Judging by what you see on the internet at least, Bowie rankings are pretty varied and diverse, it turns out. The BEA aggregate rankings put Aladdin Sane at #8, which seems almost weird to me, and Hunky Dory — which doesn't even crack my Top Ten — at #2. Presumably most people here have Ziggy as their favorite Bowie album, but it's hardly a universal thing.
I worked with a guy once whose favorite album ever, by anyone, was Black Tie White Noise, which most other Bowie fans (including me, I suppose) would almost rather forget ever existed. (As if it's Tin Machine III, which I guess it almost was.) So I says to him, "that's kind of an unusual choice, actually," since after all my own favorite album is considered XTC's worst by most people. But he just looks at me like I'm from Outer Space and says, "have you ever heard it?" And I say, "yeah, of course, I've heard all the Bowie albums, multiple times," and he says, "well, I don't think you've heard it," and after that we changed the subject and never spoke of it again. Since then I've put it on maybe once every 3 or 4 years, thinking maybe it really is underrated, but ehh, not by much!
In case anyone's interested my Bowie Top Ten (at the moment) is something like (1) Aladdin Sane, (2) Station to Station, (3) Ziggy, (4) Low, (5) Heroes, (6) Scary Monsters, (7) The Next Day, (8 ) Lodger, (9) Heathen, (10) Diamond Dogs. And those last 5 I like almost equally, if I'm being honest. (Which I never am.)
In case anyone's interested my Bowie Top Ten (at the moment) is something like (1) Aladdin Sane, (2) Station to Station, (3) Ziggy, (4) Low, (5) Heroes, (6) Scary Monsters, (7) The Next Day, (8 ) Lodger, (9) Heathen, (10) Diamond Dogs. And those last 5 I like almost equally, if I'm being honest. (Which I never am.)
think my top 10 would be
1. Station to Station - numero uno in my overall top 100 no less!
2. Hunky Dory
3. Ziggy
4. Let's Dance (Yeah, really!)
5. Young Americans
6. Heathen
7. Low
8. The Next Day
9. Heroes
10. Diamond Dogs
Honorable Mention - Blackstar
I find this a hard track to define and I love it. Very experimental heading into discordant jazz piano as the centre piece of the song. I’ve heard the piano piece described as being a kin to Cecil Taylor, which I completely get.
It’s a very dramatic piece of work throughout. I wish that I could write more but I find it very hard to quantity the track, which is a good thing. Maybe it defines description. Maybe others on here can do better
think my top 10 would be
1. Station to Station - numero uno in my overall top 100 no less!
2. Hunky Dory
3. Ziggy
4. Let's Dance (Yeah, really!)
5. Young Americans
6. Heathen
7. Low
8. The Next Day
9. Heroes
10. Diamond Dogs
Honorable Mention - Blackstar
I'm with you on let's Dance. I think that both the track and the album are great.
I'm with you on pretty much the whole list although, now that I'm giving Aladdin Sane more of a chance, I'm rather loving it.
Has a bit of a live recording feel to the track. Very much A classic sounding Bowie track and I really like it. I remember hearing this on its release and really loving the sound. That hasn’t changed over the years and it’s still one of Bowie’s finest compositions.
Great, almost bluesy guitar intro from Mick Ronson but after that the track really doesn’t grab me. It’s a decent track but a little non-descript for me.
I’ll be honest, I really don’t have anymore to add about this track. Leaves me rather cold TBH
Quite enjoy Panic in Detroit, one of my favs on the album (but definitely a minority view looking at stats). Played this earlier through a semi-decent sound system (following along to this thread in the background), and just now on my laptop to remind me of it and amazed at how different the sonic experience was. Love the rhythm, bassline and vocals on this.
Quite enjoy Panic in Detroit, one of my favs on the album (but definitely a minority view looking at stats).
I suspect that's because the "Panic in Detroit people" are more like me, in that they almost never rate individual tracks. It's mostly the "Jean Genie People" who do that. 🫠
It's probably my second-favorite song on the LP (behind the title track). One thing that might be worth mentioning is that Bowie didn't use a lot of female backup singers on his albums, because he'd record demos of everything and then not want to deviate from them (a lot of solo artists who perform mostly their own stuff are like that). So, he'd have to be cajoled by his producers into having backup singers, and for Aladdin Sane he had two of the best in the business, Juanita Franklin and Linda Lewis, who had a huge positive impact on this track and "Watch That Man," but hardly any others. It's similar to the situation with Heathen, when he had (or at least had access to) Kristeen Young, who was making her own album in the same studio with the same producer (Tony Visconti) at the same time. But despite her being one of the finest female singers alive, and right there in the same studio, Bowie had her do almost no backup vocals at all, just some piano. Though juyst as an aside, he did also record a duet with her called "Saviour" for her album (Breasticles), but I might not even have noticed that if it hadn't been for this thread, since of course I never, ever use the internet to look up words like "breasticles." Or "saviour," for that matter. Because, you know, I prefer the American spellings.
I suspect that's because the "Panic in Detroit people" are more like me, in that they almost never rate individual tracks. It's mostly the "Jean Genie People" who do that. 🫠
It's probably my second-favorite song on the LP (behind the title track). One thing that might be worth mentioning is that Bowie didn't use a lot of female backup singers on his albums, because he'd record demos of everything and then not want to deviate from them(a lot of solo artists who perform mostly their own stuff are like that). So, he'd have to be cajoled by his producers into having backup singers, and for Aladdin Sane he had two of the best in the business, Juanita Franklin and Linda Lewis, who had a huge positive impact on this track and "Watch That Man," but hardly any others. It's similar to the situation with Heathen, when he had (or at least had access to) Kristeen Young, who was making her own album in the same studio with the same producer (Tony Visconti) at the same time. But despite her being one of the finest female singers alive, and right there in the same studio, Bowie had her do almost no backup vocals at all, just some piano. Though juyst as an aside, he did also record a duet with her called "Saviour" for her album (Breasticles), but I might not even have noticed that if it hadn't been for this thread, since of course I never, ever use the internet to look up words like "breasticles." Or "saviour," for that matter. Because, you know, I prefer the American spellings.
I've heard that said a lot about Bowie and I get it. It's your "baby" and your probably rather precious about it's sound. Most things though are better in collaboration so glad that he acquiesced in the end.
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