release date: Dec. 17, 1971
format: cd (2007 remaster)
[album rate: 4,5 / 5] [4,28]
producer: Ken Scott
label: EMI Japan - nationality: England, UK
Tracklist: 1. "Changes" (5 / 5) - 2. "Oh! You Pretty Things" (4 / 5) - 3. "Eight Line Poem" - 4. "Life on Mars?" (5 / 5) - 5. "Kooks" (3,5 / 5) - 6. "Quicksand" (4 / 5) - 7. "Fill Your Heart" - 8. "Andy Warhol" - 9. "Song for Bob Dylan" - 10. "Queen Bitch" (4 / 5) - 11. "The Bewlay Brothers" (4 / 5)
4th studio album by David Bowie, who is also credited as assistant producer, is Bowie's first album on RCA Victor. The album signals a new beginning - and is by many considered his first major album, as it's his first actual art rock and glam rock album, which in a way combines his strengths as pop singer and artsy psychedelic pop performer in a new shape of art and glam. Here, one will hear inspiration from Dylan, The Velvet Underground as well as the old British baroque pop and the new extravagant glam rock as embodied by Marc Bolan. The album has been lauded, not only as one of Bowie's best, but also one of the best pop / rock albums of modern ages. Time (magazine) includes the album in its "All-Time 100 Albums" list, and it appears on many such best of lists. The album is naturally included in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die", and it was Bowie's first commercial success as it went as high as to number #3 on the national albums chart list.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 5 / 5 stars ]
