DAVID BOWIE

(RCA) David Bowie, though still an artist to be reckoned with, is no longer quite the trendsetter that he was in the early Seventies. During his Glitter Rock days, Bowie was a center of personal controversy and critical scrutiny. At the moment, however, he seems to be operating outside of rock categories, releasing records very much on his own terms. His latest LP, Scary Monsters, is a continuation of his recent streak of cerebral, unsettling works which began with Low, all uniquely Bowie creations.

Like last year's Lodger album, Bowie serves up his techno-rock blend with great coolness and calculation here. Scary Monsters' atmosphere of brooding paranoia is constructed with meticulous care, emphasizing abrasive musical textures. Clattering percussion, slithering keyboards and piercing guitar (courtesy of Robert Fripp) surround Bowie's sometimes morose, sometimes hypertense vocals. Oddities, such as a Japanese translation of "It's No Game," are included just for the sake of bizarreness.

Bowie uses his lyrics as extensions of his arrangement schemes, offering fragments of dialogue and images to complement his music. "Up The Hill Backwards," "Ashes to Ashes" and "Because You're Young" are abstruse in specific meaning, but convey a definite mood of danger and intrigue. The weakest track, "Fashion," is also the easiest to understand, a meditation on disco culture of little import.

There's at least one song here, however, that manages to be both explicit and hard-hitting. "Scream Like a Baby" is an account of a government crackdown on undesirables told with emotion and immediacy. "They came down hard on the faggots/They came down hard on the street," Bowie sings, giving specifics in place of his usual vague insinuations. Set to sleek rock backing, it's the album's outstanding tune.

Bowie may be working in relative isolation as an artist these days, but he's able to create weirdly compelling rock of more than personal significance. When he hits the mark, his monsters are genuinely scary