The Student Playlist

Showcasing the Best New Music, Curating the Classics

FROM WORST TO BEST: David Bowie albums

  1. Hunky Dory (1971)

Having gradually made steps forward in the first five years of his career, David Bowie finally nailed it with his fourth album Hunky Dory. Putting themes of shifting sexual identity to the front for the first time, and toning down the hard rock of The Man Who Sold The World while bringing back some of colourful folk of his first couple of records, it is a kaleidoscopic collection of different pop styles that showcased Bowie’s songwriting, by now sharply honed.

The wealth of talent on display on Hunky Dory was embarrassing to every other artist out there in 1971, as Bowie drew on every influence he had absorbed and every lesson and knockback he had received. This time, his indecision about the kind of artist he wanted to be was turned into a strength rather than a weakness, the everything-all-at-once approach and ambiguous pansexuality of these arty songs appealing directly to a generation of youngsters confused about their own identities. The accessible pop of opener ‘Changes’, the first truly iconic song in Bowie’s career, put guitar to the background and played up Rick Wakeman’s piano, and this slight change held the key to the rest of this brilliant album.

So let’s just do the standouts: the singalong-dystopia of ‘Oh! You Pretty Things’, indebted in equal parts to Nietzsche and cabaret; the incredible Dadaist-infused torch song ‘Life On Mars?’; the adorable lullaby of ‘Kooks’ written for his baby son; the vaguely occultist themes and guitar layering on ‘Quicksand’; the dark acoustic ‘Andy Warhol’; the ludicrously kitsch rocker ‘Queen Bitch’… it was a blur of styles and studied posturing that would form the basic template of every subsequent great Bowie record, and yet it left the listener sure that its creator still had plenty of ground left to cover.

Arriving just six months before his star-marking Ziggy Stardust album, Hunky Dory essentially forms the first instalment in a ‘Ziggy trilogy’ of albums that all arrived within 18 months of each other.  Initially it was not a hit, with the album’s songs tending to be successes for other people rather than Bowie, but upon the success of Ziggy, Hunky Dory rocketed back into the charts and enjoyed the success it deserved, remaining in the charts for 69 weeks and hitting a peak of No.3. To this day, it remains a touchstone for every artist seeking to realign themselves in comparison to the mainstream, to reinterpret their pasts and point the way to the future. (LISTEN)

In his own words: 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.”

Highlights: ‘Changes’; ‘Oh! You Pretty Things’; ‘Life On Mars?’; ‘Queen Bitch’

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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