Okay, listening again now. I find the second track pretty good but a little too long, bit of a jam. Harmonica is always welcome, but it's kind of more in the folk rock area. In contrast, and even though it's three minutes longer, as already mentioned, "Cygnet Committee" is the real standout here, giving me future echoes from Diamond Dogs and parts of Ziggy, and surely others I'm not aware of. A real classic track which really shows Bowie's emerging talent, his power as a wordsmith, his knack for creating images and stories with his songs.
"Janine" is kind of straight-forward rock and roll, while "An Occasional Dream" looks back to the soft folk of his debut (even includes some flutes, it would appear) so the next real song of any significance or interest is "Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud". For me, this foreshadows the likes of "Life on Mars?" in ways; the orchestral backing is nice and there's a certain sense of The Beatles in it, the likes of Sgt Peppers, and while "God Knows I'm Good" is ok I could do without it. The album ends really well then on "Memories of a Free Festival". Again it's extended a little too much, but more or less fades out in a "Hey Jude" way so it's not annoying at all.
A big leap forward for Bowie, leading to one of his heaviest albums up to that point. I'll vote this one a 4.
__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018
|