Best of Bowie: 1980-1987

The '80s were a curious time for David Bowie. Never had he sold more records, had bigger hits, his influence was everywhere, and yet, the music he made often fell a little flat, especially after his commercial high-water mark of 1983's Let's Dance. The 2007 compilation The Best of David Bowie 1980/1987: Sight and Sound deals with that drop-off in quality in an admirable fashion, perhaps the only appropriate fashion: it ignores it. There is only one track from 1984's Tonight, and only two from its 1987 sequel Never Let Me Down, while there are four apiece from Let's Dance and Scary Monsters -- a skewed ratio that is nevertheless an accurate barometer of the worth of the albums. It also makes for a better listen as a compilation, since the hit singles from these records are surrounded by non-LP cuts and soundtrack contributions like "This is Not America" and "Absolute Beginners," a move that's not only helpful as a clearinghouse of relative oddities, but also helps make this Best of David Bowie 1980/1987 a truly representative collection of the best music of some patchy years, which is a more worthwhile endeavor than having this be truly representative of the decade as a whole. For some Bowie fans, this may be all they need from that decade (although they'd be well-advised not to ignore the truly masterful Scary Monsters, and use that as a supplement to this excellent disc). - All Music Guide