| Tin Machine II | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The unedited European album cover |
|||||
| Studio album by Tin Machine | |||||
| Released | 2 September 1991 | ||||
| Recorded | Sydney October 1989 – December 1989; Los Angeles, March 1991 | ||||
| Genre | Rock, Hard rock | ||||
| Length | 49:07 | ||||
| Label | Victory Music | ||||
| Producer | Tin Machine and Tim Palmer, Hugh Padgham | ||||
| Tin Machine chronology | |||||
|
|||||
| David Bowie chronology | |||||
|
|||||
| Tin Machine II US Album Cover | |||||
|
The US album cover, with the Kouroi's penises airbrushed out
|
|||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
| Blender | [2] |
| Q | [3] |
Tin Machine II is an album by Tin Machine, originally released by Victory Music in 1991.
Contents |
The band reconvened following their 1989 tour, recording most of the album[4] before taking a rest while David Bowie conducted his solo Sound+Vision Tour and filmed The Linguini Incident. In describing this album, Reeves Gabrels said "this album is as aggressive as the first one, but the songs are more melodic. Last time, we were screaming at the world. This time, I think, they're all love songs in a strange kind of way."[5]
Guitarist Reeves Gabrels later stated that at the time he was deeply into Nine Inch Nails' album Pretty Hate Machine and was looking for an industrial edge to his own guitar work for the album. Ultimately (after recording track after track of guitar noise), he found a "shard of guitar noise" that he liked and used it on the album track "Shopping for Girls."[6]
The album track "If There Is Something" was originally recorded during the sessions for the first Tin Machine album but didn't come out satisfactorily, so it was shelved until this album.[7]
The group signed to Victory Music[8] and added three further tracks in Los Angeles, with Hugh Padgham (producer of Bowie's 1984 album Tonight) overseeing the song "One Shot". The album was issued in September 1991. Hunt Sales took lead vocals on two tracks: "Stateside" and "Sorry."[9]
The song "Betty Wrong" featured in the film "The Crossing" (1990).
Less successful than the band's debut album Tin Machine, Tin Machine II peaked at #23 in the UK and #126 in the USA. It received generally poor reviews on release[1][2][3], although they achieved success on the Modern Rock chart in the USA, where "Baby Universal" reached #21, and "One Shot" became an even bigger hit, reaching #3. Q magazine stated that this album didn't "quite match up to their wonderfully overwrought but sadly underbought debut," while praising such individual tracks such as "If There Was Something," "You Belong in Rock 'n' Roll" and "Shopping for Girls."[3] There were positive reviews, with one reviewer findng the album "a return to raw form" and called it "the best music Bowie's released since 1980's Scary Monsters."[9] Another critic praised Gabrels' guitar work as "two parts Robert Fripp, one part Eddie Van Halen and one part speeding ambulance" in a review that also praised the album.[10]
In the years after the album's release, some critics have suggested that the album was "unjustly" harshly reviewed at the time of its release.[11][12]
The band supported the album with a seven-month tour called the "It's My Life Tour."
For the American release of the album, the cover was airbrushed to remove the genitalia of the Kouroi statues.[7] "Even Canada has the original cover," Bowie said, "Only in America..."[13] Bowie floated the idea of allowing American album-buyers to send away to the record company for the genitalia that were struck from their version of the cover, but the label balked. He said "then [the fans] could paste them back on. But the label freaked out at the idea. Sending genitals through the mail is a serious offense."[7]
All songs written by David Bowie and Reeves Gabrels except where noted.
"Hammerhead", a short instrumental, is an unlisted track and an edit from the longer vocal version that was issued as the B-side for the single release of "You Belong in Rock 'n' Roll".
Album
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Norway's album Charts | 14 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||