10 – ‘The Next Day‘ – (2013, Columbia, Bowie & Visconti)
27th (!!!) studio album by David Bowie, and the first to feature new material in ten years. Following the unexpected release of the single ‘Where Are We Now?’ on Bowie’s 66th birthday, the album features 14 brand new tracks. The cover art for the album is an adapted version of Bowie’s 1977 album ‘Heroes’.
‘The Next Day’Â was nominated for the 2013 Mercury Prize, Best Rock Album at the 2014 Grammy Awards and for MasterCard British Album of the Year at the 2014 BRIT Awards.
9 – ‘The Man Who Sold The World‘ – (1970, Mercury, Visconti)
The first classic Bowie album, the start for an incredible career, have awesome guitars all over the album thanks to Mick Ronson. All of the songs are originals in their sound, which contributes for an inspired an homogeneous album.
The album was also known for being Bowie’s first with the nucleus of what would become the ‘Spiders from Mars’, the backing band made famous by ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’.
This album, poorly known, was rediscovered after more than 20 years through a classical cover by Nirvana.
8 – ‘Diamond Dogs‘ – (1974, RCA, Bowie)
The eight album by David Bowie, ‘Diamond Dogs’, is a concept album released in 1974 (Â after the ‘retirement’ of Ziggy Stardust in mid-1973), however Ziggy was seen to be still very much alive in the album, as evident from Bowie’s haircut on the cover and the glam-trash style of the first single ‘Rebel Rebel’.
Diamond Dogs‘ raw guitar style and visions of urban chaos, helped boost it to No. 1 in the UK charts and No. 5 in the US (where the song ‘Rebel Rebel’ proved to be popular), it was Bowie’s highest stateside placing to that date.
7 – ‘Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)‘ – (1980, RCA Records, Bowie & Visconti)
The first album following David Bowie Berlin Trilogy (‘Low’, ‘Heroes’ and ‘Lodger’), was more successful commercially than its previous three albums, thanks to songs like ‘Ashes to Ashes’ and ‘Fashion’.
Though it doesn’t have the vision of his other classic records, it was his last great album (until 2013!)
6 – ‘Heroes‘ – (1977, RCA, Bowie & Visconti)
The second album from David Bowie ‘Berlin Trilogy’, was released in 1977 and its the only one really recorded in Berlin. The title track remains one of Bowie’s best known, a classic story of two lovers who meet at the Berlin Wall. The album is considered one of his best by critics, notably for the contributions of guitarist Robert Fripp who flew in from the US to record his parts in one day. It was named NME Album of the Year.
What makes this album unforgettable are also other songs like the aggressive ‘Beauty and The Beast’, and ‘Joe The Lion’ as well the disturbing ‘Sons of the Silent Age’.
5 – ‘Station to Station‘ – (1976, RCA, Bowie & Maslin)
‘Station to Station’ was the vehicle for the introduction of his last great character, The Thin White Duke. During the sessions Bowie was heavily dependent on drugs, especially cocaine, and recalls almost nothing of the production.
‘Station to Station’ is one of Bowie’s most accessible albums, preceded by the single ‘Golden Years’, it made the top five in both the UK and US charts. In 2003, the album was ranked No. 323 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
4 – ‘Low‘ – (1977, RCA, Bowie & Visconti)
The first of the legendary ‘Berlin Trilogy’ has a troubled atmosphere reflected Bowie’s mental state at the time. In a effort to put the things into normal again, Bowie went to Berlin with his old friend Iggy Pop.
This experimental classic pop album, with songs like the breathtaking ‘What in the World’, the single ‘Sound and Vision’ and ‘A New Career in a New Town’, was a lead for the post-punk era, especially for Joy Division, who were originally known as Warsaw, named after the depressed ‘Warszawa’.
3 – ‘Aladdin Sane‘ – (1973, RCA, Bowie & Scott)
The name of the album is a pun on ‘A Lad Insane’. Although technically a new Bowie ‘character’, Aladdin Sane was essentially a development of Ziggy Stardust in his appearance and persona.
With the appearance of the amazing pianist Mike Garson, ‘Aladdin Sane’ is a peak in Bowie-Ronson collaboration. An nearly perfect album, from the sublime ballads of ‘Drive In Saturday’ and ‘The Prettiest Star’ , the delusions of ‘Panic in Detroit’ and the cover of the Rolling Stones ‘Let’s Spend the Night Together’.
And best of all, ‘The Jean Genie’, one of the best singles of all time!
2 – ‘Hunky Dory‘ – (1971, RCA, Bowie & Scott)
A step forward in what Bowie had achieved before in ‘The Man Who Sold The World’. ‘ Hunky Dory’ is filled with exceptional songs, like the magnificent ‘Life on Mars’, ‘Oh! You Pretty Things’. Also includes folk songs like ‘Quicksand’ and homages to Warhol and Dylan with ‘Andy Warhol’ and ‘Songs for Bob Dylan’.
The album has received critical acclaim since its release, regarded as one of the artist’s best works.
In 1998, Q magazine readers voted ‘Hunky Dory’ the 43rd greatest album of all time, while in 2000 the same magazine placed it at #16 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2003, the album was ranked #107 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In the same year, VH1 placed it at #47 and ranked #80 on Pitchfork Media’s Top 100 Albums of the 1970s. In 2006, TIME magazine chose it as one of the 100 best albums of all time.
Bowie himself considers the album to be one of the most important in his career. Speaking in 1999, he said: ‘Hunky Dory gave me a fabulous groundswell. I guess it provided me, for the first time in my life, with an actual audience – I mean, people actually coming up to me and saying, ‘Good album, good songs.’ That hadn’t happened to me before. It was like, ‘Ah, I’m getting it, I’m finding my feet. I’m starting to communicate what I want to do. Now: what is it I want to do?’ There was always a double whammy there.’
1 – ‘The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars‘ – (1972, RCA, Bowie & Scott)
There are so many stages on Bowie’s sound, there are so many characters created, but Ziggy Stardust is undoubtedly the biggest character (alter ego) ever created by David Bowie, the most interesting phase of the Chameleon.
‘The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars’ is a concept album that tells the story of an alien who comes to Earth with a message of hope (presumably because the Earth only has 5 years of life). Spiders from Mars, composed by bassist Trevor Bolder, drummer Mick Woodmansey and guitarist Mick Ronson, would become a rock band with great success.
Everything is exceptional on this album (the voice of Bowie, Ronson’s guitar, the production of Scott/Bowie), almost all the songs are classics: the successes ‘Starman’, ‘Ziggy Stardust’ and ‘Suffragette City’ the mythic ‘Five Years’ or ‘Rock’n’Roll Suicide’, this is what you might call an album without a weak spot, perfect!
