God knows it’s good…
BowieNetter TP pointed me at this BBC review of the Space Oddity 40th Anniversary Limited Edition by Chris Roberts a couple of days back…I was hoping to save it for a round-up of reviews but they don’t seem to be forthcoming just yet…do let us know if you spy any on your cyber travels or elsewhere.
Anyway, it’s a lovely piece, from which this excerpt…
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It sounds extraordinary today, so flecked with genius that the wonder is not that Bowie broke big afterwards but that he didn?t sooner. Perhaps the last great 60s album, with shades of prog and sprinkles of Sgt. Pepper?s, it?s an elegy to that decade?s corroding ideals. The climactic Memory of a Free Festival perfectly captures the desire for escape from society?s shackles that coloured the times yet also seems smart enough to mock itself, knowing that bliss is, as he puts it in another lovely ballad, An Occasional Dream.
In this blend of abandonment and self-awareness lay Bowie?s genius (a blend which later culminated in Young Americans, both completely fabricated and completely soulful). He never accepted that the textbook doesn?t allow you to be simultaneously arch and angst-ridden, and his innate ambivalence fuelled songs which proudly endure.
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You can read the full review on the BBC website
David Bowie’s Space Oddity 40th Anniversary Limited Edition is released in the UK next Monday, October 12th, as a double CD and a digital download, with the 180gm vinyl following the week after.
As previously reported (09.22.2009 NEWS: SPACE ODDITY RELEASE MOVED TO NOVEMBER IN USA) the release has been moved in the US from October to November 17th.