DAVID BOWIE REALITY ALBUM COLUMBIA RELEASE: SEPTEMBER 17, 2003 REVIEW: OCTOBER 9, 2003

According to the press release, this is David Bowie’s 26th album. It’s difficult not to be impressed by the fact that someone with that much behind him can still muster enough creativity to keep them coming.
The downside to this is that very few of his albums from the last twenty years or so have been worth paying much attention to. Bowie’s 80’s were largely disastrous, but with “Outside” and “Earthling” in the mid-90’s he made a sort of creative comeback. He seemed to have regained some sort of creative focus, and once again his music sparkled with ideas. Both albums were uneven, but impressive in their feverish urges to mine new ground.
But just as I thought Bowie was back as someone to be reckoned with, he released the bland soft rock of “...hours”, And last year’s “Heathen” wasn’t much to get enthusiastic about either. On “Reality” Bowie slips even further into some sort of creative coma. The production is modern, but hopelessly impersonal, and the songs well crafted, but so anonymous that I can hardly remember a single chorus even after repeated listens. It’s probably in order that a 56-year-old with 35 years as a recording artist behind loses his edge, and although I don’t expect him to deliver a new “Station to Station” or “Low”, I can’t help but being disappointed in Bowie for resorting to this mediocre level.

KRISTOFFER NOHEDEN