Actors - Scary Monsters

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	Actors - Scary Monsters

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) is an album by David Bowie, released in September 1980 by RCA Records. It was Bowie's final album for the label and his first since the so-called "Berlin Trilogy" of Low
, "Heroes"
and Lodger
(1977-1979). Whilst critically a triumph, the trilogy had proved less successful commercially. With Scary Monsters, however, Bowie achieved a major coup on both counts, the music press heaping praise on the new album and public anticipation being high enough to ensure that it debuted in the UK charts at #1.

The album’s release was preceded by the #1 single "Ashes to Ashes", built around an ear-catching guitar synth theme by Chuck Hammer, that revisited the character of Major Tom from his early hit "Space Oddity". Aside from its critical and commercial success as a song, the accompanying music video set a benchmark for the art form. Other tracks on the album included "It’s No Game (Part 1)", the hard-rocking opener featuring lead female vocals in Japanese; the manic title track with its distinctive percussion effects and Bowie’s mock-cockney voice; and the second single "Fashion", which seemed to draw uncomfortable parallels between style and politics and which had its own highly-regarded video.

Notwithstanding the lush textures of "Ashes to Ashes", Bowie's sound on this album was described by many critics as being harsher and more desperate than anything he had previously released. Brian Eno was no longer a collaborator but, following his absence from Lodger, Robert Fripp returned with the unique guitar sound he had earlier lent to "Heroes". Pete Townshend also guested on the bittersweet love song "Because You’re Young".

Aside from "Ashes to Ashes", "Teenage Wildlife" was perhaps the album’s most personal lyric. Against a musical backdrop that owed much to his classic song ""Heroes"", Bowie appeared to take aim squarely at his post-punk artistic godchildren, particularly Gary Numan:

:A broken-nosed mogul are you :One of the new wave boys :Same old thing in brand new drag :Comes sweeping into view :As ugly as a teenage millionaire :Pretending it’s a whiz-kid world

Following "Ashes to Ashes" and "Fashion", the title track was released as a single in early 1981 in both vinyl record and compact cassette form. Other songs from this period, released on CD by RykoDisc, included both sides of the single "Alabama Song" b/w "Space Oddity", the latter a stark remake that debuted New Year’s Eve 1979 on The Kenny Everett Video Show and served as a "ritualistic purification" of Bowie’s most famous number prior to its demolition with "Ashes to Ashes"; "Crystal Japan", a Japanese-only single b/w "Alabama Song" which Bowie lent to a Sake commercial; and a new version of Aladdin Sane
’s "Panic In Detroit".

Despite the worldwide megastardom and commercial success that Bowie would achieve in coming years, most notably with his next studio album Let's Dance
in 1983, many critics and fans consider Scary Monsters to be his last 'classic' album.

Track listing

All tracks written by David Bowie, except "Kingdom Come" by Tom Verlaine.

# "It's No Game (Part 1)" - (4:15) # "Up the Hill Backwards" - (3:13) # "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)" - (5:10) # "Ashes to Ashes" - (4:23) # "Fashion" - (4:46) # "Teenage Wildlife" - (6:51) # "Scream Like a Baby" - (3:35) # "Kingdom Come" - (3:42) # "Because You're Young" - (4:51) # "It's No Game (Part 2)" - (4:22)

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