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Rating: It was 1991 when this album was released, 1989 when this new invention of David Bowie came out. David Bowie was one of the most acclaimed pop-rock artists, everything he did was gold, anything. It was enough for him to sing some cheap tune in falsetto, and it immediately turned into thousands upon thousands of sold copies. This was beginning to get old for Bowie, who decided to reinvent himself with this new project, the "Tin Machine", after his collaboration with the EMI record label ended, and after meeting a great guitarist, Reeves Gabrels (not to diminish the skill of the Sales brothers).
The first album, even if not completely convincing, managed to make the critics smile with excellent tunes and memorable riffs. Bowie had found himself; a simple hard rock, no new invention, no reinterpretation, nothing eclectic, nothing at all; but maybe this was exactly what he wanted.
This second album follows the same line as the first, but with worse results. It was already evident from the first album that Bowie was not used to these heavier rock bands, but here the gaps carried along by the White Duke are more noticeable. For instance, a very compelling "Heaven's in Here", present in the first Tin Machine album, with fascinating riffs and the passion in Bowie's voice is replaced in the second album by a duller "Baby Universal" where they try to give a slightly more melodic touch, abandoning that pleasant booming rock characterizing the first song.
In fact, it seems that Bowie is trying to return to being the old hit pop maker that defined the pre-Tin Machine era: the ballad "Amlapura" that seems to go back to "Ashes To Ashes", and a "Betty Wrong" that seems to echo the atmospheres of "China Girl". Songs that are not ugly but suggest Bowie wants to close this hard rock experiment and return to what he was before, without wanting to erase the good things he learned from this experience. There are good songs, and beyond the aforementioned "Baby Universal", noteworthy are "You Can't Talk", a nice rock piece from the album where Bowie also gives us some rap hints, the sweet "Shopping For Girls" within which Bowie encourages the audience to turn up the volume on Michael Jackson's songs, and the decent "One Shot". The rest deserves to remain forgotten, where unfortunately the group has already ended up long ago, despite the presence of the legendary Bowie, and despite flashes of great music.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Baby Universal (03:19)
(David Bowie/Reeves Gabrels)
Now that he has no sense of destination
Now he's running for the love of speed
When the child goes bad it's no cause for celebration
Like Jimmy Dean he don't talk back to me
CHORUS
Failures as fathers, mothers to chaos
No baby, no baby, no baby no
Hallo humans can you feel me thinking
I assume you're seeing everything I'm thinking
Hallo humans nothing starts tomorrow
I'm the baby now
Baby Universe, Baby Universe, Baby Universal
A speck of dust has settled in my eye
It doesn't matter I've seen everything anyway
CHORUS
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04 If There Is Something (04:45)
If there is something
That I might find
Look around corners
Try to find peace of mind, I say
"Where would you go
If you were me?
Trying to keep a straight course is not easy"
Somebody special
Looking at me
Same kind of reaction
Wanted to cry with me
If there are many
Too easy to say
When it's love
It's just a game-ame-ame-ame
I would do anything for you
I would come all day
I would swim all the oceans blue
I would walk a thousand miles
Reveal my secrets
More than enough for me to share
I will put roses around your door
Sit in the garden
Growing potatoes by the score
Shake your head girl, with your ponytail
Takes me right back (when you were young)
Throw your precious gifts into the air
Watch them fall down (when you were young)
Your love - could feel you put them on the ground
It used to fall apart (when you were young)
Your love - could feel you put them on the ground
The hills were higher (when you were young)
Your love - could feel you put them on the ground
The trees were taller then (when you were young)
Your love - could feel you put them on the ground
The grass was greener (when you were young)
Your love - could feel you put them on the ground
It use to fall apart (when you were young)
05 Amlapura (03:46)
(David Bowie/Reeves Gabrels)
Hey, hey it's the tall sail on a beach, reach for Java
Make way for to Java watching for Boogies
Hey, hey, it's a dreaming, I would burn you if you should die
Hey, hey, I should burn too if you should lie upon that bamboo pyre
CHORUS
I dream of Amlapura, never saw in all my life a more shining jewel
I dream of Amlapura, of an ocean or dream of a princess in stone
Hey, hey, golden roses around a rajah's mouth
Hey, hey, all the dead children buried standing
A flying dutchman, smoking gun and spice wind
CHORUS
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06 Betty Wrong (03:47)
Till the sun blisters and sprays
And every lamb ceases to graze
When the kiss of the comb
Tears my face from the bone
I'll be your light
When the shadows fall down the walls
Then life will be done
And it just won't matter at all
I was caught from a hand
Nurtured on grime, goodwill and screams
Now your breath fills my step
Now there is you till life is gone
I'll be your light
When the shadows fall down the walls
Then life will be done
And it just won't matter at all
I'll roll your ball
Till the stars can't make me cry
Then life will be done
And it just won't matter at all
Not at all
When the kiss of the comb
Tears my face
08 Stateside (05:38)
(Hunt Sales/David Bowie)
I'm goin' home, I've been gone much too long
She said she missed me since I've been gone
I'll be back soon, ain't no doubt
'Cause she said she wanted my lovin', my lovin'
CHORUS
No holding back I'm going home
No holding back I'm going home
I'm going stateside with my convictions
I said I'm comin' home soon, I don't know when
It'll be sometimes soon, sooner than
I thought I'd be, I thought I'd be
I thought I'd be stateside sooner than later
Marilyn inflatables, home on the range
Where the livin' is easy on a horse with no name
Kennedy convertibles, home on the range
Where the sufferin' comes easy on a blond with no brain
I'm goin' stateside
I'm goin' stateside
I'm goin' home, it's been so long
She said she missed me and all the fun we had
I think it be the best way
She said she missed me in every way
CHORUS
I've been gone so long
I've been gone so long
I'm missing you
Marilyn inflatables, home on the range
Where the livin' is easy on a horse with no name
Kennedy convertibles, home on the range
Where the sufferin' comes easy on a ten dollar raise
I'm going stateside
I'm going stateside
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09 Shopping For Girls (03:43)
Between the dead ring ash of extreme defense
The lonely groups of company boys
Snapping pictures of scrawny limbs and toothy grins
These are children riding naked on their tourist pals
While the hollows that pass for eyes swell from withdrawal
And he lies on a mattress in a rat infested room
Talking 'bout his family and the cold back home
Between the dull cold eyes and the mind unstable
Noone over here reads the papers pal
'Tween the dull cold eyes and the mind unstable
He's a clean trick and he's shopping for girls
A small black someone jumps over the crazy white guard
Cranking up the volume of a Michael Jackson song
Between the dull cold eyes and the mind unstable
Noone over here reads the papers pal
'Tween the dull cold eyes and the mind unstable
He's a clean trick and he's shopping for girls
Where the frangipani scents the air
She mouths a word that breaks his stare
He grunts his reply in a garrulous croak
"That's a mighty big word for a nine year old"
Between the dull cold eyes and the mind unstable
Noone over here reads the papers pal
'Tween the dull cold eyes and the mind unstable
He's a clean trick and he's shopping for girls
Shopping for girls, shopping for girls
You gaze down into her eyes for a million miles
You wanna give her a name and a clean rag doll
10 A Big Hurt (03:39)
To meet her once is to know here through and through
I know, I know
But it ain't finished till the fat lady sings
I know, I know
How can I help you
You're just a wanna be
I'm a believer
You're a sex receiver
And me with a big hurt
You know I had a big hurt
>From the very start
I'm hurin' so bad
'Cause you're my room mate from hell
Got to take some blows on the stepping stones
Speak in extremes, it'll save you time
You were a saint abroad but a devil at home
Come on here wo woo and kiss it for me
To meet her once is to know her through and through
I know, I know
Even a glass eye in a duck's ass can see that
I know, I know
I'm hurting so bad
And here come the Indians, ooo
Got to take some blows on the stpping stones
Speak in extremes, it'll save you time
You were a saint abroad but a devil at home
Come on here woo woo and kiss it for me
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12 Goodbye Mr. Ed (03:23)
The ghost of Manhattoes
Shrieking as they fall
From AT&T
Someone sees it all
Goodbye Mr. Ed
Andy's skull enshrined
In a shopping mall near Queens
Someone sees it all
Icarus takes his pratfall
Bruegel on his head
Goodbye Mr. Ed
Four and twenty black kids
Some of them are blind
Someone sees it all
Tolerance of violence
By the fellows with no heads
Goodbye Mr. Ed
Some things are so big
They make no sense
Histories so small
People are so dense
Someone sees it all
Goodbye Mr. Ed
Some things are so big
They make no sense
Histories so small
People are so dense
Someone sees it all
Goodbye Mr. Ed
Never mind the Pistols
They laid the Golem eggs
Others came to hatch them
Outside the pale
Someone sees it all
Goodbye Mr. Ed
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