If the 1970s were a hellish journey for David Bowie, Scary Monsters represents the first night home, a blanket wrapped round the shivering figure, cup of cocoa in one hand and a series of really awful flashbacks and nightmares everytime he falls asleep. Okay, that sounds stupid, but I mean that Scary Monsters is Bowie finally attempting to take stock of the situation (which, in 'It's no game (ii)' he concludes he really doesn't understand). Cutbacks and cross references to his earlier material abound - the intro guitar chords to 'up the hill backwards' are the same as the intro chords to 1973's 'panic in detroit' - only played backwards. What a clever chappie he is. And there is the celebrated attempt, in Ashes to Ashes, to write off Space Oddity as a heroin song. Now Bowie has never been averse to making up all sorts of nonsense about his past, and this is no exception; he might have whiffed a doobie or two in 1967 but a junkie he was not. The album is very strong and Carlos Alomar has made a real impression on its overall sound, particularly in 'Ashes to Ashes' and 'Fashion', which cross back and forth between disco, funk and new wave - an odd combination which no-one else (except possibly Queen in the dreadful 'Hot Space') has ever tried. Tiresome though he is, you have to take your hat off to Rock's crashing intellectual bore Robert Fripp, who cuts this record up with some stunning, incandescent guitar playing. The second half of the album is a more interesting prospect. 'Teenaged Wildlife', seemingly the paradigmatic 'silly voice, random lyrics' Bowie song, has the makings of a great, confessional work, perhaps more personal even than Ashes to Ashes, but it's a pity Bowie sings it as if he's trying to impersonate a Leslie rotating speaker. 'Scream Like a Baby', 'Because You're Young' and 'Kingdom come' (the last featuring once again the rotating speaker impersonation) are less essential, but the album, and the decade, are brought around quite nicely by 'It's no game (ii)' (where old smarty pants cross references the very album he's singing on. How post-structuralist...) and finally a very odd sound effect, which sounds like someone pouring cement (perhaps to 'finish' the album?). The Rykodisc pressing I own also contains an extraordinary re-recording of Space Oddity, dating from about the time of this album, which Bowie has rearranged in a minimalist fashion. It sounds just like Lennon's 'Mother'. Weird, but true. I used to think this was the best Bowie album of the lot, but now I think there's too much fat in it for that. But, to quote the old chap, 'when it's good it's really good'. If you're serious about Bowie when he was important, this is one you can't do without.

sometimes music can be a life altering experience. when this album came out, i was a freshman in high school in a small midwestern town. i stumbled across it, probably from a review in rolling stone or cream, and listened to it through headphones in my bedroom for hours on end. as i grew up, the age of the cd came along and this album sat in the 2 crates of albums i refuse to let go of.

my 9 yr. old son got one of those mp3 player things for christmas and we have spent the last few nights downloading the songs he likes onto it. well, once again i stumbled across scary monsters out there in internet land and downloaded it onto my computer.

i am now sitting here again with headphones on singing all these songs and dancing like a wildman. the lyrics of 25 years ago just flow out of me like breathing even though i have not heard them forever. the music is just as fresh now as it was then.

people more knowledgable than i can review the merits of each particular song in objective and analytical ways, but i cannot. they can compare this album to other bowie albums, but i cannot. i cannot because this album is impressed upon my musical soul. it opened my ears to all kinds of music i never knew existed. i could have been a top 40 listener for the rest of my life, but i did not and it was because of the power of this masterpiece.

Bowie's albums are like a fine wine. Scary Monsters is a particular vintage which still sounds excellent today. It's the artistic vintage of Bowie which continues to surprise people like myself.

Every new Bowie album in the 70s was a new experience for its listeners - literally. With the exception of the Ziggy / Alladin Sane period - Bowie's albums from the mid-70s onwards were refreshingly different from one another. This is no exception. It's been mentioned in other reviews that Scary Monsters was Bowie's last significant release from a historical perspective. That's pretty true. If he'd died after this was released - his legend would've certainly been sealed on a high note.

The New wave artists who were about to arrive on the UK scene worshipped Bowie. Scary Monsters shows why: Bowie was a law unto himself.

Cryptic yet accessible; raw yet melodic - Bowie's lyrics drive this album, as does the great guitar work of Fripp and a cameo by Pete Townshend. This is a far more sonic work than Bowie's previous albums, and plunges the listener headlong into his inner world. The iconic tracks here that everyone knows are Ashes to Ashes; Fashion and Scary Monsters. The lesser known tracks (ie not heard on his compilations) - form the rest of the snapshot. Scary Monsters is very much like a portrait of Bowie, of which the better known songs are simply parts of his overall psyche.

Scary Monsters capped a tremendous musical decade that blew critics and audiences away, and belongs in any Bowie collection. Many of his ardent fans wish he would or could return to this form -and some believe he has with his 90s releases, but don't believe it...For some reason, Bowie has never sounded as artistically immersed in a one particular work after this one.

So get this vintage for its raw passion. And if you can, do get the rykodisc for the extra tracks which are worth it.

"Scary Monsters" was released in the fall of 1980 and served as a fitting coda to the 1970's, a decade where Bowie was nothing short of larger than life. It also served as his swan song to RCA and his last album until 1983.

In the album artwork as well as the groundbreaking "Ashes To Ashes" music video, Bowie pays homage to his mime days in the 1960's. The entire album seems as such a homage to his 1970's catalog, and it has become regarded as one of the finest gems of the catalog.

The album is bookended by "It's No Game", pt. 1 starts off the album as a really hyper punkish track, and pt. 2 reprises the same song, but is more of a straight ahead pop-rock song, completely losing the madness of the original.

"Up The Hill Backwards" follows and is a classic in the catalog. Definately one of Bowie's most underrated gems.

"Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)" is another great track, with it's fake dog barks and overall claustrophobic feel, it's a great track to listen to every October.

"Ashes To Ashes" was the first single off the album and frankly one of the greatest recordings Bowie has ever recorded. A "sequel" of sorts to Space Oddity, as well as depicting his mid-70's coke addiction, you can't say enough good things about this song.

"Fashion" is the funky dance track here, perhaps an homage to Young Americans/Station To Station, this was the biggest hit off the album and the video was a big hit on MTV.

"Teenage Wildlife" is the most reminiscent of glam Bowie on the album, as well as one of the most autobiographical tracks he's ever recorded.

"Scream Like A Baby" is a hard rocker, where Bowie is singing a song from the point of view of a homosexual during the Holocaust, a very haunting track with Bowie sounding his most deranged, a total masterpiece.

"Kingdom Come" is the token "sing along" track on the album,one of the albums most upbeat tracks, but ultimately most forgettable

"Because You're Young" really had the makings of a hit single during 1980-1981 but alas, it never was released, definately providing a case of "what if?"

This album was the epilogue to Bowie's first round of "Golden Years" and has become one of his biggest cult classics, and it's not hard to see why, the entire album is great start to finish.

This is my very favorite Bowie album and I honestly think his best. It follows the excellent "Berlin Trilogy" of "Low," "`Heroes'," and "Lodger" and is actually a culmination of Bowie's entire career so far. As such it is loud, manic, desperate, paranoid and even political. Its also simply great music with intriguing lyrics sung with the strongest voice Bowie can muster.

Like many of his albums, "Scary Monsters" has a structural continuity. While this one isn't a concept album like "Ziggy Stardust," "Diamond Dogs," or "1. Outside," it has a beginning, middle and end. The album begins and ends with two highly different versions of "It's No Game." The opening version is loud and angry. Bowie virtually screams out the lyrics as a woman concurrently shouts them out in Japanese. All the while is a screeching guitar and a tense build up to Bowie's closing cry of "Shut up! Shut up!" It's a powerful, confusing and even scary start of a wild ride. In contrast, the closing version of "It's No Game" is deliberately spent. Where Bowie was trying to punch his way out of a straightjacket in the opening number, by close he has given up. His power is gone. The lyrics are easier to follow, and although their meaning is somewhat obscure, they come across as resignation. The listener is also spent by this point. It's as absolute an ending as can be, even more so than "Rock N' Roll Suicide" at the end of "Ziggy." This is why any "bonus songs" tacked on to the end of this album detract from it.

As an interesting side note about "It's No Game," the lyrics borrow from a highly obscure song Bowie wrote in the 60's called "Tired of My Life." More evidence that "Scary Monsters" is a summation of all his work.

In the middle of the two versions of "It's No Game" are eight of Bowie's best songs, many of which were too complex and disturbing for top-40. The two best known are "Ashes to Ashes" and "Fashion." "Ashes to Ashes" puts to rest any question about whether Bowie's first hit, "Space Oddity," was a drug song. This time, "we know Major Tom" (the hero from "Space Odditiy") is a junkie. "Ashes to Ashes" does a better job of conveying the addiction experience than John Lennon's screams in "Cold Turkey" or The Velvet Underground's droning guitar in "Heroin." Musically, "Ashes to Ashes" is one of the milder songs on Scary Monsters, which is probably why it became a hit. The irony is that most casual listeners probably had no idea of what it's about.

"Fashion," on the other hand, is probably the most obvious song on the album. Bowie compares popular culture style shifts with politics. Fashion with fascism. "Fashion! Turn to the Left. Fashion! Turn to the Right." No mystery in the meaning here, but a clever parallelism.

"Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)" (the song), "Teenage Wildlife," "Scream Like a Baby" are driving and desperate. They feature some of the best guitar and percussion on any of Bowie's songs. They lyrics are obscure but vaguely disturbing. Is Bowie singing about some sort of future-fascist takeover, a drug-induced hallucination, or something else entirely? One thing he's doing with these songs is harshly criticizing his own past-- and possibly future-- work, in part by offering a superior alternative. "Teenage Wildlife" mocks Bowie imitators - "Same old thing in brand new drag" -- while anticipating "Let's Dance" - "So you train by shadow boxing, search for the truth." "Let's Dance" would be Bowie's next album, three years later, and his biggest hit, and features Bowie shadow boxing on the album cover. It's also considered to be a commercial sellout by many fans. Could he have been thinking about doing a pop album somehow linked to boxing back when he was making "Teenage Wildlife"? Here he sings; "Break open your million dollar weapon, And push your luck, still you push, still you push your luck, A broken nosed mogul are you, One of the new wave boys."

The galloping "Scream Like a Baby" is more about the transformation from raw to cooked, as Bowie and all his qualities get pounded into submission by something like the quasi governmental force from "Diamond Dogs" until he learns "to be a part of soc-society." "Scream Like a Baby" features some recycles gimmicks, like a "Ch-ch-ch-changes" stutter and an "All the Madmen" style insane-elf voice. But this time Bowie takes those devices and makes art from them.

The two last songs before the final "It's No Game" are amongst the most depressing in Bowie's catalogue. In "Kingdom Come," Bowie laments, "Well I walked in the pouring rain, And I heard a voice that cries `It's all in vain,' The voice of doom was shining in my room I just need one day somewhere far away"

The song recaptures and updates the hopelessness of "Hunky Dory's" "Quicksand." Again, an old theme done better this time around.

"Because You're Young" sounds more optimistic, but if anything is actually bleaker. "A million dreams, a million scars." The song is about a dashed vision of hopeful, youthful love. The delusions of recently exited youth is another theme of the album. "Because You're Young" is a warning for all the "little metal faced boys" and "Psychodelicate girls" who may be listening.

"Scary Monsters" is more of an experience than an album. It should be listened to repeatedly for a full appreciation. It is rock music in its very highest form, and the highlight of David Bowie's contribution.