SCARY MONSTERS (AND SUPER CREEPS)

Bowie's gift to write exceptional pop & rock anthems had always been impressive but it rarely managed to deliver albums of a listenable consistency. The albums with Eno were much of a hit and miss for me, but the collaboration with Fripp on Scary Monsters gives creative fireworks. At least on the first side.

The first half of the album is so strong it would almost deserve 5 stars on its own. The first three tracks present art-rock similar to that on Heroes, but Fripp takes a much bigger portion of the cake and gives the songs an unexpected edge. Ashes to Ashes and Fashion are two of the finest mainstream songs ever crafted. Up there with the Police for me.

The second side is more something for Bowie die-hards and it makes me wonder how many people bothered to flip this album to that side back in the vinyl days. I sure didn't. Again we find Bowie assuming his most affected and pretentious pose in the hope of hiding the average song material. None of the songs are bad, but they are sure inferior to what preceded, having too few hooks on offer and each of them indulging poor choruses and badly aged glam-rock. Every experiment that worked so effortless on the first side comes off forced here.

I think I'll need to borrow the higher math logic from another member to reach a conclusion here.

***** star songs : Scary Monsters, Ashes to Ashes, Fashion

**** star songs: It's no Game, Up the Hill Backwards

*** star songs: Scream Like A Baby, Kingdom Come

** star songs: Teenage Wildlife, Because You're Young

That's like 3.6666 stars.