LogFAQs > #955392897

166. David Bowie Young Americans (1975)
from the album Young Americans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScVi_L817ec

Key lyrics:
Aint there one damn song that can make me break down and cry?

David Bowie was never afraid to step outside his comfort zone. Young Americans found him stepping into the world of soul music. Though this essentially amounted to a one-off in that genre, Bowie pulled it off with unexpected skill, as though he had been making soul music his entire life. Young Americans is a track bubbling with unbridled energy as Bowie observes a young girl living too fast. This is a portrait of America by a very British man, and the velocity of his delivery suggests he wants to cover every inch. More than any other track, Young Americans explores Bowie as an ordinary human.

The song hooks from the opening note, a drum rolling into a piano rolling into a bouncy soundscape dominated by the sax. Though the instrumentation starts mellow, Bowies vocals push ever higher. By the fourth verse, Bowie explodes with so much energy that he sounds fearful of leaving out a single detail, only to end with the music going silent behind him as he belts out with a powerful falsetto. The backing vocals are ever present, suggesting a massive scale. Young Americans sounds as sweeping as its lyrics suggest. And though the lyrics lament wasted youth, I cannot help feeling energized by Bowies passionate delivery.

---

My top 100 games (with write-ups): https://foolfantastic.com/top-100-video-games-project/