Line #57 Music/TinMachineAlbum


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tin_machine.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"Fascist flair is fashion cool. Well you're dead-- you just ain't buried yet."'']]
3
4	''Tin Machine'', released in 1989 through Creator/{{EMI}} USA, is the eponymous debut studio album by British-American AlternativeRock {{supergroup}} Tin Machine, formed the year prior to help frontman Music/DavidBowie reinvigorate his artistic passion. Produced with a deliberately raw and improvisational style with little overdubbing, the album exerts a more HardRock-oriented sound that sharply contrasts most of the rest of Bowie's '80s output. Bassist Tony Sales described it as a deliberate reaction to the prevalence of "{{disco}} and dance music and drum machines" on the radio, while guitarist Reeves Gabrels described it as the band "screaming to the world" and "a project that would put an end to rock 'n' roll." The album is also much more openly socially conscious than Bowie's prior oeuvre, with "Under the God" scathingly criticizing social and institutional racism, neo-Nazism, and white supremacy.
5
6	The hard rock direction wasn't the main intention from the get-go: when Bowie and Gabrels originally convened to try and help the former rediscover his artistic muse, the two originally planned to take on an art rock-driven direction in the vein of Bowie's most famous works, to the point where Bowie re-recorded [[Music/{{Lodger}} "Look Back in Anger"]] as a starting point. However, the duo's meeting with prior collaborators Tony and Hunt Sales (who'd previously performed alongside Bowie on Music/IggyPop's supporting tour for ''Music/TheIdiot'') led to the musician brothers orienting Bowie's new sessions in a harder direction, with Bowie drawing inspiration from the Music/{{Pixies}}, a band he quickly grew to admire since their inception. The end result of this was the formation of Tin Machine and the recording of this abrasive, rage-driven album.
7
8	''Tin Machine'' produced three singles: "Under the God", "Tin Machine", and "Prisoner of Love". Additionally, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H0hS1lxq4I a 13-minute promotional video]] directed by Julian Temple was produced, featuring live performances of (in order) "Pretty Thing", "Tin Machine", "Prisoner of Love", "Crack City", "Bus Stop", "Video Crime", "I Can't Read", and "Working Class Hero" at the Ritz in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity; Temple had previously directed ''Jazzin' for Blue Jean'' and the music videos for "Absolute Beginners" and "Day-In Day-Out". The video was not commercially released until May 22, 2019, when Creator/ParlophoneRecords uploaded it to Bowie's official Website/YouTube video [[MilestoneCelebration to commemorate the album's thirtieth anniversary.]]
9
10	Where this album ranks in Bowie's discography is... complicated. Contractually, it was a David Bowie album, and as such is included in the 1999 reissue campaign of the man's solo works, credited under Bowie's name. However, the members of Tin Machine considered themselves and the material they put out as a separate entity from Bowie's solo material. As such, it's hard to definitively say whether or not ''Tin Machine'' is its own thing or a part of the David Bowie release timeline. As a bit of a compromise, this wiki includes the album among Bowie's solo works on the [[Creator/DavidBowie "Creator"]] page (and will do the same for ''Tin Machine II'' if/when a page gets made for that), while the [[Music/DavidBowie "Music"]] page places it and ''Tin Machine II'' in a separate category.
11
12	!!Tracklist:
13	# "Heaven's in Here" (6:01)
14	# "Tin Machine" (3:34)
15	# "Prisoner of Love" (4:50)
16	# "Crack City" (4:36)
17	# "I Can't Read" (4:54)
18	# "Under the God" (4:06)
19	# "Amazing" (3:06)
20	# [[Music/JohnLennonPlasticOnoBand "Working Class Hero"]][[note]]Originally by Music/JohnLennon.[[/note]] (4:38)
21	# "Bus Stop" (1:41)
22	# "Pretty Thing" (4:39)
23	# "Video Crime" (3:52)
24	# "Run" (3:20)*
25	# "Sacrifice Yourself" (2:08)*
26	# "Baby Can Dance" (4:57)
27
28	[-*Exclusive to CD releases.-]
29
30	!!''I've seen the best tropes of my generation laid out in cemeteries and crematories'':
31	* FifteenMinutesOfFame: Referenced in "I Can't Read", which nods back to the original Creator/AndyWarhol quote with the line "Andy, where's my fifteen minutes?"
32	* AcidRefluxNightmare: The narrator of "Bus Stop" speculates that his friend's vision of God may be the result of "some blue cheese or the meal we ate down the road."
33	* AllLowercaseLetters: The album and liner notes almost exclusively feature this, with only the copyright information and catalog number being given proper capitalization.
34	* AlternateAlbumCover: The arrangement of the band members on the cover photo differs between each format. From left to right, [[https://img.discogs.com/GceryxVMFAw9sxQmehrcSSEc7Vs=/fit-in/600x588/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-389990-1459163159-2230.jpeg.jpg the CD cover]] features David Bowie, Tony Sales, Hunt Sales, and Reeves Gabrels; [[https://img.discogs.com/5tRbL_oNO4bTJFbaq0-KqithkH0=/fit-in/564x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-3522074-1333760090.jpeg.jpg the LP and digital covers]] feature Hunt Sales, Reeves Gabrels, David Bowie, and Tony Sales; [[https://img.discogs.com/dF82fLafaIeoMfZ9nKXJRqhdvyM=/fit-in/383x591/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-11109008-1509999571-2554.jpeg.jpg the cassette cover]] features Tony Sales, Hunt Sales, Reeves Gabrels, and David Bowie.
35	* BeliefMakesYouStupid: Well, more "fanatic devotion to religion makes you stupid" in the case of "Bus Stop". The song isn't outright dismissive of religion, with the narrator stating that "I don't pretend faith never works," but it does make a point to criticize how blinding religious fanaticism can be when left uncontrolled.
36	* {{Bowdlerize}}: The liner notes censor all heavy swearing, with every offensive work being reduced to the first letter and a series of dashes.
37	* BreatherEpisode: "Amazing" a relatively laid-back love song situated right between the musically intense, lyrically political "Under the God" and the minor-[[{{Scales}} key]], thumping, and downright nihilistic "Working Class Hero".
38	* CallBack:
39	** "Sacrifice Yourself" features the line "wham, bam, thank you Charlie," harking back to the famed outburst of "wham-bam thank you ma'am" from [[Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars "Suffragette City"]].
40	** "Baby Can Dance" features the phrase "I'm a shadow man," apparently referring to the ''[[Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars Ziggy Stardust]]'' outtake "Shadow Man".
41	* CoverVersion: "Working Class Hero", originally written and performed by former [[Music/TheBeatles Beatle]] Music/JohnLennon. The band chose to record the song after Lennon's son Sean visited them while they were recording in the Bahamas.
42	* DarkerAndEdgier: Both lyrically and musically, this album is much dourer in tone than ''Music/NeverLetMeDown'' (which already touched upon some pretty dark subjects).
43	* DrugsAreBad: The general message of "Crack City", partly rooted in Bowie's own past as a cocaine addict throughout the first half of the 1970s.
44	* EpicRocking: "Heaven's in Here" clocks in at 6:01.
45	* FaceOnTheCover: All four band members appear on the cover, arranged differently depending on the format of release. All four variations of the cover image were photographed by Masayoshi Sukita, who previously shot the cover photos for Music/IggyPop's ''Music/TheIdiot'' and Bowie's own ''[[Music/HeroesDavidBowieAlbum "Heroes"]]''.
46	* FakeOutFadeOut: Done about 30 or so seconds before the end of "Crack City", which instead concludes on an actual final note.
47	* IAmTheBand: [[DefiedTrope Defied]]; along with ''Tin Machine II'', this album was produced with the band operating as a democratic unit, rather than the usual routine of letting Bowie take charge of everything.
48	* LongestSongGoesFirst: The 6:01 "Heaven's in Here" opens the album; no other track surpasses five minutes.
49	* MinisculeRocking: "Bus Stop" clocks in at just 1:41; at the time, it beat out [[Music/LowDavidBowieAlbum "Breaking Glass"]] from 12 years prior for the position of Bowie's shortest song (later being beat out by both Nathan Alder segues in ''[[Music/{{Outside}} 1. Outside]]'', with the second of the two now being Bowie's ''actual'' shortest track, at just 28 seconds).
50	* MythologyGag: The quotation of Creator/AllenGinsberg's "Literature/Howl1955" in "Prisoner of Love" subtly nods back to Music/IggyPop's "Little Miss Emperor", whose parent album Bowie co-wrote and co-produced; the Bowie and Pop songs both quote the opening line of Ginsberg's poem.
51	* NewSoundAlbum: Hard rock cum proto-{{grunge}}, a deliberate contrast to the pop-rock of ''Music/LetsDance'', ''Music/{{Tonight}}'', and ''Music/NeverLetMeDown''; Bowie himself considered it a continuation of the style developed on ''Music/ScaryMonstersAndSuperCreeps''. Much of the album's sound was influenced by not only older acts such as Music/JimiHendrix and Music/LedZeppelin, but also newer names like Music/SonicYouth and the Music/{{Pixies}}, all of whom Bowie was listening to at the time. Bowie particularly admired the Pixies, calling them the most compelling act of the '80s; as such, their material carries the biggest influence on the album. Tin Machine would later cover the Pixies' "Debaser" in live performances, and Bowie himself would perform a solo cover of "Cactus" on his 2002 album ''Music/{{Heathen}}''.
52	* PerformanceVideo: The album was promoted with a 13-minute video depicting the band performing at the Ritz in New York City, which was cannibalized for the album singles' music videos.
53	* PrecisionFStrike: Bowie makes a number of these throughout the album, a direct contrast to the (mostly) clean lyrics of his prior output.
54	* ProtestSong: "Under the God" is an open railing against social and institutional racism, white supremacy, and government enabling of right-wing extremism.
55	* RealLifeWritesThePlot: "Crack City" was inspired by the prominent drug culture that surrounded the band while recording in Nassau, additionally drawing from Bowie's own history with cocaine addiction.
56	* RearrangeTheSong: "I Can't Read" would later be re-recorded as a solo Bowie song for the 1997 film ''Film/TheIceStorm'', performed as a more downtempo dirge.
57	* RuderAndCruder: The album sees Bowie's lyricism far more littered with profanity compared to anything he had put out before or since; the presence of this across the record contributed heavily to criticisms that the album was too juvenile for the average Bowie fan.
58	* SelfTitledAlbum: The third in Bowie's career, after [[Music/DavidBowie1967 his 1967 debut album]] and the follow-up which eventually became known as ''Music/SpaceOddity''. In this case though, it's not titled after Bowie himself, but rather Tin Machine as a whole.
59	* SharpDressedMan: The cover photo has the band members wearing matching suits.
60	* ShoutOut:
61	** "Prisoner of Love" quotes the opening line of the Creator/AllenGinsberg poem "Literature/Howl1955".
62	** "I Can't Read" features the line "Creator/{{Andy\|Warhol}}, where's my {{fifteen minutes\|OfFame}}?"
63	** "Sacrifice Yourself" mentions being "married to a [[Franchise/StarTrek Klingon]]."
64	* TakeThat:
65	** "Under the God" is very openly one towards neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and right-wingers, a sharp contrast to Bowie's apolitical reputation.
66	** "Bus Stop" is an open critique of religious zealotry.
67	** "Video Crime" takes jabs at the then-growing sensationalism of news media.
68	* TitledAfterTheSong: The band named themselves after the song "Tin Machine," as they felt it was a good fit for their rawer, harder sound.
69	* TitleTrack: "Tin Machine" is one not only for the album, but also the band; the band in fact named themselves after the song.
70	* UpdatedRerelease: The 1995 CD reissue by Creator/VirginRecords adds in a "live country version" of "Bus Stop" as a bonus track.
71	* WhiteVoidRoom: The band is photographed in one on the album cover.
72	* WorkingClassHero: Ironically, the {{Trope Namer\|s}}, the song [[Music/JohnLennonPlasticOnoBand "Working Class Hero"]] (originally by Music/JohnLennon), is a subversion in which the working class are duped into feeling like heroes by those with power:
73	--> ''[[BreadAndCircuses Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV]]''\
74	''And you think you're so clever and classless and free''\
75	''But you're still [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] peasants [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech as far as I can see]]''

Context Music / TinMachineAlbum