After the mammoth success of the Let’s Dance album just one year earlier, David Bowie and record company rush released Tonight. Instead of trying to duplicate that success with producer Nile Rodgers, Bowie decided to work with Derek Bramble and Hugh Padgham as engineer. At nine tracks, five of them covers, Tonight is a hodgepodge release.
The album starts off promisingly with the crisp drumbeat of “Loving The Alien”. The track has a great build-up to the chorus on the song name that would later serve as the title of the box set for the years 1983-1988. That promise is also seen on punchy first single “Blue Jean”. The lyrically simple song about girls is amped up on the high end with horns and on the low subtle end with the marimba. The upbeat pop track went top 10 around the world.
The rest of the album does not live up to those two moments. Three of the songs were originally done by Iggy Pop including the reggae influenced title track that sees Bowie singing with Tina Turner. Bowie also turns his attention to The Beach Boys with an atrocious version of “God Only Knows” that does much damage to one of rock and roll’s greatest love songs. Instead of working as a cohesive whole, much of Tonight feels like it’s slapped together, throwing songs at the wall to see what sticks. On this release, much of it doesn’t stick at all.
5/10
The Light Appears 