TONIGHT

This is almost, but not quite, another covers album for Bowie - and also a bit of an uncredited collaboration with Iggy Pop. Of the five cover songs on this, three of these are of Iggy tracks - and sure, Tonight and Neighborhood Threat were originally cowritten by Pop and Bowie for the Lust For Life album, but Don't Look Down is from New Values, proving that Bowie had kept up with Iggy's career even after their careers had gone in different directions for a bit.

In addition, Pop co-writes Tumble and Twirl and Dancing With the Big Boys, the latter of which he guests on. On the whole, then, the album is a bit of a reunion, laying the groundwork for what would be Pop's most commercially successful (and most hook-laden) album of the 1980s, Blah Blah Blah.

However, it really doesn't sound that way - for better or worse, Bowie gives about as un-Iggy-ish a spin as he can to a lot of the material. Take, for instance, the reggae-inflected take on Tonight, or the torch song version of the Beach Boys' God Only Knows - or the epic album opener Loving the Alien, a brief glimmer of Bowie's old alien art rock stylings.

On the whole, it's a pleasant enough listen, but don't expect grand things of it: it's not quite one thing or another and as such is best approached as a collection of fun songs, not as a cohesive album.