DAVID BOWIE

A Reality Tour

[ISO/Sony Legacy]

David Bowie hasn’t released a new album in seven years, by far the longest break from recording of his career. Finally, in 2010, we get … a live album recorded in 2003 and already released on DVD in 2004? Its release on CD at this point may be puzzling, but the actual content of A Reality Tour nonetheless demonstrates that Bowie’s most recent major tour found him in excellent form. The performer who once kept a cool conceptual distance from his audience is heard here as a rafter-rocking crowd-pleaser, joking easily with fans and leading robust singalongs on anthems like “Life on Mars” and “All the Young Dudes.” Just as pleasantly surprising is the way that late-period songs like “New Killer Star” and “Bring Me the Disco King” stand up among the classics, suggesting the critical praise for albums like A Reality and Heathen was not misplaced. –CN