David Bowie Aladdin Sane ( remaster 180g vinyl LP )

Release date:26-02-2016 (Orginally released in 1973)

2016 EURemaster of 1973's Aladdin Sane Sounds Tremendous: David Bowie's Final Album With the Classic Spiders Lineup. Features "Watch That Man," "The Jean Genie".

Originally released in 1973, Aladdin Sane came right at the height of David Bowie's new superstar status and followed up the breakthrough Ziggy Stardust. It's also the final album on which the Spiders' classic lineup of Mick Ronson (guitar, piano, backing vocals), Trevor Bolder (bass), and Mick ‘Woody' Woodmansey (drums) appears and marks the debut of one of avant-jazz pianist Mike Garson. In addition to vocals, Bowie plays guitar, harmonica, keyboards and saxophone on a set that has more than stood the test of time.

Described by Bowie as "Ziggy goes to America," Aladdin Sane saw him create a rockier, more frenetic album than its predecessor, with the Rolling Stones a possible influence on album opener "Watch That Man" and a transgressive cover of their song, "Let's Spend the Night Together." Elsewhere, Muddy Waters' influence is heard in the riff of the UK #2 single "The Jean Genie" and "futuristic nostalgia" of "Drive-In Saturday."

"Cracked Actor," possibly Bowie's most decadent moment, was written after he had toured Hollywood Boulevard, translating the images and environment into raw rock n' roll. The addition of Garson and his remarkable talents, infuse some of the album's key tracks, in particular the title track with its dissonant improvisation, the Brechtian cabaret of "Time," and album closer "Lady Grinning Soul" with an edgy, schizophrenic quality.

Tracks:
A1 Watch That Man
A2 Aladdin Sane (1913-1938-197?)
A3 Drive-In Saturday
A4 Panic In Detroit
A5 Cracked Actor

B1 Time
B2 The Prettiest Star
B3 Let's Spend The Night Together
B4 The Jean Genie
B5 Lady Grinning Soul

Ziggy Stardust wrote the blueprint for David Bowie's hard-rocking glam, and Aladdin Sane essentially follows the pattern, for both better and worse. A lighter affair than Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane is actually a stranger album than its predecessor, buoyed by bizarre lounge-jazz flourishes from pianist Mick Garson and a handful of winding, vaguely experimental songs. Bowie abandons his futuristic obsessions to concentrate on the detached cool of New York and London hipsters, as on the compressed rockers "Watch That Man," "Cracked Actor," and "The Jean Genie." Bowie follows the hard stuff with the jazzy, dissonant sprawls of "Lady Grinning Soul," "Aladdin Sane," and "Time," all of which manage to be both campy and avant-garde simultaneously, while the sweepingly cinematic "Drive-In Saturday" is a soaring fusion of sci-fi doo wop and melodramatic teenage glam. He lets his paranoia slip through in the clenched rhythms of "Panic in Detroit," as well as on his oddly clueless cover of "Let's Spend the Night Together." For all the pleasures on Aladdin Sane, there's no distinctive sound or theme to make the album cohesive; it's Bowie riding the wake of Ziggy Stardust, which means there's a wealth of classic material here, but not enough focus to make the album itself a classic.