This is an album that has to be listened to closely.

As background music, it seems to be just noise. But careful scrutiny shows that there are melodies and at times Bowie succeeds in joining the grunge set with feedback and distortion straight out of the Neil Young repertoire.

Earthling doesn’t succeed on every level and at times gets bogged down in its own seriousness. There are, however, good moments with Little Wonder and the single Dead Ma Man Dancing extremely catchy. I still long for a Bowie album of pop songs in the style of the brilliant Hunky Dory. Having said that Bowie is still a trend-setter who has continually shifted his musical output to stay with the times. His voice here at times out Blurs Blur. This is well worth a listen or 10.

Back to Bowie Index Page