{"id":38613,"date":"2005-11-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-11-10T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/space-oddity\/"},"modified":"2005-11-10T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-11-10T00:00:00","slug":"space-oddity","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/space-oddity\/","title":{"rendered":"Space Oddity"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is where most people believe David Bowie’s career really
\nbegan. Despite the loads of music he recorded prior to
\nSpace Oddity<\/i>, I can see why they might think that. It was
\nhis first widely distributed and marketed release, and around this
\ntime he started wearing makeup, weird clothes, and dresses, always
\nkeeping a keen eye on
\nAlice Cooper<\/a>‘s trendsetting
\ndevelopments, the knave.<\/p>\n

Of course, the biggest change came in the music itself, and the
\ntitle track became his first massive hit and remains one of his
\nsignature songs. It certainly is a magnificent song which ushered
\nin his legendary space rock persona, and is the perfect way to open
\nan album. It shows strength and focus as the ultimate prelude to
\nthe new adventure immediately ahead – or not.<\/p>\n

Turns out it’s the only really great song on the album. What a
\ndisappointment. I can’t think of another album that starts off with
\na masterpiece only to be followed by an avalanche of mediocrity.
\nIt’s like acing your opponent and then double faulting four times
\nin a row, if you’ll forgive the crude analogy.<\/p>\n

After finding the perfect style with the floating, spacey
\natmosphere of “Space Oddity,” Bowie then spends the rest of the
\nalbum dishing out boring folk-pop with badly underwritten melodies
\nand generic acoustic strumming.<\/p>\n

I shouldn’t be so mean. It’s not THAT bad. Tracks like the
\nredneck stomp “Unwashed And Somewhat Slightly Dazed” (sounds right
\nup Lynyrd Skynyrd’s alley, dunnit?) are decent if overlong, and
\neven have some filthy electric guitar licks, which had been absent
\nfrom his work for several years.<\/p>\n

But man oh man, do utterly pointless songs like “Letter To
\nHermione,” “Janine” and “An Occasional Dream” bore me to death.
\nMaybe the most offensive one is “Cygnet Committee,” which got me
\nall excited about expecting an epic upon seeing its almost 10
\nminute running time, but like the other duds, it’s mellow
\nthroughout and drones on endlessly with hardly any changes. Very
\nlazy stuff. “Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud” continues in the same
\nvein but at least has a more interesting chorus and some neat harp
\nruns here and there.<\/p>\n

Too bad that it takes until the end of the album for Bowie to
\nfind his songwriting chops again. “God Knows I’m Good” is a superb
\nlittle campfire ditty, and the proceedings come to an end with the
\nrousing and uplifting “Memory Of A Free Festival.” It’s pretty hard
\nnot to get goosebumps as the line “the sun machine is coming down,
\nand we’re gonna have a party” gets repeated endlessly with ever
\nmore voices joining in until it sounds like a cast of thousands
\nholding hands in a gigantic swaying sing-a-long that perfectly
\ncelebrates the atmosphere of an open air hippiefest.<\/p>\n

Too bad it’s such an obvious “Hey Jude” ripoff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":27256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5671],"rating":[5616],"class_list":["post-38613","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-david-bowie","rating-rating-d"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38613"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}