17th December - David Bowie's Hunky Dory

Artist – Album: David Bowie – Hunky Dory

Released: 17^th December 1971

Sounds Like: Getting the ball rolling 

For one of the most successful and influential artists in pop history, David Bowie didn’t half get off to a slow start. Although he scored a big hit in 1969 with ‘Space Oddity’, the Thin White Duke spent the following years being viewed as just a one hit wonder, a bit of an oddity himself. His next few albums, Space Oddity and The Man Who Fell to Earth, met with little fanfare and it was no surprise that Hunky Dory – despite hosting ‘Changes’ and ‘Life on Mars?’ for goodness sake – also came and went without much attention. Then, in ’72, came The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and suddenly the world was ready for super-Starman Bowie. Fans clamouring for more releases were sated when Bowie, in true Blue Peter-esque style, said “here’s one I made earlier” and Hunky Dory marched back up the charts.

It may not be anywhere near as cohesive as Ziggy Stardust, but the songwriting on display here is simply extraordinary. As well as the aforementioned ‘Changes’ and ‘Life on Mars?’, the eccentric pop of ‘Oh! You Pretty Things’, the glam rock of ‘Queen Bitch’ and the folky ‘Song for Bob Dylan’ are splendidly crafted songs. Even the apparently throwaway ‘Kooks’ is delightfully perfect. At times there is the sneaking suspicion that Bowie hadn’t yet  decided on which direction he wanted to take, and the two more experimental cuts ‘Quicksand’ and ‘The Bewlay Brothers’ do begin to drag a little bit, but it’s charming and novel to hear a rock icon figure things out.

Ziggy Stardust may have been the real catalyst for one of rock and pop’s greatest careers, but Hunky Dory showed the world just how much talent had lay dormant, waiting for people to catch on.

Albumaday... rating: 9/10

1.       Changes – 3:37

2.       Oh! You Pretty Things – 3:12

3.       Eight Line Poem – 2:55

4.       Life on Mars? – 3:53

5.       Kooks – 2:53

6.       Quicksand – 5:08

7.       Fill Your Heart – 3:07

8.       Andy Warhol – 3:56

9.       Song for Bob Dylan – 4:12

10.   Queen Bitch – 3:18

11.   The Bewlay Brothers – 5:22

Listen to ‘Life on Mars?’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v--IqqusnNQ

6th June - David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

Artist – Album: David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

Released:  6^th June 1972

Sounds Like: Bowie’s in space

So it was here that the David Bowie story really kicked off. True the Thin White Duke had scored a big hit with Space Oddity three years earlier, but by 1972 Bowie (aka Major Tom) was seen as something of a one-hit wonder, with his third and fourth albums, the rocky The Man Who Sold the World and the sublime Hunky Dory, barely registering on the public’s radar. Here though everything changed.

Here, the man sometimes known as Aladdin Sane drastically reinvented himself, dying his hair strikingly red and donning dramatic sparkly make up and tight jump suits. He opted for the glitzy, pop rock sound most notably practiced by T-Rex, festooned it to a loose narrative about an iconic alien named Ziggy, and invited the world to go mad for it. Which they did. Which is hardly surprising, given the strength of the songs on display: ‘Five Years’, ‘Moonage Daydream’, ‘Starman’, ‘Ziggy Stardust’ and ‘Suffragette City’. As glam rock became a worldwide sensation and Ziggy became a global mega star, the public revisited previous albums and were treated to the magisterial wonder of the likes of Life on Mars?

In the years that followed, the artist formerly known as Dave Jay went from strength to strength, releasing a string of impressive, arty records. None, however, could compare to this in terms of both influence and, more importantly, good fun. If you listen to just one glam rock concept album centred on the end of the world and the fate of an extravagant and androgynous alien rock star which singlehandedly changed the face of popular music today, make it this one.

Albumaday... rating: 9/10

1.       Five Years – 4:44

2.       Soul Love – 3:33

3.       Moonage Daydream – 4:35

4.       Starman – 4:13

5.       It Ain’t Easy – 3:00

6.       Lady Stardust – 3:20

7.       Star – 2:50

8.       Hang On to Yourself – 2:40

9.       Ziggy Stardust – 3:13

10.   Suffragette City – 3:25

11.   Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide – 3:00 

Listen to ‘Soul Love’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kx9o1idWrE

Also released on the 6^th June:

1967: Moby Grape – Moby Grape

Also released on the 6^th June:

1996: Belle & Sebastien – Tigermilk

Also released on the 6^th June:

2011: Battles – Gloss Drop

23rd Jan - David Bowie's Station to Station

Artist – Album: David Bowie – Station to Station

Released: 23^rd January 1976

Sounds Like: The Return of the Thin White Duke

A couple of years ago I was on a training session at my old work and, during a break from the double entry booking and various other accountancy dribble, one of the trainers, an immense Glaswegian ex-rugby player, asked us what our favourite albums were. We young pups bandied about various routine titles such as Revolver and Pet Sounds, which he swatted away like some weedy fly-half. The best album, he told us, is this undervalued Bowie effort; even better than a deep fried Mars bar, he almost certainly did not say. I took his word for it, banged the album on Spotify (once I’d got home that is), and was mightily impressed.

Before then I just used to think of David Bowie as the guy who gave us Space Oddity and Changes and other such fluff. That, and the bizarre musician-actor who played the Goblin King in 80’s cult movie Labyrinth. Station to Station was a revelation: it opens with the 10 minute, amorphous title track that flows from slow sound effect heavy introduction to the psychedelic stomp main to the glam rock ending – this was as far removed from the Star Man that I’d seen on repeats of Top of the Pops as possible.

The album retains this shifting temperament throughout, taking in disco (‘Golden Years’), art-rock (’TVC 15’) and soul balladry (‘Wild is the Wind’), with the only consistent being Bowie’s icy, robotic alter-ego The Thin White Duke. Although the delivery lacks warmth, his voice is still wrought with passion, and his band manage brilliantly to cope with the ever changing moods.

At the end of the day, this record may not be to everyone’s taste and you may not share mine and my mentor’s enthusiasm for it, but I promise you, at the very least, it’s one of the most interesting and arresting albums you're ever likely to hear.  

Albumaday... rating: 10/10

1.       Station to Station – 10:14

2.       Golden Years – 4:00

3.       Word on a Wing – 6:03

4.       TVC 15 – 5:33

5.       Stay – 6:15

6.       Wild Is the Wind – 6:02

Listen to ‘TVC 15’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTjsOzeIpc0

Also released on the 23^rd January:

2006: Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not

Also released on the 23^rd January:

2007: The Shins – Wincing the Night Away 

Also released on the 23^rd January:

2007: Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

14th Jan - David Bowie's Low

Artist – Album: David Bowie - Low

Released:  14^th January 1977

Sounds Like: Bowie & Eno, or Beano, withdraw

When I’m feeling low, I stick on some music, write a blog and eat some cheesy puffs (hint: I’m eating said crisps now and would really love a hug); When David Bowie’s down in the dumps, he gets together with his buddy Brian Eno and creates weird and atmospheric soundscapes.

Admittedly, Bowie was at a different place back then to me now (in his life that is, not that he was in Berlin and I’m in my flat in Salford). He was attempting to get himself off cocaine, and had moved to the capital of West Germany to escape the trappings of life in L.A. The feel of the album reflects a druggy come down – the first half is all snappy guitars and short tracks, while the second has calmed slightly and consists of eerie mood pieces. Bowie’s vocals drift in and out of the album, and are multilayered and strange, conjuring up abstract thoughts and images, before giving way completely to the avant garde instrumentals halfway through.

It’s hard to pick out individual tracks for special mention when it is the album as a whole that gives it it’s notoriety, but I feel I should mention ‘Sound and Vision’, which is the closest thing to contemporary music on the record. It’s chiming guitars and peppy bass contrast magnificently with Bowie’s murmured and paranoid lyrics, and it was my ringtone for a few years whilst I was at uni and trying to be cool.

In summation, Low is an initially challenging but beautiful listen, an enlightening capsule of Bowie trying to escape his Thin White Duke persona that rewards with perseverance and repeated use. And I would like somebody to give me a hug.

Albumaday... rating:   8/10

1.       Speed of Life – 2:46

2.       Breaking Glass – 1:52

3.       What in the World – 2:23

4.       Sound and Vision – 3:05

5.       Always Crashing in the Same Car – 3:33

6.       Be My Wife – 2:58

7.       A New Career in a New Town – 2:53

8.       Warszawa – 6:23

9.       Art Decade – 3:46

10.   Weeping Wall – 3:28

11.   Subterraneans – 5:39

Listen to ‘Sound and Vision’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IJsAuUgSgc

Also released on the 14^th January:

1972: Paul Simon – Paul Simon

Also released on the 14^th January:

2008: British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music?