.
http://www.rollingstone.com/assets/images/album_review/ba84e600bfc86832c825ca9c9edbcb09776b8cfb.jpg Diamond Dogs: 30th Anniversary Edition

David Bowie

Diamond Dogs: 30th Anniversary Edition

Rolling Stone: star rating
Community: star rating
5 2 0
July 8, 2004

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.

prev
Album Review Main Next

ADD A COMMENT

Community Guidelines »
loading comments

loading comments...

COMMENTS

Sort by:
    Read More

    Music Reviews

    more Reviews »
    Daily Newsletter

    Get the latest RS news in your inbox.

    Sign up to receive the Rolling Stone newsletter and special offers from RS and its
    marketing partners.

    X

    We may use your e-mail address to send you the newsletter and offers that may interest you, on behalf of Rolling Stone and its partners. For more information please read our Privacy Policy.

    Song Stories

    “I'm Yours”

    Jason Mraz | 2008

    Jason Mraz re-emerged after his disappointing second album with this lead single, a Jack Johnson-esque ditty about giving yourself fully to someone else. The success of the reggae-tinged song (it earned two Grammy nods and a spot on the Billboard singles chart for well over a year) was something the folk-pop singer never predicted when he wrote it in 15 minutes at home. "I played a happy-hippie chord progression that would probably work without 50 different Bob Marley songs," he told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'It's too novelty. This is a nursery rhyme,'" concluding that "you can never guess what's gonna be a hit."

    More Song Stories entries »