The world has changed last week. That is why I have decided to review Nothing Has Changed, the last compilation of David Bowie released in 2014. Besides being a chameleon, David Bowie was everything: nice thief (listen to the chorus of Starman and Someone Over The Rainbow), searcher for new trends (that man anticipated almost everything in the 70s and the 80s), Mother Teresa rock’n’roll of the 70s (If he didn’t save the careers of Mott The Hoopie, Lulu, Lou Reed and Iggy Popp, he has certainly enriched and prolonged them by giving hits to every one of them. All The Young Dudes, Raw Power, The Man Who Sold The World, Idiot, Lust For Life, Transformer. Wow, wow, wow.
Bowie was a rider on a horse of zeitgeist. Bowie had an ear, a nose and a throat for new things in popular music. In 50 years of active music career, he had played with glam rock, punk, new wave, electro-pop, disco, folk-rock, psychedelic rock and he managed to stay true to himself. Nothing Has Changed is based on his singles that were always either brilliant or tolerable. Due to rationalization of space, there are only three songs from Berlin period, but everything is forgiven when you listen Rock and Roll Suicide, Panic in Detroit, etc.
You will find many of his collaborations here. Hello Spaceboy with Pet Shop Boys, Dancing In The Street with Mick Jagger, Under The Pressure with Queen, This Is Not America with Pat Metheny Group. The biggest flaw of this compilation is that I wasn’t able to adapt to the fact that its opener Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime) is a new track that sounds like closing credits for James Blond. Another little heartbreak is missing Station to Station, one of the greatest Bowie’s songs that showcase everything about him: cinematic, ambitious, excited, neurotic, eccentric, emotionally distant, roaming.
On the other hand, this is compilation that demonstrates who David Bowie was and always will be: an artist whose three hours of music are not enough to get an insight into his divergent work.
