Album of the day - David Bowie (Hunky Dory)

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BlueHammer85

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Hunky Dory is the fourth album by English singer-songwriter David Bowie, recorded in mid-1971 and released by RCA Records that December.

It was his first release through RCA, which would be his label for the next decade. Hunky Dory has been described by AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine as having "a kaleidoscopic array of pop styles, tied together only by Bowie's sense of vision: a sweeping, cinematic mélange of high and low art, ambiguous sexuality, kitsch, and class".

The album has received critical acclaim since its release, and is regarded as one of the artist's best works. Time chose it as part of their "100 best albums of all time" list in January 2010, with journalist Josh Tyrangiel praising Bowie's "earthbound ambition to be a boho poet with prodigal style". The style of the album cover, designed by George Underwood, was influenced by a Marlene Dietrich photo book that Bowie took with him to the photo shoot

1. Changes
2. Oh! You Pretty Things
3. Eight Line Poem
4. Life On Mars?
5. Kooks
6. Quicksand
7. Fill Your Heart
8. Andy Warhol
9. Song For Bob Dylan
10. Queen woman
11. The Bewlay Brothers


I cheated the system with this Album in memory of Bowie and pushed it to the front of the que, It's fair to say this could be his finest work , not quite the superstar he was yet to become, this was experimentation on a whole new level for pop music - The first 4 tracks are masterpieces, 'Cha Cha Cha Changes' eases the listener in, followed by 'Oh You Pretty Things' - wonderful piano, lyrics and a great sing-along chorus, This paves the way for the weird 'Eight line Poem' which acts as a bridge between the two jewels - 'Life on Mars' simply one of the greatest songs ever - Genius and obscure lyrics, wonderful voice and melodies, and Mick Ronson's orchestral arrangements at the climax. 'Kooks' follows, a light but nice catchy song. 'Quicksand' i should also mention as one his best tracks, although not known as much, its melody, lyrics and strings are beautiful - the rest is more psychedelic ; Bowie tributes few extra tracks to Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol and Lou Reed inspired 'Queen woman' , i didn't quite warm to these. Overall its fair to say this is one of the greatest albums ever by the most influential musician of his generation yet this is Bowie without stardom and only these songs became hits after he hit fame.

9.4/10


 
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It's a great album and certainly the most varied of his early period.

The quartet of albums he did from Man Who Sold The World through to Aladdin Sane are all brilliant, IMO. Hunky Dory is my least favourite of the four as it is the least rocky but there's little to choose between them. He had greater commercial peaks and some point, with justification, to Heroes and Low as artist high points but MWSTW, Hunky Dory, Ziggy & Aladdin are Bowie's best works and represent the kind of high quality consecutive output that few pop/ rock musician can claim to have matched.

In short, if you don't own Hunky Dory, you should.
 
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