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David Bowie's new album, hours..' may not be perfect, or even near-perfect for that matter, but it's a sign of good things to come. Listening to the album, warts and all (and there are quite a few warts), one can't help but note that David Bowie hasn't sounded this much like David Bowie since his glory years during the 1970's. And for fans who sat through albums recorded in the last 15 to 20 years by a Bowie at times commercialized, at times directionless, at times boring and at times various combinations of the three, this has to be a breath of fresh air. Always a musical chameleon, able to bring his own distinct style to every genre he tackled, it seemed as though Bowie forgot or lost his ability to do that. Let's Dance (1983), though fun, was probably the first sign of things to come. There are a few classic songs on that album, but nothing new was attempted. And for the first time since his formative albums in the 60s, the filler seemed very much like filler. After that, Bowie led fans on a long trek through some of the most dismal albums of any year right up until the early 90s. Over the course of a few industrial rock albums that owed more to the presence of Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails than to that of the Thin White Duke, Bowie somewhere seems to have realized he's the one who should be doing the influencing not vice-versa. The first half of 'hours...' is a sombre affair, containing the more introspective songs in the bunch, some of which sound a lot like outtakes from Bowie's Ś71 classic Hunky Dory. The second half is the hard rock side, still containing bits of industrial rock, but sounding more like Bowie worked on the songs by himself, without Reznor. The hit single Thursday's Child, which opens the album, is easily the best song Bowie has done since the early 80s, when he wooed audiences a few final times before his descent into mediocrity on such tracks as Modern Love, Let's Dance, China Girl and Blue Jean. It's nice to hear good Bowie again, even if much of the rest of the album doesn't measure up; the song Brilliant Adventure is far from qualifying for that particular adjective. Some of the first songs on the album, including Something in the Air and Survive come off as contrived. The rockers seem to work better overall than the softer songs, including Pretty Things are Going to Hell which seems like a sequel to his early Ś70's classic Oh You Pretty Things, and suggests Bowie sees a huge difference in the morals and beliefs of 1970's youths to those of youth today, from naive to destructive. 'hours˛ is no classic, but Bowie finally is back to doing his own thing, a sign that he is once again going through changes, only this time for the better.
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