David Bowie: Diamond Dogs:30th Anniversery Edition : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

When this came out in 1974, it was roundly dismissed as Ziggy Stardust's last strangled gasp. In hindsight, Diamond Dogs is marginally more worthwhile; its resigned nihilism inspired interesting gloom and doom from later goth and industrial acts such as Bauhaus and Nine Inch Nails. But even if you buy into the revisionism, this dressed-up two-disc reissue is as cynical as Dogs' decadent fantasy. The overblown dramas "Rock 'n' Roll With Me" and "We Are the Dead" whimper next to similar songs on The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. And two of the eight songs on the extra disc -- a demo of the political satire "Candidate" and the Memphis soul-style outtake "Dodo" -- were first released as extras years ago by Rykodisc. What else is new? A bloodless 2003 remake of "Rebel Rebel." The only true diamonds here - the title track and the original "Rebel Rebel" -- are available on several far superior compilations.

MARK KEMP
(RS 952/953 - July 8, 2004)