Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) - Release and Aftermath

Release and Aftermath

RCA released Scary Monsters in September 1980 with the promo line "Often Copied, Never Equalled", seen as a direct reference to the New Wave acts Bowie had inspired over the years. It was highly praised by critics, Record Mirror giving it a rating of seven stars out of five, while Melody Maker called it "an eerily impressive stride into the '80s" and Billboard reported that it "should be the most accessible and commercially successful Bowie LP in years". The album's #1 placing in the UK charts was Bowie's first since Diamond Dogs in 1974, while its US peak of #12 was his highest stateside showing since Low almost four years earlier.

Despite the worldwide megastardom and commercial success that Bowie would achieve in coming years, most notably with his next studio album Let's Dance in 1983, many commentators consider Scary Monsters to be "his last great album", the "benchmark" for each new release. Well-regarded later efforts such as Black Tie White Noise, Earthling, Heathen and Reality were cited as "the best album since Scary Monsters." In the latest edition of his musical biography of the singer, Strange Fascination, David Buckley suggested that "Bowie should pre-emptively sticker up his next album 'Best Since Scary Monsters' and have done with it".

In 2000 Q magazine ranked Scary Monsters at #30 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2002 Pitchfork Media placed it #93 in its Top 100 Albums of the 1980s. In 2012, ''Slant'' Magazine listed the album at #27 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s" saying "Bowie bridles the experimentation of his Berlin trilogy and channels those synth flourishes and off-kilter guitar licks into one of the decade's quirkiest pop albums."