Stan Deely on 12 Bowie albums in 12 months – Hours
Released in September 1999 and featuring the majority of the crew of the last album and tour although with the loss of Mike Garson. All songs co-written with Reeves Gabrels and a lot of the material originally intended for a computer game project. Billed on release as a return to Hunky Dory soft rock ballad-ry and it’s true that the album does have something of that along with, what sounds to me, like a Station to Station soul/torch song vibe. The cover seems to bear this out with his new image, grown out soul boy haircut cradling what seems to be an ailing/dying spike haired and goateed Mad Uncle Drum and Bass Bowie of his previous two albums.
The opening track THURSDAY’S CHILD fits in with the return to Hunky Dory story. The feel is that of a sort of torchy Station to Station, Loving The Alien type ballad. The sound is quite warm, that kind of 90’s full bandwidth production that was big at the time. Lots of synth, Gabrels plays spidery restrained lead and Bowie gives it a Word on a Wing “I’m wounded and sensitive” vocal which works for me.
SOMETHING IN THE AIR follows the lush melancholy of first track with a more downbeat opening verse. The verse puts one in mind of Seven Years in Tibet on the previous album. It could almost be a sequel or part two. There follows a different style second verse. A format I have noticed on the last couple of albums is Bowie using a structure with two different verse styles before he gets to a chorus. Musiciologist/musicians – Is there a name for this? Second verse is more avant rock and then the chorus which sounds vaguely like at 60’s rave up – Cream or something similar. A standard rock yet impressive chord sequence (Referencing the other song of the same name?) Repeats formula. Appears to be an end of relationship song and a bit of a coda that gets a bit Moonage Daydream. He’s referencing himself but doing it well.
Continuing the late 60’s rock vibe SURVIVE sounds like it could have been on Space Oddity album but beefed up with 90’s production values. Once again an understated souly number, possibly about a lost love affair, with more Moonage Daydream guitar. He singing well here. So three songs in, three mid paced ballads and all of them pretty good.
At this stage I was ready for a change of tempo but no, IF I’M DREAMING MY LIFE is mid paced ballad four. Is this what he does now? After the first verse the pace picks up with a rocky Queen Bitch riff mixed a bit low under the crooning. Another song of missed opportunities, regret. Repeat formula for another verse and chorus. It’s kinda standard even stadium rock with a slight hint of motorik. 3.57 nice little guitar break a bit like ‘Little Wing’ or something that Carlos Santana would do. At 4.30 we have a breakdown with Bowie just intoning the words “Dreaming my life … away” for another couple of minutes. It’s almost stadium rock. Puts me in mind of Lynyrd Skynyrd of all people.
SEVEN starts slightly whimsical, very Hunky Dory acoustic vibe with a yearning synth or possibly guitar part that sounds a bit like Fripp’s ‘Heroes ‘riff cleaned up for the 90’s. In fact this could be Heroes repackaged as a pop song. Possibly an autobiographical reference to his parents and upbringing or possibly not. Short, sweet, nice. So far, we have a very strong start. Five mid paced lushly produced songs, with a high standard of songwriting. No filler as yet.
WHATS REALLY HAPPENING opens with another lush Ziggy Stardust style riff and then monotone motorik verse. Opens up into an operatic chorus that is somewhat marred for me by a repeating backing vocal/sample reminding me too much of the Timmy Malletism onthe previous album. This is the first song that I would consider filler and am tempted to hit the skip button. Doesn’t really advance the album and the full on guitar seems a bit incongruous and out of place.
PRETTY THINGS ARE GOING TO HELL intoduces a welcome a change of pace but this uptempo almost angry rocker is, in my opinion, a bit of a non-descript dud – a bit of a non-song. Despite a faster pace and more oomph than previous songs it seems like a riff rather than a song and the song itself is a bit too polite recalling his anaemic take on Neighbourhood Threat. It’s not bad, sounds like it might be fun live. Breaks up the ballads but a bit out of place.
NEW ANGELS OF PARADISE
Lyrics co-written by a fan who won a competition. Sounding vaguely Oriental and recalling some of the Berlin era sounds. This is a bit more outre and out there. A bit less linear. Lots of different styles mashed up. Doesn’t really work as a song but has got impressive bits.
BRILLIANT ADVENTURE
Sounds familiar and then I realise that it is on Bowie’s ‘All Souls’ instrumental compliation. A welcome diversion but sounds somewhat out of place here. Maybe it had some meaning in the original game. Does its job in just under two minutes.
THE DREAMERS
Quite a long pause before this one. Was Brilliant Mistake intended as a final track and this as a bonus? Probably not as the whole album is just 40 odd minutes. Avant garde style verse but the chorus takes us to 80’s power ballad land. Reminds me of Pat Benatar’s Love Is a Battlefield. It’s okay but a bit lacking and a bit of a letdown end to the album.
What first appeared as a souly ballad album reveals itself as a bit of a soft rock/AOR album with lots of 60’s and 70’s guitar tropes. It works pretty well, the first few songs are strong and despite losing a bit of pace towards the end it does introduce some variety. Doesn’t quite hit the high points of the previous two albums but as a album maintains a higher standard and probably a better overall listen. The other day I had a couple of friends around for dinner and chat and I slipped this incognito onto the hifi after Station to Station and it acquitted itself well enough. They seemed to accept it well enough and only asked who/what it was towards the end.
Promoted by a short eight date promo tour which did feature Mike Garson and Gail Anne Dorsey. Singles all had quite impressive videos and hit the low end of the chart, presumably bought by Bowie obsessives.
Any opinions? Back on the treadmill or overlooked gem?
Nice write-up – lots to love about Hours.
The lyric competition was actually for What’s Really Happening and one of the reasons its a bit of a clunker.
I always think the New Angels of Promise is him trying to do a Lodger/Low Side 2 thing and it nearly comes off in places.
The Dreamers is a real grower – I now think of it as a really special track and love Survive, SITA and Thursdays Child too.
And it’s weird, yes how PTAGTH *should* work but for some reason doesn’t – a bit too Tin Machine (although I love Tin Machine) 🙂
I liked Thursday’s Child but found the album to be a disappointment. Very bland, not memorable at all. He was, I think, quite low on inspiration at the time. Things would improve a bit on the next couple of efforts
Yes, exactly the same for me. Thursday’s Child was a great single, a real pop tune and not a cop out tuneless “art statement” type of thing, designed to impress rather than touch. But the album? Only played it all the way through a couple of times.
I think TC, Survive and Seven are all of equal quality and beauty.
It’s not an album I reach for specifically if I want some Bowie – it’s a bit of a drain consumed in one sitting , but the tracks therein are good enough, especially 2-6.
Re: the “two choruses” question. These are nowadays referred to as the “pre chorus”, a short 4 to 8 bar bit basically containing another hook, to prepare you for the main one which arrives in the chorus directly after it.
Lovely write up. I liked the album at the time and still enjoy it a lot. 1999 was a year of reflection and reassessment. It seems silly now, but there were fears the world might stop functioning properly.
For me, ‘hours…’ is an older David Bowie passing his younger self along the stair as he turns to make his descent. On the cover, a healthy, vibrant Bowie cradles a frail, dying one. Inevitably, he looks back but with sadness and regret rather than anger. Seven updates Five Years, this time desperate for more time. Something In The Air references Thunderclap Newman, Albatross and Straight To Hell. The Strangers or the Sons Of The Silent Age revisit in The Angels Of Promise. There are echoes of Hunky Dory, an album recorded by a young man without an audience but with ambitious dreams. ‘hours…’ is a quiet, delicate, intimate record, that of a mature man coming to terms with who he is, who he used to be, the inevitability of death and mourning the loss of dreams unfulfilled. The production successfully avoids crushing the lovely melodies but, in the lyrics, Bowie often finds himself unable to breathe. He is on the edge of life, uncertain if he will make it until tomorrow, anguished and alone, vulnerable and beautiful to behold.
“… an older David Bowie passing his younger self along the stair as he turns to make his descent…” – that’s so pretentious even Paul Morley is turning in his grave (and he’s not even dead yet). But I like it!
Oh dear. I really don’t like Paul Morley’s writing!
I am, of course, referencing the cover and the lyrics of The Man Who Sold The World. 😉
To be honest, me neither. On the bookshelf to my right at this very moment I can see a copy of his “The Age of Bowie” with an immaculate and unbroken spine. I was barely able to get past the opening pages and gave up on it very quickly.
I’m not a fan of Morley’s writing in general, but he co-wrote Chris Blackwell’s recent memoir Islander, and I think he did a fine job.
It reads as if it is in Blackwell’s own voice, which is engaging and straightforward, and is well put together, covering his career in music and beyond. It’s a good book and Blackwell is a very interesting figure. He is open about his privileged background – he might get thrown out of Harrow, but his mother then gets him a job as assistant to her friend, Hugh Foot, the Governor of Jamaica. But he does something with it. In his early days, as well as spending evenings in clubs with his well-connected friends, and living on a “handsome family stipend” he is selling imported West Indian records from the boot of his car in Willesden and Brixton, and discovering Steve Winwood, then John Martyn and more . One of those people who re-invented the record industry in the sixties and seventies, and was always open to something new. At the time, buying Island records, I assumed it was a well-established company, not realising how inventive and risky it actually was.
Blimey. It’s a bit tedious though 😉
As I intimated up there, Dai. Needs to be approached with a certain emotional mindset, I find. And helps to be over 50 or to have lived a life with some knocks.
Well the last sentence applies to me. Will give it another shot.
And I did. Couldn’t make it to the end of track 4, just does nothing for me. His weakest album after Never Let Me Down in my opinion
Fair enough. I think I’d put quite a few records in front of Hours for that award though
I think this is a massively under-rated album. I was sold on it as soon as I saw a very flu-ridden yet chain-smoking Bowie perform Something In The Air and Survive on the Jools Holland Show.
Thursday’s Child was okay, but only that. Seven was simply weak. I had an immediate aversion to What’s Really Happening because I somehow got it into my head that it was a Roxy Music cover. I really can’t remember what gave me that idea. It’s not that bad, but I do get a bit fed up with that squealy Tin Machine guitar sound. I loved I’m Dreaming My Life and New Angels of Promise,
The best ever Bowie album would combine all the best tracks from Hours and Reality, although I’d have to find a space to squeeze in The Letter from Earthling. Has Stan Deely covered the Reality album or did I miss it?
Yes, I did Reality
I’m doing them in chronological order. Only Black Star to go, which I listened to this morning. Thinking of which artist to cover for the next year. I have some candidates in mind.