Station to Station (and why I prefer albums)

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2831

The problem with music is that it inspires these deep, intense, profound emotions, but I have no outlet for them. It makes me want to do… something… but I don’t know what. Not be sitting in an office fixing typos on an academic publisher’s website, for one.

I was going to write up a thing about why Station to Station is brilliant, but instead I googled it and of course someone already has, in a far more thoughtful and articulate way than I would’ve.

I think this line in “Station to Station” gets at the core of the album: “Got to keep searching and searching / Oh, what will I be believing and who will connect me with love?” The rest of the album consists of various attempts to answer that question (”Word on a Wing” - Christianity, “Wild is the Wind” - romance)* or more uncertain “searching” (”Stay” which is such a Man Who Fell to Earth-esque articulation of how difficult it is for people to connect even when they want to). The whole album is this thin surface of numb disconnect under which brews a desperate, almost frantic search for meaning and connection.

* I don’t think I’d like either of these songs if they were didactic, but they work for me because they come across as questions rather than as answers.

For all the hoopla about Bowie’s artifice and ability to manipulate his public image, plenty of his actual music is perfectly heartfelt.

I was having a conversation with jaydk the other day about albums versus songs. I know the world is moving in the song direction thanks to the ubiquity of MP3s (and a lot of people have always approached music that way thanks to radio and singles), but I will always be an album person, and Station to Station is a perfect example of why. It’s more than the sum of its parts; each song is enhanced by its context, and none of them would be as rich on their own. Like, “Word on a Wing” would be still be a lovely hymn, but it gains so much darkness and complexity when seen as one of several attempts at answering the search for life’s meaning as articulated in the title track.

Also, thanks to my MP3 player battery dying, I found that you can listen to entire albums free (a couple of times) at Last FM. So if you don’t know what I’m talking about, listen here.

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