Reality (David Bowie album)

Reality is the twenty-third studio album by English rock musician David Bowie. It was released in 2003 on his Iso Records label, in conjunction with Columbia Records.

Recording and production

The album was recorded and produced in New York's Looking Glass Studios and co-produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti. Consisting mostly of original compositions, the album also includes two cover songs, The Modern Lovers' "Pablo Picasso" and George Harrison's "Try Some, Buy Some". These two tracks were originally slated for Bowie's never-recorded Pin Ups 2 album from the early 1970s.

Bowie started writing the songs for Reality as the production for his previous album Heathen was wrapping up. Some songs he wrote quickly: "Fall Dog Bombs the Moon" was written in 30 minutes. Other songs, such as "Bring Me the Disco King", was a song Bowie had tried his hand at as early as the 1970s and had tried again with 1993's Black Tie White Noise as well as Heathen in 2002.

Bowie and Visconti produced both the stereo and 5.1 mix in the studio as the album was recorded.

Days (The Kinks song)

"Days" is a song by The Kinks, written by lead singer Ray Davies, released as a single in 1968. It also appeared on an early version of the album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (released only in continental Europe and New Zealand), and now appears as a bonus track of the remastered CD. On the original Pye 7N 17573 label, the name of the song is "Day's".

Release and reception

The song was an important single for Davies and the Kinks, coming in a year of declining commercial fortunes for the band. The song had been intended as an album track but after the relative failure of the previous single "Wonderboy" (which only reached No. 36 in the UK), "Days" was rushed out as a single with an old unreleased track "She's Got Everything" (recorded in February 1966 in the same session as "Dedicated Follower of Fashion") as the B-side. It reached No. 12 on the UK chart, but failed to chart in the U.S. This did not help future releases however as the next four Kinks singles failed to reach the top 30 (two of them failing to chart altogether) in the UK.

Days (album)

Days is the second studio album by American indie rock band Real Estate, released on October 18, 2011 on Domino Records.

Background

The album was recorded over the course of five months in a remote New Paltz, New York barn with Kevin McMahon as the producer, except for Out of Tune, which was recorded by Jarvis Taveniere at Rear House in Brooklyn, New York. The album was subsequently mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound in New York City.

A video for the lead track "Easy" was released through Funny or Die and directed by Tom Scharpling.

Artwork

The artwork for the album comes from conceptual artist Dan Graham's 1967 photographic collection Homes for America.

Critical reception

Days received largely positive reviews from contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 77, based on 32 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".Pitchfork Media labeled it "Best New Music".