Hours (David Bowie album)

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Hours
Bowie Hours.jpg
Studio album by David Bowie
Released 21 September 1999 (1999-09-21)
Recorded 1998–99
Studio
Various
Genre Pop rock[2]
Length 47:06
Label Virgin
Producer
David Bowie chronology
Earthling
(1997)Earthling1997		 Hours
(1999)		 Heathen
(2002)Heathen2002
Singles from Hours
  1. "Thursday's Child"
    Released: 20 September 1999 (1999-09-20)
  2. "The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell"
    Released: 14 October 1999 (1999-10-14)
  3. "Survive"
    Released: 24 January 2000 (2000-01-24)
  4. "Seven"
    Released: 17 July 2000 (2000-07-17)

Hours (stylised 'hours...' ) is the twenty-first studio album by English singer David Bowie. It was released on 4 October 1999 on Virgin Records. This was Bowie's final album for the EMI sub-label. It was the first complete album by a major artist available to download over the Internet, preceding the physical release by two weeks.[3]

Hours was the first Bowie studio album to miss the US top 40 since his 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and peaked at number 47.

Background

Bowie and Gabrels wrote the songs for both Hours and Omikron: The Nomad Soul at the same time. According to Gabrels, they set up special writing sessions to write the music for these projects, then recorded demos in studios in Bermuda and Paris. They wrote six songs and "a bunch" of instrumental pieces, of which six were completed for the game. Another eight vocal songs were written for 'Hours'. Gabrels himself wrote over 3 hours of instrumental songs for the game (on top of the songs which he and Bowie had written together). Gabrels described these tracks as "more electronic and aggressive in nature than the 'Hours' album" and suggested there would be an Omikron, The Nomad Soul instrumental album released the next year.[1]

To drum up interest in the impending album, a "Cyber Song" contest was held on Bowie's personal website BowieNet to compose lyrics to an early instrumental version of the song "What's Really Happening". The winning lyrics would be featured on Hours. Contest winner Alex Grant[1] also won a trip to Philip Glass' Looking Glass Studios on 24 May 1999 to watch Bowie record the final vocal during a live Webcast. There, Grant contributed backing vocals to the song, along with a friend who accompanied him.

The original title for the album was going to be "The Dreamers", after the album's closing track.[4]

Album cover

The album cover, designed by Rex Ray with photography by Tim Bret Day and Frank Ockenfels, depicts the short-haired Bowie persona from the intensely energetic previous album Earthling exhausted, resting in the arms of a long-haired, more youthful version of Bowie. Indeed, Hours is a much mellower album than its predecessor, and features numerous references to earlier parts of Bowie's musical career (particularly the early 1970s). For the album's initial release, a number of copies featured a lenticular version of the cover, lending a three-dimensional effect to the image. [5]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 3/5 stars[6]
Alternative Press 4/5[7]
Entertainment Weekly B–[8]
The Music Box 4/5 stars[9]
Pitchfork Media 4.7/10[10]
Q 4/5 stars[11]
Rolling Stone 4/5 stars[12]
Select 2/5 medals[13]
Spin 6/10[14]
Uncut 3/5 stars[15]

AllMusic's senior critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote: "it may not be one of Bowie's classics, but it's the work of a masterful musician who has begun to enjoy his craft again and isn't afraid to let things develop naturally."[6] Rolling Stone critic Greg Tate described the record as "an album that improves with each new hearing" and "further confirmation of Richard Pryor's observation that they call them old wise men because all them young wise men are dead".[12] Similarly impressed, Alternative Press described Hours as "a masterpiece", adding that it "finds Bowie returning to basics he never should have left behind".[7]

Ryan Schreiber of Pitchfork criticised the album, saying: "Hours opts for a spacy, but nonetheless adult-contemporary sound that comes across with all the vitality and energy of a rotting log." Schreiber further stated: "No, it's not a new low, but that doesn't mean it's not embarrassing."[10] Writing for Select, John Mullen considered the album to be an improvement on Earthling, but likened Bowie to a "more high-brow" version of Sting and concluded: "Even on the personal exorcism of 'Seven' there's a lack of urgency that suggests that the 'confessional' is just another style Bowie's trying out for size."[13]

Releases

An edition with additional tracks was released in 2004. In January 2005, Bowie's new label ISO Records reissued Hours as a double CD set with the second CD comprising remixes, alternate versions, and single B-sides.[16]

Track listing

Original release

All songs written and composed by David Bowie and Reeves Gabrels, except "What's Really Happening?" lyrics by Alex Grant. 

No. Title Length
1. "Thursday's Child"   5:24
2. "Something in the Air"   5:46
3. "Survive"   4:11
4. "If I'm Dreaming My Life"   7:04
5. "Seven"   4:04
6. "What's Really Happening?"   4:10
7. "The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell"   4:40
8. "New Angels of Promise"   4:35
9. "Brilliant Adventure"   1:54
10. "The Dreamers"   5:14
Japan bonus track
No. Title Length
11. "We All Go Through"    

2004 reissue bonus tracks

No. Title Length
11. "Something in the Air (American Psycho Remix)"   6:02
12. "Survive (Marius De Vries Mix)"   4:18
13. "Seven (Demo)"   4:07
14. "The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell (Stigmata Film Version)"   4:46
15. "We All Go Through"   4:10

2005 reissue

Disc One
No. Title Length
1. "Thursday's Child"   5:24
2. "Something in the Air"   5:46
3. "Survive"   4:11
4. "If I'm Dreaming My Life"   7:04
5. "Seven"   4:04
6. "What's Really Happening?"   4:10
7. "The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell"   4:40
8. "New Angels of Promise"   4:35
9. "Brilliant Adventure"   1:54
10. "The Dreamers"   5:14
Disc Two
No. Title Length
1. "Thursday's Child" (Rock Mix) 4:29
2. "Thursday's Child" (Omikron: The Nomad Soul Slower Version) 5:35
3. "Something in the Air" (American Psycho Remix) 6:03
4. "Survive" (Marius de Vries Mix) 4:18
5. "Seven" (Demo) 4:07
6. "Seven" (Marius De Vries Mix) 4:13
7. "Seven" (Beck Mix No. 1) 3:46
8. "Seven" (Beck Mix No. 2) 5:14
9. "The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell" (Edit) 4:00
10. "The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell" (Stigmata Film Version) 4:49
11. "The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell" (Stigmata Film Only Version) 4:00
12. "New Angels of Promise" (Omikron: The Nomad Soul Version) 4:38
13. "The Dreamers" (Omikron: The Nomad Soul Longer Version) 5:43
14. "1917"   3:29
15. "We Shall Go to Town"   3:55
16. "We All Go Through"   4:11
17. "No One Calls"   3:50

Personnel

Charts

References

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  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Enter Hours in the field Keywords. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Select Silver in the field By Award. Click Search
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