Scary Monsters and the Super Creeps
David Bowie made another album that left me inspired and alive, as per usual.
This was such a fascinating record to listen to from start to near finish with it being an immaculately written and sonically fun art rock record!
This album starts off so weird with these rattling sounds followed by an indie rock band type of of countdown like it was being played in a garage with it being followed by the heavy rock instrumental with these punchy drums that I adore; it's present throughout most of the album with me doting and loving that production style!
The standout part of this track is Bowie's weird vocals and his really gravelly screams. It sounds wack to some people but to me it sounds like a Japanese person trying to sing in English while covering a song funnily enough, which is ironic as there’s a Japanese vocalist singing all throughout this track after every Bowie verse which I enjoyed.
"Up the Hill Backwards" opposed the opening track with Bowie basically saying the 1980s version of YOLO, exclaiming how we can’t do shit so let’s just do shit all over a way more chill instrumental with a long outro, which also happens on the title track which I like.
Back then artists used to let their instrumentals breathe and just let it play itself which I wish current day artists did more, with said title track (totally named after Skrillex) featuring my favourite instrumental and vocal delivery from this project, that being when David sings “Jimmy’s guitar sounds, jealousies scream, waiting at the light know what I mean.”
"Ashes to Ashes" felt nostalgic because I’ve heard it for years at this point and just didn’t know where it was from. The track also has another standout line to me, being:
“Strung out in heaven’s high, hitting an all time low”
"Fashion" featured my favourite writing in general as I love when people talk about the topic of blind sheep following whatever the new trend is as I never got following trends just to fit in with people who aren’t even like you. Besides him mumbling “dopdopddopdodp” on the track, him describing fashion as big, bland, loud and tasteless just spoke to me because of when art (the art being David Bowie’s weird voice) mirrors my inner thoughts.
Two other tracks I want to quickly mention are the songs "Kingdom Come" with me loving when David gets into his Christian bag of looking for Jesus for solutions as my Christian ass relates to that with him wanting to break the rocks, the rocks being a symbol for wanting to be free, all the while this very uplifting yet danceable instrumental plays, along with the track "Screams Like A Baby" where it’s about David’s view of a dystopian world, where everybody is neutralised, being unable to have a crumb of freedom with lines I like being:
“Thrown into the wagon, blindfolded, chains, stomped on us…
took away our clothes and things”
which makes me happy that I have freedom and money! The backing vocals are great too!
"Teenage Wildlife" and "Because You’re Young" wasn’t that captivating to me while the outro track was a more laid back version of the opening with no Japanese vocals.
Overall a very interesting album! Anytime I dive into a David Bowie record, I see myself really reading into the message and lyrics which is noteworthy as I love music way more for the production and art of the human voice so that fact that he can push the lyrics up to the forefront and have it intrigue me says a lot about his craft!
What are your favourite songs off this record?
What is your favourite album by David Bowie?
And where's the moral... when people have their fingers broken?
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JIXCO 2024-2026
