scary monsters
| David Bowie
scary monsters
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), also known simply as Scary Monsters, is the 14th studio album by David Bowie, released on 12 September 1980 by RCA Records. It was Bowie's final studio album on the label and his first following the Berlin Trilogy of Low, "Heroes" and Lodger (1977 1979). Though considered very significant in artistic terms, the trilogy had proven less successful commercially. With Scary Monsters, Bowie achieved what biographer David Buckley called "the perfect balance" of creativity and mainstream success; as well as earning critical acclaim, the album peaked at No. 1 and went Platinum in the UK, successfully restoring Bowie's commercial standing in the US. - WIKIPEDIA.
Critic Reviews
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ALLMUSIC
David Bowie returned to relatively conventional rock & roll with Scary Monsters, an album that effectively acts as an encapsulation of all his '70s experiments. Reworking glam rock themes with avant-garde synth flourishes, and reversing the process as well, Bowie creates dense but accessible music throughout Scary Monsters.
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RollingStone
The artist’s next album may see him questing, but on Scary Monsters, he’s settling old scores. Slowly, brutally and with a savage, satisfying crunch, David Bowie eats his young.
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sputnik music
This is Bowie’s most personal album detailing a breaking down, a disconnect, with the outer world.
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POST-PUNK.COM
finding the perfect balance between artistry and commercial success.
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The Critical Optimist
This is Bowie: creative, enjoyable, and just a little bit unnerving.
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John Mcferrin
I feel like this is an album that a hardcore Bowie fan would especially adore, so if you think that might be you, this should probably be one of your very first purchases. For the rest of us, this is still a pretty remarkable album, and definitely the last great Bowie album for a good while.
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Only Solitaire
David seems to be going through the motions, the passions, the actions (and the lotions - just look at that hairstyle!)
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Adrian Denning
In truth, without the two main attractions that were 'Ashes To Ashes' and 'Fashion', the remainder of the album ranges from merely average to good.
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Wilson & Alroy's Record Review
It's respectable, with Bowie taking a more commercial approach but still experimenting with electronic effects, odd lyrics, and a neurotic disco-New Wave sound.
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Don Ignacio
Despite the weak second half (which still contains good to excellent songs for the most part), Scary Monsters continues to thrive today as one of Bowie's most popular albums.
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Robert Christgau
No concepts, no stylistic excursions, no avant collaborations--this songbook may be the most conventional album he's ever put his name on.
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Medium
Here come the 80s. The perfect album to bridge the gap of Berlin with the pop that’s yet to come. One of my favorite Bowie eras. “Because You’re Young” is incredibly underrated.
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Mark Prindle
An oddball mixture of murky, grubby, clueless robotic dance/romance funk/pop/rock. Not nearly as "mature" or sterile as he would sound in three short years, Bowie at this point just sounds confused.
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TREBLE
Scary Monsters is recognized as a fusing together of his disparate styles and sonic experiments leading up to 1980.
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Classic Rock Forum
Scary Monsters" has some very unusual melodies that are both innovative and mesmerizing.
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TV Tropes
Released after three ''avant garde’’ leaning albums in collaboration with Brian Eno, this is a more mainstream-oriented combination of Hard Rock and Post-Punk, with some Gothic New Wave flare thrown into the mix. The lyrics include both political protest and dark psychological observations.
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APHORISTIC ALBUM REVIEWS
The last album in Bowie’s magical seventies streak, Scary Monstersdoesn’t break any new ground, but it’s a fine summation of his late seventies oeuvre, more commercial and accessible than anything he’d released since his glam days. With Eno not involved, there’s less sonic experimentation than before, and it’s much more song oriented.
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