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David Bowie was deep into his cocaine addiction when he recorded Station to Station, and the album’s art school pretensions and emotional detachment speak to that. The fact that it is also an avant-garde masterpiece is due to his musical genius.
Prior to his Bowie had recorded ‘plastic soul’ albums like Young Americans and he was about to transfer to his Berlin period. Station to Station is the exact moment of transition. With only six songs and only one under the five minute mark, it’s not an easy album to listen to but it is highly rewarding.
His latest character is ‘The Thin White Duke,’ who is introduced to us on the opening title track. That regal-yet-detached character summarizes the entire album. If Kraftwerk had decided to record an album of James Brown material, it might have sounded like something similar to this. Bowie’s one hell of a singer, and he gives every song a specific voice and character, but his actorly mannerisms are at full force here. If he sounded anymore distant and artificial on “Stay” or “Word on a Wing” he might as well have not even shown up in the studio. I adore him for it. “TVC15” sounds like his vocal was beamed in from outer space, “TVC15” is also the track which points most obviously to the transition ahead. While the famous single, “Golden Years,” carries on the artificial R&B crooning of the previous albums, “TVC15” sounds robotic in every sense of the word. Low and Heroes seem like more obvious destination points after listening to that song.
I have stated it a few times, but I feel like it needs to be hammered in: this is not an album for everyone, but if it sounds even remotely interesting I encourage you to check it out. David Bowie is an artist who just so happens to make music. He appropriates and throws off styles, characters, mannerisms and obsessions with a skill and speed matched only by his most famous offspring, disco queen Madonna. Long before she was doing it, Bowie was there doing it with more theatrical abandon than anyone else. His albums are layered, dense, rich works of art. How Station to Station got to No. 3 on the charts is anyone’s guess. DOWNLOAD: “TVC15”
