The Easy Star All-Stars and “Ziggy Stardub” have bought it.
I love coming across bands I’ve never heard of and then becoming completely smitten with them. Following that, I can feel a bit ashamed. (I have over 2,500 artists in my Apple Music library, how did I miss this one?!?!)
Enter stage right: the Easy Star All-Stars.
The Easy Star All-Stars is a reggae collective founded in 1997 by Michael Goldwasser, Eric Smith, Lem Oppenheimer, and Remy Gerstein of New York City-based Easy Star Records. The band is known for its reinterpretations of classic albums in a reggae style. As Michael describes, what a classic album would sound like in an alternative universe as a reggae album.
So far:
2003: The Dub Side of the Moon
2006: Radiodread
2009: Easy Star’s Lonely Hearts Dub Band
2010: Dubber Side of the Moon
2012: Easy Star’s Thrillah
And now…
2023: Ziggy Stardub
So, “Ziggy Stardub” is 11 years in waiting for the reggae reimagining of David Bowie’s “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.” They have done Pink Floyd (twice), Radiohead, The Beatles, and Michael Jackson (and they have released two original collections, the “Until That Day” EP and “First Light.”)
OK, let’s do this!
Is the album any good?
Yes, oh yes, it is. It’s just fun. With Macy Gray, Steel Pulse, Maxi Priest, Vernon Reid (of Living Colour), and many others collaborating on the tracks, it adds to an overall fantastic reworking of the original album. “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” is probably in my “Top 20 albums” ever list (wait… just checking), and honestly, listening to this – at no point did I think, “WTF are they doing?”
I hope, and I don’t think, any David Bowie enthusiasts will be upset to hear this re-invention of his classic. I’d be sorry to hear if any did.
As Michael Goldwasser explained to Billboard: “Ziggy Stardub is like taking David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars band [bassist Trevor Bolden, guitarist Mick Ronson, and the sole surviving member, drummer Michael “Woody” Woodmansey] on an airplane traveling back to Jamaica in the late 1970s; what would happen if we did that? People aren’t used to hearing music they are familiar with in a totally different light, but hopefully, they’ll come along for that ride with us.“
Macy Gray’s sultry vocals sound fantastic on a wholly reimagined “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide.” Maxi Priest sounds like “Starman” was practically written for him, except on a sunny beach with a Bermuda Rum Swizzle, rather than in space. British reggae band The Skints bring in incredibly appropriate crunching guitars to “Ziggy Stardust.” Steel Pulse transform the apocalyptic “Five Years” into a song as if it was their own.
“Moonage Daydream” features Naomi Cowan’s hypnotic vocals, finishing with a guitar solo by Alex Lifeson of the Canadian band Rush. Michael Goldwasser says, “This has been my favorite tune on the Bowie album since I first started listening as a teenager. In light of that, it’s interesting that it’s the song that I changed most radically by simplifying the chord progression and pedaling on one bass line for the entire track, which gives it somewhat of a hypnotic effect and roots it in reggae tradition.”
I love this album because I hope it hears a lot of younger ears who may have never listened to the original 1972 classic by David Bowie but may now be intrigued enough to think, “Hmm, that was cool. What did the original sound like?”
If that happens, that’s a great job done – tribute albums are partly meant to do that.
I initially said this album was fun, but this album is really just spectacular. To prove it, I’ll add a sentence here stating that I love listening to this in the shower. (I’m sure ChatGPT won’t be able to replicate any of this.)
I don’t know where “Ziggy Stardub” will end up in my favorite albums of the year list (or if it makes the list), but Easy Star All-Stars have taken a 1970s glam-rock legend album to make this.
One fantastic, happy reggae reimaginings of perhaps one of the best albums of all time.
8/10
Chris Garrod, May 11th, 2023