Album Review by Nigel A. Messenger
David Bowie’s new album breaks ground on more than one level. For one thing it’s being distributed on the internet BEFORE your local record store.
Bowie is a big supporter of the net, he even runs his own BowieNet site which doubles as an ISP. The ten tracks on HOURS will be released onto ten different websites. Each website has a full track and also links to the websites with the other tracks on HOURS creating a global ‘web-ring’. To join the web-ring, log onto Virgin’s Eden website http://eden.vmg.co.uk and follow the links.
Fans won’t be disappointed with this latest addition to their collections with some tracks sure to become classics. THE PRETTY THINGS ARE GOING TO HELL stands out to me above the rest, I don’t know why but I just couldn’t get this one out of my head.
I wasn’t quite sure of the album the first time I played it. It definitely needed a couple of plays to adjust from what I probably expected to hear from Bowie, but the album is deep, you have to play it a few times to take in everything that’s on offer.
HOURS is Bowie’s 23rd solo album. Produced by Bowie and long-time collaborator / guitarist Reeves Gabrels, it’s a next generation of Bowie songs. HOURS is probably Bowie’s most autobiographical record to date. It also features the song, WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENING which was co-written by Alex Grant, winner of the BowieNet cyber-song contest.
The first single off the album, THURSDAY’S CHILD was released on 20th September 1999.
HOURS is released in the UK on 4 October 1999.
