{"id":40908,"date":"2008-05-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/earthling\/"},"modified":"2008-05-29T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-05-29T00:00:00","slug":"earthling","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/earthling\/","title":{"rendered":"Earthling"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Bowie\u2019s twentieth studio album, 1997\u2019s Earthling,<\/i> lacked the grandiosity of its predecessors, Black Tie, White Noise<\/i>, and Outside<\/i>. With a one-of-a-kind dance-jazz concept on the brilliant Black Tie<\/i> and a murder-mystery storyline holding the songs together on the dark Outside, <\/i>both these records seemed interesting projects on paper. Earthling<\/i>, in comparison, is just a record with nothing fancy to offer, at least at the outset.<\/p>\n

The deceptive Earthling<\/i> might not stand out as a classic in Bowie<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s vast catalog, but it is a hidden gem in that it is not actually as bad as it might appear to be. This album, like 1995\u2019s Outside<\/i>, has a moody, electronic-laced sound, but this time in much bigger and menacing proportions. Mixing hard-hitting Electronica music with fast-paced, jungle-like drum and beat arrangements on this record, Bowie<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> seems to capitalize on the post-grunge techno-industrial sound of the late \u201890s.<\/p>\n

Even though Electronica might not seem like Bowie<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s forte, he doesn\u2019t appear a wee bit awkward on the album and pulls it off like a champ for the most part. Earthling <\/i>is not an inspiring record, but it is a very exciting one. With just nine songs (and running 49 minutes long) this album has enough beats, muscle, and thrills to keep it energetic, and it\u2019s not too long that it starts getting repetitive. <\/p>\n

The production on this release is crisp and meaty, and Bowie<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> sounds confident and full of beans in the face of the barrage of futuristic guitar sounds, aggressive beats, and frequent tempo changes. The tracks might be longer than average, but they have a simple structure, which makes the record pretty uncomplicated and accessible. <\/p>\n

Earthling<\/i> has its share of less than mediocre songs that do stand out not so gloriously, like \u201cLaw (Earthling\u2019s On Fire)\u201d and \u201cSeven Years In Tibet.\u201d But then there are cuts like \u201cDead Man Walking,\u201d \u201cThe Last Thing You Should Do,\u201d and \u201cLittle Wonder\u201d that render this a satisfyingly refreshing record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":29348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5671],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-40908","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-david-bowie","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40908","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\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40908"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40908"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}