Co-produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti, Scary Monsters was recorded between February and April 1980 at the Power Station in New York City, and later Good Earth Studios in London. Much of the same personnel from prior releases returned for the sessions, with additional guitar by Chuck Hammer and Robert Fripp, and a guest appearance by Pete Townshend. The music incorporates elements of art rock, new wave and post-punk.
Unlike the improvisational nature of prior releases, Bowie spent time writing the music and lyrics; several were recorded under working titles and some contained reworked elements of earlier, unreleased songs. The album cover is a large-scale collage featuring Bowie donning a Pierrot costume, with references to his prior releases on the rear sleeve.
The album's lead single, "Ashes to Ashes", revisited the character of Major Tom from "Space Oddity" and was promoted with an inventive music video. Scary Monsters garnered critical and commercial acclaim: it topped the UK Albums Chart and restored Bowie's commercial standing in the US, reaching No. 12 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart. It was Bowie's final studio album for RCA and the final collaboration between him and Visconti for over 20 years. Several publications have considered it one of the greatest albums of all time.
From 1976 to 1979, David Bowie recorded what became known as the Berlin Trilogy, which consisted of Low, "Heroes" (both 1977) and Lodger (1979), made in collaboration with the musician Brian Eno and the producer Tony Visconti. Although considered highly influential, the trilogy had proven less successful commercially. Lodger's commercial performance, in particular, was hindered by artists who were influenced by the earlier Berlin releases, such as Gary Numan. According to the biographer David Buckley, Numan's fame indirectly led to Bowie taking a more commercial direction for his next record.
Rather than improvising lyrics and music as he had with prior releases, Bowie took time composing and developing the lyrics and melodies, ensuring the musicians adhered to his thought-out structures before adding their own personal touches. Many of the tracks had working titles early on. Some of these included "People Are Turning to Gold" ("Ashes to Ashes"), "It Happens Everyday" ("Teenage Wildlife"), "Jamaica" ("Fashion"), "Cameras in Brooklyn" ("Up the Hill Backwards") and "I Am a Laser" ("Scream Like a Baby"), which was originally written and recorded in 1973 by a group of Bowie collaborators known as the Astronettes. The lyrics for the title track, which dated back to a 1975 song called "Running Scared", were written in response to a promotional campaign for Kellogg's Corn flakes cereal, which offered novelty toys of "Scary Monsters and Super Heroes". Other tracks were recorded and left unfinished, including "Is There Life After Marriage?" and an instrumental cover of Cream's "I Feel Free"; the latter was fully covered for Black Tie White Noise (1993)
Scary Monsters has been regarded as art rock, new wave, and post-punk and it was considered to be a culmination of Bowie's 1970s works and the record's sound to be not "far removed from the post-punk of the early '80s", "a high watermark of art pop by which Bowie's future releases are still compared."
The album opened with "It's No Game (No. 1)", which features sinister guitar loops and Bowie's screaming vocal performance, partly taken from an older tune titled "Tired of My Life", it features lyrics read by the Japanese actress Michi Hirota, which were translated by Hisahi Miura. Hirota delivers her performance in what is described by Buckley as a "macho, samurai voice", which was done at Bowie's insistence as a way to "break down a particular type of sexist attitude about women". The lyrics of "Up the Hill Backwards" deal with the struggle of facing a crisis. Bowie misquotes Thomas Anthony Harris's 1967 self-help book I'm OK – You're OK, a guide on how to save marriage relationships; Carr and Murray see this as a reference to Bowie's divorce from Angie Bowie. Musically, it features unusual time signatures and a Bo Diddley-inspired beat.
"Ashes to Ashes" revisits the character of Major Tom from "Space Oddity" (1969). Over ten years later, Major Tom is described as a "junkie", which has been interpreted as parallel to Bowie's own struggles with drug addiction throughout the 1970s. Musically, "Ashes to Ashes" was built around a guitar synthesiser theme by Hammer, augmented by Clark's synthesiser. Like "Space Oddity" before it, the song was built in stages, and features layers of instruments in its mix. "Fashion" was a reminiscent of Bowie's former single "Golden Years", with its mix of funk and reggae. It evolved out of a reggae "spoof" started by Clark on his synthesiser and features guitar "squeals" from Fripp. Apart from being a dance track, the song provokes elements of fascism, with lyrics such as "we are the goon squad"
Next was "Teenage Wildlife", the longest track on the album, is structurally similar to "'Heroes'" but does not feature a refrain; its verses only end with the title being sung over Fripp's guitar breaks. Its backing vocals are reminiscent of the Ronettes, while piano is provided by Roy Bittan. "Scream Like a Baby" features a contemporary new wave sound with lyrics of instability and political imprisonment, comparable with themes present on The Man Who Sold the World (1970). "Kingdom Come", Bowie's first cover on a studio album since Station to Station, is in the same key as Verlaine's original, but is more grand in style. On release, Bowie dedicated "Because You're Young" to his then nine-year-old son Duncan Jones. Lyrically, the song is similar to other Scary Monsters tracks, featuring Bowie reflecting and advising a younger generation. Townshend's contributions are placed low in the mix. The album ends with "It's No Game (No. 2)", which provides a stark contrast to "No. 1"; it features new lyrics and is more mellow and meditative throughout.
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