Reality (Tour Edition/+DVD) - David Bowie

...with a DVD of his Reality tour, a great package indeed.

Firstly the cover and packaging stands out, it is a well designed of a sort of 3D drawing of Bowie on a silver background with various objects and drawing around
On opening up the box a nice shiny CD sparkles at you with green and orange wording, it also is only the front section as behind it is the DVD of Bowies "Reality" tour. This also has the green and orange ...
...This is about welcome to reality and all what it's about..
This is also one of the longest and most known song of Bowies in recent years.

Bring Me the Disco King
Slow paced song with piano music throughout. This is not a sad song but just the way that the lyrics and rythum have been done.

Waterloo Sunset
Everybody has heard this song, though maybe not this version. Bowie delivers this song at the ... more

My 60th review comes as quite good timing for two reasons, as I am reviewing a Bowie disk it was his 60th this year. Also it's my Mums this month.

As I have been into David Bowies music for some time now I thought it was about time that I done a review on one of his albums. I am writing about his album "Reality" which was released in 2003 and was the last one he has recently done.
This CD comes with a DVD of his Reality tour, a great package indeed.

Firstly the cover and packaging stands out, it is a well designed of a sort of 3D drawing of Bowie on a silver background with various objects and drawing around
On opening up the box a nice shiny CD sparkles at you with green and orange wording, it also is only the front section as behind it is the DVD of Bowies "Reality" tour. This also has the green and orange wording.
The inside booklet is colourful with a picture of Bowie on his guitar on the first inside page. Moving on each page has a songs lyric on it, being written with the contrast of the background of the multi coloured page.
This gives you all of the lyrics apart from the bonus track "Waterloo Sunset"

This CD has twelve songs which I shall now go through :

New Killer Star
Good guitar intro to the song, fast paced track with a lot of guitar music all the way through. One of Bowies best known tracks from this album.

Pablo Picasso
Another good faster track about Pablo Picasso when he was around and the way people think about others now. Some very interesting and amusing lyrics in this song.

Never Get Old
Starts off as a medium paced song then builds up. Good beat and a feelgood song about wanting to never get old. This takes you through some of the things you do in everyday life and wanting to do them all of your life without having to let up or let go. Good well thought up lyrics In this.

The Loneliest Guy
Slow paced song about the way life goes if you are on your own and how things in general can change.
Good slow beat to accompany this song when does has a lot of depth in it. I think this is a very well written and performed song.

Looking For Water
Another good guitar intro to the song, a middle paced track building up into a faster one. Quite a had track to describe as this song doesn't really last as long as a lot of the others. It's about Looking for water. There are not a lot of lyrics to describe the song for you, and as Bowie says "That was mysteriously called looking for water"

She'll Drive the Big Car
This song is about a tragic lady and her family, she lives in a wrong part of town, wanting to go to a worse part. With an would be affair her boyfriend doesn't turn up..
A good harmonica opening to the song, medium paced, very well written. A lot of meaning in this song about what happens.

Days
Good slow to medium paced song with good lyrics about somebody taking someone else for granted and now realizing that they should have done a lot better and been there for all the days they owe them.
The track does not last for long but has a good depth with it.

Fall Dog Bombs the Moon
Good guitar beat to this song, medium paced, more instrumental than in any other song in the album.

Try Some, Buy Some
This track was written by George Harrison, it does have a sort of 60's Beatles song tang about it the way the lyrics were done. It's a good change which Bowie applies well to this album.

Reality
Very fast paced intro with very good instrumentals in this song. This is a good fast paced track which gave the album it's name. This is about welcome to reality and all what it's about..
This is also one of the longest and most known song of Bowies in recent years.

Bring Me the Disco King
Slow paced song with piano music throughout. This is not a sad song but just the way that the lyrics and rythum have been done.

Waterloo Sunset
Everybody has heard this song, though maybe not this version. Bowie delivers this song at the same pace as it was intended and set out before.
This is also a bonus track to this Reality album as others without the DVD and earlier copies of the CD probably will not have it.

As this is his most recent CD it has quite a few tracks that you may not have heard before, but when you listen to them you will remember them and the beats of the song when you play them again.

As this is only a year after his 2002 album "Heathen" it has the same sort of rythum, it's not glam rock like his older albums but more slowed down pace where he delivers the songs as how he wants to describe what they mean instead of taking it too fast.
There are faster and slower songs on here, but by fast it's the beat more than the singing. He has written them so he doesn't have to keep up with the rythum, more that the rythum fits around the way he has written his songs. Don't get me wrong, he still performs fast paced tracks but makes the songs last a bit longer and puts a lot of meaning in them.

It's quite hard to describe, but if you are a Bowie fan you know what I mean. Others of you out there if you can listen to this album you will be surprised how different it is to a lot of the older ones.

Now to the DVD…

David Bowie Reality Live
Performed at London, Hammersmith Riverside studios
September 8th 2003

This will work in all DVD players.

Firstly you have the menu where you can play the whole program or choose whatever song you wish from the performance.
As with this DVD the songs are in order the same as the CD.

I shall not try to describe the songs again as I have tried to do with the CD but when you play the whole program it starts with "New Killer Star"
Bowie does have a good time with the audience there, he gives out a few quips at the end of every song, tells you what the next song is going to be about but above all he delivers a great performance of his new album with every song from it. He still plays his guitar as well as he did and never seems to tire and puts a lot of enthusiasm in every single song he does.
The set is what you would expect to find in an indoor concert, it has a lot of good stage lighting that sets the tone and mood for each of his songs that he does.

His backing group all throughout are great with all of the instrumentals from the offstart. There is quite a lot of guitar music which goes very well with Bowies music. He has always had his guitar that he likes to play himself and it's good that he has others to get into a really great beat.

Overall I Really enjoyed the CD as it is his most recent and I am used to the beat that he has been doing in the 2000's. I think this is a great mixture of songs and is now one of the top Bowie CD's that I listen to.
His words and lyrics are very well paced in all of these songs no matter what the beat.
The DVD was a great bonus for this package as I have not been lucky enough to see him in concert. This was very enjoyable and what made it better for me was that it was set inside a venue rather than outside and none of the croud were screaming out but just having fun.

I have tried to describe this the best I can but some of these songs are difficult to describe. I hope that's helped a bit at least.

Hope you have all enjoyed reading,
Ian.
 

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