The fourth in a series of comprehensive box sets chronicling
David Bowie's entire career:
Loving the Alien (1983-1988) covers a period that found
Bowie at a popular peak yet somewhat creatively adrift. Once
Let's Dance went supernova in 1983, as it was designed to do,
Bowie's productivity slowed to a crawl: he knocked out the sequel,
Tonight, in a year, then took three to deliver
Never Let Me Down. By the end of the decade, he rediscovered his muse via the guitar skronk of
Tin Machine, but
Loving the Alien cuts off with
Never Let Me Down, presented both in its original version and in a new incarnation containing tasteful instrumentation recorded in the wake of
Bowie's death. Spearheaded by producer
Mario J. McNulty, this revision of
Never Let Me Down had been brewing in
Bowie's mind for some time --
McNulty pegs it to his 2008 remix of "Time Will Crawl," guitarist
Reeves Gabrels maintains
Bowie discussed re-recording songs as early as the album's supporting Glass Spider tour -- so its existence isn't exactly sacrilege, even if it's not exactly a success, either. The new
Never Let Me Down is neither fish nor fowl: it's not radical enough to be a reimagined record -- its core remains the same -- and without its ornamental period feel, it seems trapped out of time. The same can't be said of the rest of
Loving the Alien, which goes overboard on period charm. Alongside remastered versions of the three main records and the new
Never Let Me Down, there are two live albums sourced that mirror home videos -- Serious Moonlight (Live 1983) and Glass Spider -- the fourth installment of Re:Call, which gathers stray songs and non-LP singles and Dance, a two-disc collection of remixes that was originally planned for a 1985 release but scrapped. Each of these records are filled with bright, clanging, pastel colors and clean, sharp edges -- the aesthetic of MTV, which
Bowie helped define with
Let's Dance. Once his gambit for superstardom worked, he experienced a brief creative paralysis. He made a handful of classic songs in the mid-'80s, but it's telling that apart from "Blue Jean," the single that greatly outshone its parent album
Tonight, these were non-LP singles: "Absolute Beginners" and "This Is Not America" found him exploring avenues his hit-hungry albums wouldn't allow. The fascinating thing about
Loving the Alien is how it makes this period seem more interesting than the individual albums, and that's entirely due to the dance mixes, ephemera, and awkward live material. On these byways, it's possible to hear
Bowie grapple with both his past and present in a hungry fashion and that desperation is alien to
Bowie, so an immersion into this unease makes for compelling listening. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine