Bowie at the Beeb

With two discs of unearthed, 30-year-old BBC recordings plus a live disc recorded this summer, Bowie at The Beeb should be more exciting than it is. Instead, it’s merely competent, unintentionally mirroring the Thin White Duke’s own career: never as bold as it should’ve been. Most sessions from the BBC’s vault sound like they were recorded with some drugged-out groupie sleeping on the mixing board, but the sound quality here is admittedly quite decent. Still, Bowie proves pretty static as a performer, churning out a few disappointingly straighforward Velvet Underground covers (“Waiting For The Man,” “White Light/White Heat”) and versions of hits like “Ziggy Stardust,” “Suffragette City,” and “Changes” that barely deviate from the originals. There’re a fewwelcome oddities on the opening disc where Bowie’s groovy, shaggadelic late-’60s persona shines, but the live disc only stands as evidence of how far the Man Who Fell To Earth has really fallen. Out-and-out Bowie fanatics shouldn’t be deterred, but for everyone else it’ll just be nostalgia overload.