Space Oddity (1969)

Album Score: 11

After years and years of trying, he finally scored big with his outer space single 揝pace Oddity.� It didn't quite turn him into a household name, but people started to buy his records, which is certainly a step in the right direction for our dear friend David Bowie. (At the very least, he could stop doing that mime stuff, which is the only point in Bowie's unmatchably cool career that could legitimately be construed as uncool.)



揝pace Oddity� is a great song, of course. This folky ballad does everything perfectly: The melody is catchy as all hell. Its concept about an astronaut deciding that he'd rather float around in space for the rest of his life than go back to earth is very dark and moving. The lush and orchestration instrumentation is full and sweeping without ever overdoing it. It's brilliant, and I love it no matter how many times I've heard it! It's a very serious song, which is a stark contrast from the silly children's songs he released in his debut album. (In a way, I wish that Bowie kept on writing silly music, because I adored the humor, but I guess you can't progress to become a major '70s star without getting SERIOUS.)
Unfortunately, Bowie still had a ways to go before he'd actually start writing consistently good songs. The song that comes after 揝pace Oddity� is an all-too-potent reminder of that! 揢nwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed� is an overlong, boring jam-rock song from a backing band that was terrible at jamming. Making it worse is Bowie's lead vocals, which are way too high-pitched and wimpy for such music. So, he was a bit out of his league there. 揕etter to Hermione� is a brief ballad, which is definitely more up his alley, but that's got to be the most dead-boring song of this whole album! A demo of it could have appeared on Early On, and I wouldn't have thought twice about it.
He makes for 揕etter to Hermione� in a rather big way with a brilliantly engaging though extremely dated 揂n Occasional Dream.� That's not one of Bowie's more well-known songs, but I think some fans of Bowie's later works might be delightfully surprised with that one. Also, he does a shockingly convincing job channeling Dylan with the tuneful folk ballad 揋od Knows I'm Good.� Bowie isn't too well-known for writing lyrics that could be described as gut-wrenching, but he actually gets it there! This story about the poor shoplifter who gets caught and exclaims 揋od knows I'm good!� is among the more heartbreaking moments in Bowie's career.
There was a little bit of a tendency toward progressive rock all throughout this record, and the nine-minute epic 揅ygnet Committee� was the most obvious example of that. Unfortunately, Bowie seems to prove that he wasn't really up to the challenge of that emerging genre. The song itself is very samey and boring, and (once again) the backing band is too uninteresting to come up with anything particularly worth hearing. The one thing that saves it is a vaguely interesting melody, and Bowie's tendency to throw some passion in his performance in the latter half. So, I can't claim that I ever get overly bored listening to it.
揥ild Eyed Boy From Freecloud� is a very lushly orchestrated song that's probably completely overblown, but I really like that song in spite of it! That seems much more like a successful example of that 'epic' thing he was going for in 揅ygnet Committee,� except it's less than five minutes long! 揗emory of a Free Festival� attempts the same thing, and nearly achieves it with that drunken chorus in its final half. But that song takes just a little too long to build up for my tastes.
This is certainly a strange little album, and it sounds nothing like anything else Bowie would ever again produce. (His follow-up album was a weird sort of acid-rock.) Although, this is actually an album I would recommend that you purchase for your collection at some point. Everybody needs a copy of 揝pace Oddity,� of course, but songs like 揂n Occasional Dream,� 揋od Knows I'm Good,� and 揥ild Eyed Boy From Freecloud� are quite good too! (I had a lot of negative things to say about an album that got such a high score! Well... despite it, I do think the good moments on this album greatly outweigh the bad!)