David Bowie had dropped hints during the Diamond Dogs tour that he was moving toward R&B, but the full-blown blue-eyed soul of Young Americans came as a shock. Surrounding himself with first-rate sessionmen, Bowie comes up with a set of songs that approximate the sound of Philly soul and disco, yet remain detached from their inspirations; even at his most passionate, Bowie sounds like a commentator, as if the entire album was a genre exercise. Nevertheless, the distance doesn’t hurt the album – it gives the record its own distinctive flavour, and its plastic, robotic soul helped inform generations of synthetic British soul. What does hurt the record is a lack of strong songwriting. Young Americans is a masterpiece, and Fame has a beat funky enough that James Brown ripped it off, but only a handful of cuts (Win, Fascination, Somebody up There Likes Me) comes close to matching their quality. As a result, Young Americans is more enjoyable as a stylistic adventure than as a substantive record.
Tracks:
A1. Young Americans - Producer, Mixed By – Tony Visconti - Written-By – Bowie* 5:10
A2. Win - Producer, Mixed By – Harry Maslin, Tony Visconti - Written-By – Bowie* 4:44
A3. Fascination - Music By – Luther Vandross - Producer, Mixed By – Harry Maslin, Tony Visconti - Words By – David Bowie, Luther Vandross 5:43
A4. Right - Producer, Mixed By – Harry Maslin, Tony Visconti - Written-By – Bowie* 4:13
B1. Somebody Up There Likes Me - Producer, Mixed By – Harry Maslin, Tony Visconti - Written-By – Bowie* 6:30
B2. Across The Universe - Producer, Mixed By – David Bowie, Harry Maslin - Written-By – John Lennon And Paul McCartney* 4:30
B3. Can You Hear Me - Producer, Mixed By – David Bowie, Harry Maslin - Written-By – Bowie* 5:04
B4. Fame - Producer, Mixed By – David Bowie, Harry Maslin - Written-By – Alomar*, Bowie*, Lennon* 4:12.
