Ever the innovator, Bowie embraced digital formats before most of us had ever heard of MP3s and streaming. 'Hours...' was written alongside music for the video game Omikron: The Nomad Soul and is regarded as a sort-of soundtrack of the game. The album was the first ever release by a major artist to be officially available to download via the Internet. Its opening track was Thursday's Child, a perfect introduction to the record which was seen as a return to the classic song-based format after a fruitful period of experimentation. The version I'm posting today, however, is my preferred mix, one that appeared in the aforementioned video game.
- Thursday's Child - David Bowie (from 'Hours...')
Ah, David Bowie and the 90s...while this was a more artistically, if not monetarily, successful decade for Bowie, it's still not a period which I can point to any truly essential Bowie songs. Yes, Buddha Of Suburbia is a shining moment at the beginning of the decade, but it wasn't until 1999 and Hours that I felt Bowie was really back on form. A certain confidence returned to Bowie's writing. There's also a new found maturity on Hours. Thursdays Child stands as my favorite song of the last two decades of Bowie's career. It's poignant and openly emotional. There is also a very obvious musical kinship with Blackstar's final song I Can't Give Everything Away which hit me hard the first time I heard the latter.
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