David Bowie – Reality

Never Get Old

Back in 1971, David Bowie first sang “Time may change me / But I can’t trace time.” Now, 32 years later, Bowie has released Reality, an album that does a remarkable job tracing the many twists and turns of his career. Over the course of his 26 album catalogue, Bowie has constantly adapted his music, style and persona. Each song on Reality, though heavily anchored in Bowie’s rock roots (thanks in part to the return of producer Tony Visconti), flirts with the many tricks he’s acquired over the years, from glam to disco to jazz, all tied together by Bowie’s unique musical craftsmanship.Instead of the concept album formula we’ve come to know and love from Bowie, Reality takes its lyrical cues from, well, reality. “See the great white scar / Over Battery Park,” the first line of the first track “New Killer Star,” hints at life in a post-9/11 New York. New York is a reoccurring lyrical theme throughout the album, which is surprising from a man who less than 10 years ago was singing about why he’s afraid of Americans. On “Fall Dog Bomb the Moon,” Bowie makes some subtle political commentary with the lines “I’m God damn rich / An exploding man / When I talk in the night / There’s oil on my hands.” Fans of fellow art-rockers Radiohead should take note of “The Loneliest Guy” a track musically reminiscent of Space Oddity. Bowie’s newest offering is just as cryptic and eccentric as any of his work, but like he sings in the title track, “I look for sense but I get next to nothing / Hey boy welcome to reality.”