The Student Playlist

Showcasing the Best New Music, Curating the Classics

FROM WORST TO BEST: David Bowie albums

  1. Station To Station (1976)

Of all his legendary personas, the Thin White Duke from Bowie’s tenth album Station To Station was closest to the person that Bowie really was at the time: deeply paranoid, ‘in a state of psychic terror’ according to biographer David Buckley, subsisting on a diet of red peppers and milk, combined with an astronomic cocaine habit and alleged dabbling in the occult on top of devouring the works of Nietzsche and Aleister Crowley. His personal life was in tumult after two years spent in New York and then L.A., and his marriage to Angie had more or less completely collapsed.

The mask frequently slips on Station To Station and Bowie is revealed to be in the depths of depression, coping with the pressures of his now transatlantic fame and constant touring, finding strange new outlets for those stresses. Somehow, he pulled it all together to make an album of brooding, intensely paranoid epics that also managed to be danceable, in parts.

The Thin White Duke – an emotionless Aryan superman singing songs of romance with agonised intensity but who feels nothing inside – introduces himself on the spectacular opening title track. ‘Station To Station’ is rarely heard because of its 10-minute, segmented length, but it serves as a microcosm for his entire ethos on this album, starting as piece of harsh, austere krautrock before unfurling into a weird Germanic funk compound. The sense of emotional distance continues throughout the album, even when Bowie achingly searches for salvation and rescue on ‘Word On A Wing’ and ‘Wild Is The Wind’. His haunted, hunted take on the latter is regularly heralded as one of his most intense vocal performances of his career.

Station To Station also saw Bowie cement the backing band that would accompany him through his second golden age in the ‘70s. In many ways, it is another example of a transition album, with one foot in the funk and disco of Young Americans – see the stiff yet unmistakably dance-oriented hit single ‘Golden Years’ or the string-laden / krautrock formation on ‘TVC15’ – and the other hinting at the legendary ‘Berlin trilogy’ that was just around the corner. However, it is worth treasuring Station To Station in its own right – it’s a quite remarkable record. (LISTEN)

In his own words: Station To Station was devoid of spirit. Even the love songs are detached, but I think it’s fascinating. [They were] the darkest days of my life… I’m sure that it was a call for help.”

Highlights: ‘Station To Station’; ‘Word On A Wing’; ‘Golden Years’; ‘Wild Is The Wind’

1 Discussion on “FROM WORST TO BEST: David Bowie albums”
  • Nice work. This is the only Worst to Best I’ve seen that gets the top four right. And yes, any one of them could be #1. Cheers.

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