PINUPS
| David Bowie
PINUPS
Pinups (also referred to as Pin Ups and Pin-Ups) is the seventh studio album by David Bowie, containing cover versions of songs, released in 1973 on RCA Records. Pinups entered the UK chart on 3 November 1973 (coincidentally the same day as Bryan Ferry's covers album These Foolish Things) and stayed there for 21 weeks, peaking at No. 1. It re-entered the chart on 30 April 1983, this time for fifteen weeks, peaking at No. 57. In July 1990, it again entered the chart, for one week, at No. 52. A version of The Velvet Underground's "White Light/White Heat" was recorded during the sessions. It was never released; Bowie donated the backing track to Mick Ronson for his 1975 album Play Don't Worry. An insert included with the original LP includes the text "This album is called Pinups" and the title is written as one word, without a hyphen, on the LP cover and spine, although the disc label spells the title with a hyphen. -WIKIPEDIA
Critic Reviews
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RollingStone
1973 - while Pinups may be a failure, it is also a collection of great songs, most of which are given a more than adequate, and always loving, treatment. Maybe the fairest conclusion to draw is that Bowie can’t sing any other way, did the best he could, and the result isn’t all that bad.
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ALL MUSIC
Pin Ups was an artistic statement, of sorts, with some thought behind it, rather than just a quick album of oldies covers to buy some time, as it was often dismissed as being.
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sputnik music
A huge step down from his earlier---and later work, Pin Ups is a collection of boring radio tunes that even radio DJs should be smart enough to stay away from.
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Robert Christgau
The idea of reviving these British oldies is the great one, but most of those fanatic enough to know all the originals aren't very excited either. I mean, it's good to recall the screaming-frustration-on-the-nine-to-five of "Friday on My Mind," but when Bowie screams he sounds arch. And that ain't rock and roll. Yet.
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Don Ignacio
Unlike any other album he did in the '70s, this is the only one that seems lighthearted and not supposed to be taken seriously.
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Mark Prindle
I realize that it seems a little condescending to give one of the highest grade to an ALL-COVERS album, but the fact is that Bowie is apparently much more capable of recognizing a great song than writing one of his own.
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Only Solitaire
Bowie singing early Sixties' covers. Some fine songs there, and some fine guitarwork, but ain't this some kind of parody?
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Wilson & Alroy's Record Reviews
Bowie's first serious misstep as a mature artist, this is a collection of tepid cover versions of mid-1960s British rock songs (the Kinks, Pink Floyd, the Who, the Yardbirds, etc.). With Bowie still in his glam rock phase, the emphasis is on style, not substance.
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John McFerrin Music Reviews
I did not expect to dislike this album this much. I mean, I knew that pretty much everybody disliked this album, considering this one of Bowie's career low points, but I didn't see how that could be possible; just how harmful could an album of covers of songs from the previous decade be? Especially when it was recorded after two albums that, at the worst, were in the top quarter of Bowie's career output?
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Medium
The covers album. It’s strange for a hugely successful — critically and commercial — artist to do a covers album during a creative hot streak. Can’t tell if it’s lazy or self-indulgent.
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