Never Let Me Down

Reading Beth's excellent review of David Bowie's early-'70s classic Hunky Dory, I was reminded that it's been far too long since I listened to any Bowie. My initial reaction was to reach for another early-'70s classic of his, say Ziggy Stardust (actually The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars - gotta love that title).

Instead, I reached for one of Bowie's least-acclaimed albums, Never Let Me Down (1987). Witness the following from Wikipedia:

"Never Let Me Down is an album by David Bowie, released April 1987. It drew some of the harshest criticism of Bowie's career, condemned by critics as a faceless piece of product and ignored by the public—Bowie himself openly apologised in an interview for the album being so bad. Defenders of the album maintain that many of its songs are underrated and that Bowie at this time was simply facing the inevitable backlash of an overexposed superstar and argue that the singles 'Day-In, Day-Out' and 'Time Will Crawl' are actually rather good songs. The album certainly works better as a coherent piece compared to its predecessor, Tonight.

The album was one of the first to feature different mixes on vinyl and CD, with the latter being generally longer. 'Too Dizzy' has the dubious status of being deleted from subsequent reissues of the album, most likely because of the irony-free borderline misogyny of the lyrics.

Tracks from Never Let Me Down formed the backbone of Bowie's highly theatrical Glass Spider world tour in 1988."
________________________________________________

Now, I'll have to take another listen before I'm ready to pass any final judgment. However, I'll come out and say right now that "Day-In, Day-Out" and "Time Will Crawl" are "rather good" songs. In fact, "Time Will Crawl" is an excellent song, in my oh-so-humble opinion.

I might write more on this album later, not sure. In any event, thanks to Beth for getting me back into Bowie!