Track Listing

1. Modern Love
2. China Girl
3. Let's Dance
4. Without You
5. Ricochet
6. Criminal World
7. Cat People (Putting out Fire)
8. Shake It

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7310 in Music
• Released on: 1999-09-28
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Enhanced, Original recording reissued
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Amazon.com
David Bowie returned to recording after a four-year break with this relatively clean-cut 1983 album. Although offering another definite new direction for Bowie, with Nile Rodgers of Chic helping to produce a stylish post-disco dance sound, Let's Dance is a mixed bag. Much of the album's success was due to its three danceable hit singles--"China Girl," a sensuous Bowie/Iggy Pop collaboration, the distinctive "Modern Love," and the funky title track. However, much of the rest of the album is bland and vapid, marking the start of serious decline in Bowie's songwriting skills. A cover of Metro's "Criminal World" and "Cat People" are the only other strong tracks here. --James Swift

Customer Reviews

Hardly as evil as you've heard
Hard core Bowie fans hate this album, because it was "commercial" and light, and lacked the angst of "Scary Monsters" or "Lodger." At the time, it seemed like it was an enjoyable album of the moment, picking up on the dance rhythms that had taken over the airwaves by the mid-80s. With hindsight, it is musically a lot more sturdy than that, and seems like a minor classic. Don't follow biography that closely, but I suspect Bowie was just in a good mood then, and that impacted his music, giving it a jolly quality his CD's typically lack. The beats are beautifully constructed, and it is a very pleasing meeting of rock and dance aesthetics.

Great Sounds, Good Beat- -and You Can Dance To It!
Why so much disagreement over this album? I suppose it's because this time around, Bowie reinvents himself as a smooth progenitor of blue-eyed soul. This is a dance/pop fest ("Let's Dance"--get it?) with excellent fat guitar sounds from Stevie Ray Vaughan, great sax work, and some cheeky background vocals. The well mannered, tasteful sounds may disappoint those expecting rocker songs like "Cracked Actor," etc.

After the excellent, ironically romantic, "Modern Love" (with it's great opening line "I know when to go out; I know when to stay in"), Bowie follows with two other commercial hits "China Girl" and "Let's Dance." "Let's Dance" is a riot, an MGM musical of a number with a boy background chorus, impassioned vocals (listen to Bowie wonderfully over-emote on the line "tremble like a Floweeer!"), and an infectious beat. This song has stood the test of time better than any other song on the album. It's high drama seasoned with camp and it's one of Bowie's best efforts. With excellent jazz-infused sax, Latin percussion, and memorable lyrics, it's one of the funnest songs in the Bowie discography. I think he really took chances with this song, and he thoroughly succeeds. The final song on the first side, the laid-back "Without You," features some trademark falsetto, but is not up to the other songs.

"Ricochet" is a reggae track that gets a little tiresome, but it's a harbinger of his later work for kids, with great sci-fi voiceover effects, and a very sound-trackish feeling to it. It sounds like something important is going on, though I can't figure out what the narrative is. (It doesn't matter--this is all for fun.) "Criminal World" has a nice hook about three minutes into it, leading to the best guitar solo on the album--this is the time to turn it up LOUD. I just wish the solo were longer.

"Cat People" is another hit from the album, and features classic Bowie vocals: The big slow spooky voice over some ponderous drumming, then a breakout into his singular rock voice. With some snarling blues guitar by SRV, this is superb. The final song is reminiscent work by the "Tom-Tom Club." It has a zany, almost throwaway quality to it, but I think that's the intended effect... a funky little dance piece with no pretense. An underrated album if anything, this album delivers on its promise: It's infused with the sound and the spirit of rock/pop dance. Highly recommended, but remember that it's a bit of a departure from the Bowie you may have come to expect.

Dramatic and compelling
In spite of its being commercial, and in spite of a considerable amount of disco content, "Let's Dance" is my favorite David Bowie album, tho others are close. Each track is excellent except for the throwaway concluder "Shake It" and the good but mild "Without You." David's singing is as usual very versatile, and he performs the dramatic extremely well in "Ricochet" and some other entries. He displays a soft but heavy touch on Iggy Pop's "China Girl" and in parts of other songs, reminding one a bit of Elvis.

Stevie Ray Vaughan makes a fine contribution with his guitar work on "Cat People," "Criminal World," and elsewhere, and there is also good saxophone, but most noteworthy is the songs' lively, catchy beats. The heavy "Modern Love" is the album's big rocker, very commercially successful and justifiably so. The title cut actually employs disco to make an excellent song, not just a dance number. Then, listen to that bass on "China Girl."

The production quality on this record is fabulous. Varied instrumentation is employed and mixed in very skillfully, with well-chosen dramatic flourishes, giving it its theatrical aura. One feels like getting up and dancing even when the beat is not disco.

So, unless you are a die-hard wed to the more characteristic Bowie sound, "Let's Dance" should be an interesting excursion.