I think it took me a while to get to this review not because I didn’t know how I felt about this album, but rather I didn’t know what was left to say about the late, great David Bowie and, subsequently, one of the greatest rock albums of all time. It’s easy to see why this album is responsible for catapulting Bowie into the stratosphere. Despite being relatively short, it feels massive in scale, incorporating strings and brass over the ever consistent piano work of Rick Wakeman and catchy guitar work of Mick Ronson. The music is punk at times, folk at others, classical in some places, but wholly blues and rock ‘n roll all over. Bowie’s voice completely covers the spectrum, perfectly biting, crooning, and screaming where the music emotionally requires it. This album is what happens when an creator has a vision, and executes it flawlessly.
Like quite a few of the artists on this list, I found myself getting into Bowie fairly late in life, first learning of his mythological status from shows like the Venture Brothers and the admiration of his work from my friends, and then later gaining an appreciation for his work through the exhibit of his art and life in David Bowie Is… It wasn’t until recent years, however, that I finally began actually digging into his music and coming to realize how brilliant a lot of it is. Of the albums of his that I’ve spun, this one might be my favorite. Every single song on it is an earworm, something you only need to hear once to be able to recognize later. Listening to it, it’s easy to see how this album inspired so many of the modern concept albums (The Black Parade, Coheed and Cambria) that would follow. But I think the most important part of this album is that it feels defining. This is an album that helped and continues to help so many young people find themselves. It’s urgently reassuring, an album where the artist had something to say and he’s still reaching out through his music to say it directly to you. That alone would be a reason for it to be considered a classic, but on a less contextual level it’s simply a collection of 11 timeless rock songs.
My Rating: 5/5
The Word and The Song 