So thanks to @MoH the impossible has happened I listened to a full David Bowie album, twice. Once through headphones and then a second time through speakers and louder. I’m not saying I’m a fan of this work yet but I really did enjoy listening to it.
It’s not a jungle album at all - it’s just the first song that is. But as the album lead with it, it makes sense to be branded such. I found it really kicked in for me after the forth song, Seven Years in Tibet because it was all over the place and that is something I like in a song. The first three really felt a bit forced and having heard the entire album, out of place with the rest of the record. After that each song got better and better until I’m Afraid of Americans, which hit very hard. Had that been the opener the album would have been seen in a totally different light, probably more which it should been viewed. And I’ve have listened to it the day it was released! Luckily that was the penultimate song as it was hard to go on from there, but the album closed nicely and felt like a whole package. Yes there were songs I didn’t like, but there’s only two albums I know of which I like every song on!
It’s not any one specific genre of music, more just a mixed bag of styles that sometimes worked together, sometimes didn’t and sometimes REALLY did. But that’s more based on what I like than the album as a whole. I don’t know enough about Bowie’s music to compare it to anything else he’s done fairly, but I know he always set the trends and didn’t follow them. This album feels like it was released exactly when it should have been and because of that it got muddled up with other releases and music at the time, which again seems unfair. Makes me think it was ahead of its time, like most of this stuff and only now people really see it for what it is - which is a David Bowie album.
Thank you for doing something no one else has done, which got me to listen to David Bowie properly. Not sure I’ll like more, but it’s going to be fun finding out. Music, it rocks!!!
P.S. - I’m not actually afraid of Americans, in case anyone wasn’t sure.