Although I'm not the big fan of Let's Dance, to be fair, it was his attempt to be mega after getting a big deal with EMI America. Although he has been strong in The UK and Europe, his US fame at the time was not much to write home about - a couple of big sellers here and there, a strong cult following but not anything massive. It was a strong gamble, so I think that things had to be that calculated being one of the innovators of Rock Video in the MTV generation. What followed was a series of albums that sounded like that they tried to follow up on the Big 80's Sound and the huge surprising success of Let's Dance, but with very little that sounded committed and other styles and bands that eclipsed him by the end of the decade ending what was a strong hit album.

I think that I got my Hipster-loved album burn through getting records at the Library when I was a young Teenager. Laurie Anderson's Big Science comes to mind right away - I respect the originality, but it just did not connect with me. Kind of put me to sleep.

A lot of the Experimental stuff that I got a little later on in The 80's is still with me, but mainly for being connected to a chapter of my life today although I still enjoy them. Still, there are a couple of discs that I got trying to fit into the more Hip Industrial scene of the Late 90's, coming off as all arty and sometimes ugly for the sake of being ugly.

Apart from a couple of Genesis P'Orridge discs of the day which showed that the ideas were turning too erratic for me to follow (PTV lost me with the Acid House stuff), there the Low Fibre Collection released on Invisible (Martin Atkins' label). Got it used and cheap, but still feeling like that I wasted money on a disc I don't listen to. Lo-Fiber was a label ran by Justin K Broadrick that had a line in beat-driven but still rather non-listenable stuff that posed as arty but still not that impressive with me. I never really knew that Broaderick was pretty known in the Industrial Underground scene at the time, but it just failed to make any kind of impression with me. It's cool that he's been making a mark, but that collection sounded like a bunch of Arty Beat Driven projects that just went nowhere.

I have to respectfully disagree about Let's Dance. It wasn't that Bowie was making dance music again, it was that he was making bad, bloated, bland 80's AOR dance music that was the issue. If Let's Dance had been another Young Americans, that would have been okay. In fact, when Bowie finally started coming around in the early 90's, his first album after Tin Machine was Black Tie White Noise, which was a dance album and a pretty darn good one. At least he sounded like he cared again.

I know I'm in the minority because I think most of Bowie's 80's albums were hugely successful, but as a serious fan, I felt they were bereft of any meaningful content. DB was just as entitled to chase a buck as anyone else, but after that steady progression of amazing 70's records, it was a stone bummer to witness. To be fair though, I think he was pretty burned out by that point. The fact that he came back so much stronger in the 90's is a testament to that. Like he finally got his second wind or something.

I've never listened to anything just to look cool (at least not in my adult life...there were a few choices in my middle school days that would count, but not in the context of the thread). There have been a few albums that I've convinced myself are good when they probably aren't, but then I actually ended up liking most of them. Some of my first forays into Noise Rock could be counted like that. Afrirampo, Lighting Bolt, the Boredoms. I actually spent a lot of time convincing myself I liked it. Melt Banana were probably the only group I really enjoyed from the beginning. Now I like all those bands, though.

I guess I can throw in that Autechre album as well.

Oh, and Satch...the Campfire Headphase is my personal favorite BOC album, so I agree with you but Music Has the Right to Children is still brilliant.

Hours (1999) is actually a great album in my view. One of the final buys of the Millennium, and a damn good one too. Somehow, it was a very fitting choice for me.

I fully understand your view. When something like Let's Dance comes after Scary Monsters, it's easy to go "Damn it, WHY?!!!" after years of some very innovative work.The bloated videos (although the one to China Girl was alright) were the top of the iceberg.

I'll confess it's been years since I tried it. It did not leave a good impression. Maybe I'll try it this weekend and see what it says now.

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Gonna have to agree to disagree because I still think the funky jazzy DnB on Bricolage is great though not really as rewarding or as diverse as his future albums.

Give it another try. I remember the first time I heard Autechre, they didn't click with me at all. Then a few years later I couldn't even understand what was not to like.

Exactly. Plus it has "Chomp Samba" on it, which is one of the best tracks he's ever done.

I lov'em and get most of their albums, but this. Talk about sprawling double CDs. I have to cheat to get through this one. If the my phone rings, while I'm listening, I won't put the cd on pause. If I go into the kitchen to fix something to eat, I'll just let it play in the background. I'll even do chores outside the house, then come back inside to catch a little bit of it, then go back out and finish what I was doing. In hind-sight, maybe that's the way you have to treat this one.

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