MILES DAVIS

MILES DAVIS
DECOY (1984)
320 KBPS

Like You're Under Arrest and Tutu, Decoy flirts heavily with synthesizers. Another thing it has in common with those two releases? None of 'em are all that good. I mean, this isn't a dog's dinner like it's made out to be, but it's not first-class Miles. "Robot 409" sounds like a bad cartoon theme, for god's sake, while both the title track and "Code M.D." are beefed up electronically, seemingly to cover up their lack of any strong melody or instrumental solos. Now, I do think that "Freaky Deaky" makes good use of the electronic stuff - appropriately enough, it sounds freaky. And hey, "What It Is" is about the funkiest thing on this album, plus the squealing, Wayne Shorter-like soprano sax solo sounds nice. Meanwhile, "That's It" does have an amusingly unpredictable groove, making it worth hearing as well. And "What It Is" is stirring, that's what it is. So that makes it the best post-retirement Miles album I've ever heard, not like that's saying much.

1. Decoy
2. Robot 415
3. Code M.D.
4. Freaky Deaky
5. What It Is
6. That's Right
7. That's What Happened