Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography

NEVER LET ME DOWN

David Bowie

Prog Related


From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

David Bowie Never Let Me Down album cover
2.26 | 145 ratings | 6 reviews | 4% 5 stars

Collectors/fans only

Write a review

Buy DAVID BOWIE Music
from Progarchives.com partners
Studio Album, released in 1987

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Day-In Day-Out (4:38)
2. Time Will Crawl (4:18)
3. Beat Of Your Drum (4:32)
4. Never Let Me Down (4:03)
5. Zeroes (5:46)
6. Glass Spider (4:56)
7. Shining Star (Makin' My Love) (4:05)
8. New York's In Love (3:55)
9. '87 And Cry (3:53)
10. Too Dizzy (3:58)
11. Bang Bang (4:02)

Total time 48:06

Line-up / Musicians

- David Bowie / vocals, Rap (7), guitar, keyboards, Mellotron, Moog, tambourine, harmonica, co-producer

With:
- Carlos Alomar / guitar, synth guitar, tambourine, backing vocals (5)
- Peter frampton / lead guitar
- Sid McGinnis / lead guitar (1,2,11)
- Erdal Kizilçay / keyboards, drums, bass, trumpet, guitar (2), violin (11), backing vocals (5)
- Philippe Saisse / piano, keyboards (2)
- Laurie Frink / trumpet
- Earl Gardner / flugelhorn, trumpet
The Borneo Horns :
- Stan Harrison / alto sax
- Steve Elson / baritone sax
- Lenny Pickett / tenor sax
- Carmine Rojas / bass
- Errol "Crusher" Bennett / percussion
- Robin Clark / backing vocals
- Loni Groves / backing vocals
- Diva Gray / backing vocals
- Gordon Grodie / backing vocals (5)
- The Coquettes (Coco, Sandro, Charuvan, Joe, Clement, John & Aglae) / backing vocals (5)
- Mickey Rourke / Rap (7)

Releases information

Artwork: Mick Haggerty

LP EMI America ‎- PJ-17267 (1987, US)

CD EMI America ‎- CDP 7 46677 2 (1987, Europe) Some tracks are slightly longer compared to the LP
CD EMI ‎- 521 8940 (1999, Europe) Remaster by Nigel Reeve & Peter Mew; original track 10 not included

Thanks to MANDRAKEROOT for the addition
and to Quinino for the last updates
Edit this entry

Buy DAVID BOWIE Never Let Me Down Music



DAVID BOWIE Never Let Me Down ratings distribution


2.26
(145 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of rock music(4%)
4%
Excellent addition to any rock music collection(9%)
9%
Good, but non-essential (24%)
24%
Collectors/fans only (46%)
46%
Poor. Only for completionists (17%)
17%

DAVID BOWIE Never Let Me Down reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by ZowieZiggy
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars It took some three years to Bowie to recover from the release of "Tonight". His first blunder of his long career. No excuse as for his debut album. But here we go for what Bowie himself considers as his weakest album.

Actually, the first couple of songs are not that bad. But what is more interesting are both video clips. "Day-In, Day-Out" will be even banned from several TV channels (of which the BBC). Just have a look on You Tube. It is true that the images are rather raw and violent.

The second song "Time Will Crawl" will also be released as a single, but won't really chart. Just as the title track which is slightly better though. It is often considered as homage to Lennon. It is true that it reflects the melancholy of some Lennon songs. But I guess that the fans were cooled down by the harsh reviews of the album and were a bit hesitant in grabbing anything that had to do with it.

To be honest, even a song as "Beat Of Your Drum" is way better than most of the stuff available on "Tonight". Good guitar work, somewhat in the style of Fripp during "Scary Monsters". The guest guitarist is no one else than Peter Frampton and I must say that he raised the quality of some songs quite dramatically.

The same attempt is done with ."Zeroes". Rather humoristic for a title as well, but fortunately David released an OK song.Heavy (too) drumming, hypnotic and (too) repetitive beat though.

David brings us back in the "Diamond Dogs" atmosphere during the intro of "Glass Spider". A recitation depicting some sort of end of the world atmosphere. The storyboard is deeply sci-fi oriented. Some baby spiders being dropped on earth by a "Glass Spider" and be left alone. Things get worse for them when they figure out that all water has gone, which probably means death for them. The whole song features a fantastic rhythm and again a great guitar work from Peter Frampton.

The first blunder of this album is "Shining Star", but it is already the seventh track, so when compared to "Tonight" we are almost safe.

IMO, the highlight of this album is "New York's In Love". It is a mix between "Scary Monster" (the track) and "Day-In, Day-Out". I can understand that David is trying to repeat some parts of this great album, but each attempt on "Never Let Me Down" is of course inferior but again, the level remains pretty decent throughout the album even if towards the end, this cloning affair is a bit embarrassing ("87 & Cry").

The closing number is also a solid rocking number, as most of the songs featured actually. "Bang Bang" is a cover from a song written by old friend Iggy (he co-wrote it with Ivan Kral from the Patti Smith group). It is one of the songs of this album which is a pleasant surprise for me. Must have been twenty years that I didn't listen to it.

IMHHO, "Never Let Me Down" is a good album. Way better than "Tonight". Three stars.

Review by tarkus1980
PROG REVIEWER
1 stars Many people consider this Bowie's career low, even worse than Tonight or Labyrinth, but at least this has three tracks I like. The title track, as everybody points out, is an uncanny imitation of John Lennon circa 1980, and the combination of Bowie's vocal delivery and the great harmonica parts makes for a totally delightful experience. "Time Will Crawl" might essentially fall into the category of generic 80's pop, but it's got a genuine feeling of power in the lyrics and the beat, which is more than I can say for the bulk of the album. And you know, maybe I'm an idiot, but as far as generic semi-melodic 80's pop goes, I feel one could do a lot worse than "Shining Star (Makin' My Love)." It's just so freaking pleasant that I can't get myself to dislike it.

Unfortunately, that's pretty much all of the good that can be said for the album. This album feels like the quintessential Late 80's Album From A Washed Up 70's Star, and not even some sporadically decent guitar work (from Alomar and from guest Peter Frampton) can change that. There are a couple of instances where Bowie tries to reach into his past rather than relying solely on current trends, but they're total failures. "Zeroes" tries to conjure up memories of Ziggy Stardust and "Heroes", crossing them with synthesized audience noises meant to remind one of Diamond Dogs, and it irritates me to no end. "Glass Spider" (!) features Bowie reciting a nonsensical poem (!!) before going into a pop song no different from the bulk of the album. And believe me, the bulk of the album is just tacky and gross.

It's interesting to me that, in an interview a few years later, Bowie singled out this album and not Tonight as his low point. While I don't agree, I can definitely see where he was coming from on this. Once again, don't bother.

Review by Matti
PROG REVIEWER
2 stars This will be only the fourth review for this album. It doesn't deserve much more. (It came out at the time when I was 16-17 years old and quite often bought vinyls, especially from bargain bins. Naturally the majority of those buyings are long gone.) It had been three years since his previous studio album, Tonight (if Labyrinth O.S.T. is not counted) and with this album he tried to rise from the low season in his career. Commercially he probably succeeded, but artistically? It depends what you compare this one to. I'd say this is better than Tonight (which is generally regarded as one of his worst albums ever). If it's better than his later albums, I can't really say, because I have never got much interest towards them. Outside I know to be better, that's all.

This is very very 80's album, starting from the cheap-looking colourful collache cover art. The hits had heavy circulation in the MTV ('Day-In-Day-Out', 'Time Will Crawl') and I sense a little joyous yuppie feel here: most of the the album is up-tempo, catchy pop with rather light contents.

Of course in the big picture of BOWIE's vast discography this one has very little weight, but as a product of its time, I wouldn't bark at it harshly. The production is relatively good, and there are some good songs. The adventurous 'Glass Spider' is easily the best one. 'Time Will Crawl' isn't bad either. Even some of those light pop tunes do have a certain charm (title track, 'Shining Star'). However there are quite many songs I wouldn't care to visit again even for nostalgic purposes. Not quite three stars, but two deservedly.

Review by Warthur
PROG REVIEWER
2 stars Not even Bowie himself was keen on the original version of Never Let Me Down; as he explained it, he wasn't really feeling engaged at the time and didn't really pay that much attention to the production, with poor results - in particular, the drums from Erdal Kizilçay are entirely too intrusive. According to Reeves Gabriels, Bowie wanted a do- over on some of the songs almost as soon as the album had come out, but eventually decided that it was a bit too soon.

However, Bowie kept toying with the idea of revising the album, and completed a radically reworked version of Time Will Crawl as a taster for the project. He never got around to doing the rest of the songs before he died, but in early 2018 Gabriels assembled a team of Bowie collaborators to produce a brand-new version of the album which was a bit more worthy of the Thin White Duke's legacy, following the lead of the reworked TIme Will Crawl and what else was known about Bowie's intentions for the do-over.

Having emerged on the Loving the Alien boxed set, Never Let Me Down 2018 is pretty decent - we can certainly hope it will see a separate release soon, and it'd be a good thing if it displaced the original album altogether. In particular, that intrusive drum sound is toned down remarkably, allowing the intros to songs like Time Will Crawl to finally breathe. So, tack on an extra star and a half if you're looking at that version - but as far as the bungled original goes, avoid.

Latest members reviews

3 stars "Never Let Me Down" is just one of many Bowie albums that have been hated in retrospect. David Bowie described the album as his worst, and many fans are disappointed. But though this album may not be pioneering, it is a pleasant listening experience with some great pop tunes. The album star ... (read more)

Report this review (#906520) | Posted by The Mystical | Tuesday, February 5, 2013 | Review Permanlink

2 stars It is so unfortunate to hear such a dissapointing album form one of my favourite artists. It has its redeeming values, but they are few and far between. The production is cold and tinny, just like the song writing. The opener, 'Day-In Day Out', at least is a not-too-bad song in the vein of Yo ... (read more)

Report this review (#175911) | Posted by burtonrulez | Wednesday, July 2, 2008 | Review Permanlink

Post a review of DAVID BOWIE "Never Let Me Down"

You must be a forum member to post a review, please register here if you are not.

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.