UK composer and musician David BOWIE is a person that will be sorely missed for many years to come. One of many musicians that passed away much too early in later years. Many tributes have been released since his passing, and UK label Fruits de Mer Records can be added to that list. Particular to this tribute album, “A New Career in a New Town”, is that this one wasn’t made commercially available though, but was rather sent as a freebie to selected members of the label’s own member’s club: The selection criteria being those among them who bought all the label’s releases for a specified time period.

I will applaud Fruits de Mer for not trying to cash in on the passing of David Bowie. At the same time my main impression about this production is that it probably wouldn’t have cut it as a commercial item either. Among the myriads of productions I have received promos of from this fine label, this compilation is among the weakest.

I have to admit that David Bowie was an artist I admired to a much greater extent than I enjoyed his music. And following the run through of this compilation, the level of admiration have increased markedly. Hearing how many of these artists struggle with this material, especially as most of them are quality purveyors of music and quality artists in their own right, makes the efforts of David Bowie rather more admirable in my view. It becomes crystal clear just how well his songs were developed, and how much work that went in to adjusting his creations to be as perfect a fit as possible to his specific vocals. These aspects are difficult for others to recreate, and even harder to replace by other features.

In this case the greater majority of the artists adds a psychedelic sheen to their takes on Bowie’s classic (and a few not so classic) songs. This aspect as such suits many of the songs actually, presumably a few of them had touches of this initially as well given the time period when they were made. But the arrangements, mix and production, as well as the lead vocals, are features that haunts many of these takes in a slightly negative manner. It is a good thing that many of these takes doesn’t sound like replicas of the original, at least in my book, but harnessing the magic of the originals is in my view too difficult for too many artists on this album. Among the highlights here is the tripped down version of Ziggy Stardust, and the rather distinctly Kraftwerk-oriented take on Warszawa is a creating with a strong, dark allure in a Showroom Dummies kind of way too. On the flip side Blue Giant Zeta Puppies creative take on Heroes doesn’t sit very well with me, nor does Jospeh Cave’s gentle going rough and intense take on Rock’n Roll Suicide.

For me this is a compilation of more misses than hits, and those looking for a classic tribute album to the music of David Bowie should probably look elsewhere. But for those intrigued by the notion of having mainly psychedelic rock artists having a take on the music of David Bowie, more curious about the end result than expecting something breathtaking, hunting down this rather exclusive and presumably elusive compilation might be considered worthwhile.

My rating: 61/100

Track list:
Jack Ellister: A New Career In A New Town
Anton Barbeau: Ziggy Stardust
The NoMen: V-2 Schneider
Cary Grace: Queen Bitch
Blue Giant Zeta Puppies: Heroes
Joseph Cave: Rock’n’Roll Suicide
Clay Cambeck: Fame
The Seventh Ring Of Saturn: Star
Mark and the Clouds: Lady Stardust
Jay Tausig: Bewley Brothers
Consterdine: Warszawa
Rob Gould: We Are The Dead
The Spookers : V-2 Schneider (Spurious Transients remix)
The Past Tense: The Laughing Gnome
Jack Ellister and friends : Rebel Rebel (live at the 14th Dream festival)
Steve Barnes: Jean Genie