Track Listing

1. It's No Game, Pt. 1
2. Up the Hill Backwards
3. Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
4. Ashes to Ashes
5. Fashion
6. Teenage Wildlife
7. Scream Like a Baby
8. Kingdom Come
9. Because You're Young
10. It's No Game, Pt. 2

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8328 in Music
• Released on: 1999-09-20
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Enhanced, Original recording reissued
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
The last of David Bowie's long run of classic albums is best remembered for its superb electropop-ish hit singles "Ashes To Ashes" and "Fashion". But while these may be representative of the record's quality, they're very different in sound to the rest of the album. Scary Monsters is fiercely and unforgivingly a rock album, reflecting strongly the influences of both British and American post-punk artists, particularly Television's Tom Verlaine, one of whose songs, "Kingdom Come", appears here. The uncompromising Robert Fripp plays a significant role, which he accurately described as "spraying burning guitar all over" the songs. Scary Monsters is Bowie's most abrasive and ferocious piece of work, and its power to needle and astonish has remained undimmed over the years. --David Bennun

CD Description
Fresh off his Berlin trilogy (LOW, HEROES, LODGER), David Bowie released SCARY MONSTERS, an album that continued the cool, detached, electronic-flavoured sound he'd been experimenting with on the aforementioned records. Robert Fripp's distinctively angular guitar style contributes greatly to the resulting Kraftwerk-flavoured funk of "Fashion" and the jittery paranoia of the title track. Elsewhere, Bowie updates the saga of Major Tom with "Ashes to Ashes" and turns to Tom Verlaine for the new wave nihilism of "Kingdom Come" which alsofeatures Fripp on guitar.
Robert Fripp was far from the only great guest invited to play on SCARY MONSTERS. Pete Townshend's swirling guitar on "Because You're Young" made it an underrated classic in Bowie's canon. SCARY MONSTERS provedto be David Bowie's last musical effort for a while as he spent the next three years pursuing a career in acting beforereturning to the studio in 1983 to record LET'S DANCE.

Customer Reviews

Quite simply, rock's finest moment!
It must be very hard being David Bowie and all the time being compared to your brilliant past. In the period 1971-1980 no other artist could even come close to his inventiveness and importance. His output during these years is arguably more diverse and influential than even that of the Beatles. I "discovered" Bowie through Scary Monsters when I was 16 and I can say that no other piece of art (whether it is Bachs "Goldberg Variations", Dostoevsky's great novels, David Lynch's movies, or anything else) has made such a profound impression on me.

The album is a perfect blend of the avant-garde of "Low" and "'Heroes'", the funk of "StationToStation", and the rock of "Diamond Dogs". The opening "It's No Game" is a shock; the Japanese lyrics spit out "samurai-style" by a Japanese woman, Bowie's shrieking over-the-top vocals (listen to the way he sings "There's no free steps to heeeeaaaaveeeen" after approximately one minute, it is the most desperate cry I have ever heard), Robert Fripps extreme guitar, and Dennis Davis violent drumming makes for an unforgettable experience. A well-known Norwegian author likened the impression one gets from the one of seeing Edvard Munch's "The Scream", which is a very good analogy; bold, seemingly simple strokes conveying desperation and anxiety. There are several other songs of the same quality: the sublime (and well-known) "Ashes to Ashes" (a continuation of "Space Oddity"), the extremely funky "Fashion", the uncompromising rock'n roll of the song "Scary Monsters", and the anthemic "Teenage Wildlife" (reminiscent of "'Heroes'", but in my view even better). Even the weaker tracks would be outstanding on 99% of other rock albums. Finally, the lyrics are great and for once feel very personal. To make a long story short, this album has no weak spots whatsoever.

Unfortunately, after hitting this peak, the rest of the 80's went artistically (if not commercially) downhill for Bowie. During the whole of the last 15 years he has been struggling to regain is integrity and has produced a lot of high quality material (check out "Black Tie White Noise" (1993), "Outside" (1995), "Earthling" (1997), or "Heathen" (2002)). Unfortunately, a lot of people won't give these albums a listen because they either (old fans) thinks he is "passed it" or (younger people) assumes he is another boring old fart like for example Elton John or Rolling Stones.

My favourite Bowie album
Don't like to say best, as that's a matter of opinion, but this is the Bowie album I find I return to the most and rewards repeated listens. I think it captures a certain period in music history when punk/new wave was giving way to New Romantic/electronic better than any other album I can think of. Ashes To Ashes is my favourite ever Bowie song, a true gem, and Teengae Wildlife is another fave, one of his most underrated tracks. I think it's true that this was the last truly great Bowie album (he did some great stuff later but this is where he peaked), but I just find that this album encapsulates everything about Bowie's style and sound better than any other album. Wonderful.

Makes me wish i was born 20 years earlier
Im only 16 an i've recently discovered the music of David Bowie so I bought the Best Of Bowie Compilation. On the Best of Bowie compilation i found 3 songs on it that i played over and over again, Ashes To Ashes, Scary Monsters & Fashion. So I bought the album Scary Monsters, were these three songs come from.
This album is a true classic and i'm really happy that i bought it. Its hardly been off since i bought it. But what can I say about the album that hasnt been sed in 1980. Well nothing. Im gonna judge this album as if it came out now. Actually i can't do that because its so 1980s so ignore what I just sed.
This album still is cutting edge now as it probaly was then. My favourite songs off the album are the title track, Scary Monsters, It's No Game(Both Parts) and Up the Hill Backwards, but I love all the songs of this album. Its also encouraged me to want to buy Diamond Dogs and Hunky Dory. So I will be buying them when i save up. My only complaint about this album is that it is too short. But because he was releasing new CDs nearly every year, I understand why its so short.