Neon Haze (The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars - David Bowie)

Member Name: Seres

Product:	The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars - David Bowie
Date:	29/05/08 (112 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Bowie has an amazing mastery of music, both vocally and lyrically

Disadvantages: It's glam rock, a little dated, and sometimes gratingly so

Ziggy Stardust came down to save the World using naught but the power of his haughty voice and glam rock guitar styling. In his quest to save us all, he was aided by the Spiders From Mars, a backing group of fellow aliens who more than equal his ability to rock. Yes, we're in David Bowie territory here, exploring an album that consistently ranks highly in those lists you read of the top albums of all time. "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars" is as intriguing an album as the title suggests, with Bowie dressing up in outrageously odd and elaborate costumes and dying his hair bright red/orange, taking on the title role in this bizarre space opera he's created. At the point in his career Bowie was comfortable, but still pushing himself for new tricks. His previous work had given him a decent grounding, and he was known by the general public, but this here is the album which pushed him along on the first few steps to World Domination.

The reason I bought this album, even though I'm not much for glam rock or psychedelic folk (contrary to popular belief), was twofold. For one, this is an album that everyone says is brilliant. Even my dad, fan of Bob Marley as he is, accepts the greatness of this album. Secondly, and this is what interested me most - it's about aliens. "Ziggy..." is a concept album about the appearance of an alien on earth who makes "crazy cosmic jazz" - Bowie's words, not mine - and becomes a massive hit amongst the humans. He then goes too far, gets addicted to drugs, and is then killed by his own crazed fans. It's probably more than fair to say that Bowie was a little high when he wrote much of this. He's accompanied during this mock-epic by Mick Ronson, the guitarist with the mostest, and it's a compelling mixture of odd-rock and off-pop, mixed together into a generally cohesive whole.

I have to start my review by pointing to "Five Years", which acts as a sort of meta-prologue before the 'story' unfolds in the other songs. It happens to be, if we ignore the story entirely (which I, uh, plan to do during this review, because I've only got a limited attention span), one of the more fascinating opening to an album that you will hear, as Bowie immediately declares that the end of the world is coming after the five years of the title have passed. The song is quite low key, as many songs surprisingly are during the course of the album, fading in on a quiet drumbeat which provides the main emphasis of the song. Well, until Bowie starts singing, that is. The most interesting thing about Bowie's voice is that by all rights, it shouldn't be any good. He's not a Jeff Buckley or Liza Minnelli by any means, his voice is dry and semi-hoarse, and he yells more than sings. Whenever he needs to hit a high note he instead strains his voice so he sounds like his throat is trying to crawl out his mouth and run away to Walsall. Yet somehow, this strained and tired voice has turned out to be one of the most compelling in all of musical history. Take "Moonage Daydream" for example, a song which features a strange set of lyrics but establish a decent song over a slow piano chord progression and the rhythmic grinding of two electric guitars. There happens to be an odd woodwind solo too, which is fantastic. But the essence of the song lies in Bowie's voice, as he stirringly cries out (as Ziggy Stardust) to the people of Earth, asking for them to accept and love him. The song, fantastic woodwind aside, would be naff rubbish if it weren't for Bowie's vocal performance.

He's a strong songwriter as well, managing to somehow stretch a story over the album whilst still distinguishing an individual identity for each track. His most notable lyrics here are in the reassuring finale of "Rock N' Roll Suicide", where he takes his time in setting up the befallen status of Stardust before rushing into a chanted finale which leaves the album on a positive note. Elsewhere his lyrics range from the surrealistic imagery of "Ziggy Stardust" to more simplistic and traditional songs, such as the three glam-rock offerings here. Of the three, "Suffragette City" is easily the standout, racing with some drawn-out electric guitars and a fast drumbeat to create an entertaining song which features an entirely synthetic jazz saxophone noise intermittently flaring up. You don't seem them often. Less interesting, although not without merit, are "Hang On To Yourself" and "It Ain't Easy", two songs which forgo the weirdness in favour of simple glam rock stylings instead. Both tracks are centred around their choruses, which in both cases happens to be the title of the track. It Ain't Easy suffers from having a slow pace, but Hang On To Yourself is faster, with a powerhouse guitar riff stealing the show, and is more fun as a result, sounding just that little bit like the work of T.Rex (which is probably no coincidence, considering Bowie and Mark Bolan were friends).

The ghost of glam rock hangs over much of the album, especially the style made famous by Bolan. "Lady Stardust", which begins with a slow music-hall piano sound and turns into a downbeat rock ballad, is generally accepted to be about Bowie. It's another song which hangs together only on the strength of Bowie's strained, painful voice. It's surprising just how sparse some of the tracks sound, but it almost always works in the favour of the song. The most famous track here, radio favourite "Starman", is itself a curiously low-fi number, putting an acoustic guitar front and centre as Bowie sings about the arrival of Ziggy from the perspective of a kid listening in on the radio to the alien music. The chorus, bolstered by some thin string arrangements and odd lines of electric guitar and handclapping, is nothing like as madcap as people tend to believe, and this allows Bowie to show off his storytelling skills. It's a great, great song, one that never grows old due to the wonder in which Bowie recounts his tale. He puts his all into the song, which powers the track and makes it an obvious high-point for the record. Soul Love, the beginning of the album proper, is also strangely quiet, a shadowy drumroll and some hushed acoustic guitars accompanying the verses before things explode somewhat into one of Mick Ronson's crunching guitar solos. Ronson flares up often with no warning on this album, but in each case he seems to add more than take away from the song in question. The energy between the two performers is the true essence of the album.

Leaving aside the annoying "Star" which has a frustratingly peppy tone and rushes around without going anywhere, "Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars" proves to be a resilient album. It was released over thirty years ago, but still has much to offer, and makes for a superb listen. The music sounds a little dated now, and no doubt pales in comparison to work by bands like The Flaming Lips, or Beck, who do much the same thing nowadays but with higher production values, but Bowie is the real star here. As he sings on the powerhouse "Ziggy Stardust", the centre of the record, the music fades away, even Mick Ronson's guitar, and his voice takes centre stage. It's a thing of weird beauty, in a way, and is the thing that makes this album the classic that it is. Ziggy... is a fantastical collection of music, and also an overwrought space epic with alien groupies in it. I defy you not to listen to it and like it.

Summary: An album which just about justifies the good rep it gets