Diamond Dogs is often cited as the beginning of Bowie's cocaine psychosis period. In fact, it was recorded before he started giving Hitler salutes at railway stations and aggravating Eastern European customs officers with the books on Goebbels he carried in his rucksack, and now presents something of a field day for hindsight-lovers.
It's New Year's Eve 2003, and Josh Rouse is wowing a hometown Nashville crowd with an Isley-tastic version of "Under Cold Blue Stars" that virtually melts into Stevie Wonder's "My Cherie Amour". An excellent concert DVD in its own right, this gets five stars for the added Many Moods Of... documentary in which we see the BBC's Janice Long being visibly moved to tears. Watch and weep with her.
An exuberant two-disc anniversary set includes all the videos—the sugar-buzz of "Alright", "Late In The Day"'s pogoing in the rain, the inspired foam-puppetry of "Pumping On Your Stereo" et al. There's also home movies, unseen material, TV appearances and fresh interviews with the lads, who emerge as that rarest of musical beasts: mates first, a band second.
Describing itself as "the evil twin to the ecstatically decadent Boogie Nights soundtrack", the merits of this collection dwarf even Val Kilmer's (it says here) 13-inch penis. Okay, so he was playing porn legend John Holmes. But we don't even want to think about the method acting. Instead, let's explain why this soundtrack is so excellent. It's very simple: most of the songs they've chosen are classics. As opposed to the tired drek clueless movie producers compiling soundtracks usually think are classics (Dido, The Troggs).
