FRIDAY MUSIC
Without wishing to sound ungrateful, the sheer volume of Bowie archive releases is getting overwhelming. There’s a sense for some that this activity deflects attention from the back catalogue, especially the later albums, many of which deserve reappraisal. Which brings us to new coloured-vinyl 180g pressings of Reality (2003). Co-produced by Tony Visconti, Reality captures The Dame in his pre-hiatus neoclassical phase, when he appeared to be happy to sound like, well, David Bowie. It’s one of his most underrated LPs, moving from playfulness on a skittering cover of Pablo Picasso to sombre, notably the fabulous Bring Me The Disco King, a melancholy, jazz-tinged meditation on the 70s that Bowie spent a decade getting right, and which clearly anticipates his last defiant artistic leap with Blackstar.