retained in Pablo Picasso, a brisk four minutes of unabashed fun and cheek, and Never Get Old, which, as Bowie himself would probably tell you, are the only words to live by.

It all comes to a grinding halt when The Loneliest Guy wanders onto your speakers. It’s a dark and miserable piano tune that never really gets off the ground and for the first time on this album Bowie seems to be trying too hard. When it gets dark it gets boring and thankfully these unwanted doses of moroseness are few and far between. If anything, Bring Me The Disco King, the albums closer, does it better as Bowie pulls out his best Frank Sinatra impression crooning over a strong jazzy piano line.

It’s unfortunate that The Loneliest Guy would disrupt the flow of Reality as the next six songs feel more suited to the mood of the album. Days, especially, as its summery vibe and funky bass line quite happily sits alongside the tuneful pop of She’ll Drive The Big Car and the melodic rock of Fall Dog Bombs The Moon. The album’s title track, too, is a strong melodic rocker punctuated by almost primal hoots and howls that give it that strong dose of adrenaline.

The production values, evidently, are high. The sound is slick and refined but not so polished that it would fail to translate live. Reality is a solid effort by a revitalised and focused Bowie who doesn’t overtly try to capture those unattainable heights he reached years ago. While those legendary records will probably never be matched, Bowie seems content in making music that is both interesting and accessible. Reality, like no other Bowie record before it, sounds like it came from a man comfortable in being himself and in the simple act of making music. Groundbreaking it isn’t, but definitely worth a couple of spins.