David Bowie Keeps Swinging

This wonderful compilation complements The Singles Collection 1 and consists of David Bowie's biggest hits from 1977 to 1987
It opens with the rhythmic Heroes (1977) which is classic Bowie and continues with the funky Beauty & the Beat (1978) followed by Boys Keep Swinging (1979) and DJ (1979).The haunting melody of The Alabama Song (1980) begins us on a trip with Bowie into the 80's
One of my alltime, favourites is Ashes to Ashes (1980) a type of reminiscence of Bowies career and life up to then with the central theme a major one of the 80's:A wake up to reality and a resolve to turn ones back on the drugs and decadence of the preceding years.
The disco beat of Fashion (1980) contains a powerful social commentary
Then comes Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1981) , the famous and successful collaboration between Bowie and Queen....Under Pressure (1981) and the beautiful melody Wild Is The Wind (1981)
The 80's disco of Lets Dance (1983) ,China Girl(1983) and another favourite of mine Modern Love (1983) shows how Bowie adapted to new eras in music without losing any of his talent
What follows is the superb Blue Jean (1984) ,This Is Not America (1985),the collaboration with Mick Jagger Dancing In The Street (1985) .Absolute Beginners (1986) is a beautiful contemplative song in the style of Wild Is The Wind and Life on Mars? The album is rounded off with Day In Day Out (1987)

HUH?

While I would give a solid 5 stars for the content alone, I have to give only 1 star here for the presentation. How can this be the Singles Collection Volume 2 (SC-V2) when in reality it's just disc 2 of the original 2-CD Singles Collection (SC) set? Is there a Volume 1 with just the first disc available? Either way, why would anyone want to buy the 2 releases (SC and SC-V2) together? Isn't that a little redundant (3 CDs with 2 CDs worth of music)? Did anyone read the track listings before pairing these discs up for the "Great Buy"? Obviously not. To top it off, for less then a couple of bucks more then the price of the SC-V2 CD, you can purchase the SC set. Do the math.

Mainly 1980s songs and a few 1970s gems

The most interesting tracks on this compilation are the non-album songs Bowie recorded, either on his own or with other artists. These include Under Pressure (with Queen), This Is Not America (with Pat Metheny), Dancing In The Street (with Jagger), Alabama Song and the theme song of the Absolute Beginners movie.

It also includes his synth masterpiece Heroes from the 1977 album of the same title, Boys Keep Swinging from Lodger (1979) and two brilliant songs from his 1980 Scary Monsters album: Ashes To Ashes which resumes the story of Major Tom, plus the funky dancefloor hit Fashion.

Strangely, the evocative ballad Wild Is The Wind from the 1976 album Station To Station is included here, just before those very commercial and shallow pop songs Let's Dance, China Girl and Modern Love from the 1983 Let's Dance album. I like Blue Jean from the 1984 Tonight album but Day-In Day-Out from Never Let Me Down (1987) is nothing special.

As a chronological look at his work in the late 1970s and for much of the 1980s, this is a worthwhile album. Volume One of the Singles Collection is much better, in my opinion, as it contains the best music of his most innovative and productive period. If anything, this album proves that Bowie's creativity took a dip in the 1980s.