Black Tie White Noise by David Bowie: classic or dud?

The sentence that immediately preceeds that, about 'Tonight' having two good singles, is right if you can stand 'Loving The Alien' (I can't). If you remove 'Blue Jean' from the tracklist, then arguably 'Tonight' is worse than 'Never Let Me Down'.

(but every other Bowie studio album is better than NLMD, even 'hours')

I can see why hardcore Bowie fans would dislike Loving The Alien, but in the context of his largely awful 1980s it sounds like manna from heaven.

It's mad that he somehow managed to come up with Absolute Beginners, one of his very best songs, in the middle of easily the worst creative trough of his entire career.

The sentence that immediately preceeds that, about 'Tonight' having two good singles, is right if you can stand 'Loving The Alien' (I can't). If you remove 'Blue Jean' from the tracklist, then arguably 'Tonight' is worse than 'Never Let Me Down'.

otm

(but every other Bowie studio album is better than NLMD, even 'hours')

― Being cheap is expensive (snoball),

not otm

Was there any kind of consensus reached about the remixed version of NLMD?

I was excited to see that Nico Muhly was involved (I"m a big fan), or could it not be revived from the operating table?

All three albums are terrible. 'hours' at least sounds like Bowie had a clearer idea of what he wanted the album to sound like, even if the songs individually are worse then anything on Tonight or NLMD. I appreciate a songwriter with an overarching ambition for a record, even if the result falls totally flat. Trying and failing seems better to me than calculated attempts at Phil Collins arena audience blandness. That's why I rate both Tin Machine albums highly even though I'd probably never want to listen to either of them again - Smashie & Niceie Backman Turner Overdrive LET'S ROCK is NAGL but it's preferable to trying to fit into a late 80s yuppie record collection.

The poor songwriting and shoddy design (that sleeve! those sandals!) reduce hours into his worst album since NLMD. No Jacket Required has vim, production adequate to its songs.

the remixed version of NLMD is an improvement for the most part, yes, but it's still not great.

hours is his worst since NLMD yes. I actually fault the arrangements and production more than the songwriting; I think something better could have been made of those songs. It was just time for Reeves Gabrels to leave.

Dud, but "Jump They Say" is all right and the Morrissey cover's a gem.