Included in the Loving The Alien (1983-1988) boxset is the Dance album, a collection of remixes/extended versions of tracks that David Bowie released in the mid 80s. The period is not well regarded in Bowie’s legacy with a few mediocre albums. Oddly, it’s not the smash hits from Let’s Dance that get the remix treatment, instead it’s mostly tracks from Tonight and Never Let Me Down.
The first two tracks from the Tonight album fare the best on this collection. “Blue Jean (Extended Dance Mix)” is the best of the bunch with “Loving The Alien (Extended Dub Mix)” being solid listen. Neither sound much different from the originals, the extended version of “Loving The Alien” comes in a whopping 2 seconds longer than the original. The horns on “Tumble and Twist (Extended Dance Mix)” are fine and “Never Let Me Down (Dub/Acapella)” takes good advantage of the extended time, “Underground (Extended Dance Mix)” is terrible. Overall, the dated 80s productions of average songs that basically sound the same as the originals makes for an unsatisfying hour+ long listen.
5/10
