Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the great classics of the 70's, March 16, 2008
This was one of the earliest LP's I ever bought, and it has remained a firm favorite ever since. This 30th anniversary package works very well, adding several interesting additions on the second CD. It is remastered well, and if you're buying this to keep, this is a good version to go for. That all assumes you know the music already of course - if you do, but don't have the cd, this is a good copy to get.
What if you don't know the music? Well, this is my opinion....
Many discuss it in terms of its status as one of the great 'Glam Rock' records - and of course one only have to look at the cover, and listen to the songs to know that has some validity. However, thats not quite how it appeals to me...for me its the incredibly high level of creativity in Bowie, underlined by the superb guitar work of Mick Ronson, and the astonishing wide range of moods, volume, speeds and subjects in the songs. My personal favorites are Aladdin Sane (title track), Lady Grinning Soul, and Panic in Detroit - and in those three you have that wide range epitomized, the first a strange mixture of rock and melancholy (with a wild piano solo from Mike Garson), the second a gentler ballad that twists the knife in a romantic soul (and ends the album on a personal subject area), and then Panic in Detroit a rhythmically ingenious and punchy song that is clearly set in a social scene, supposedly based on Iggy Pop's memories from youth of urban revolutionaries - with fantastic guitar work by Mick Ronson.
Along with Ziggy Stardust, Hunky Dory, and Man Who Sold the World, these represent justifiably a critically acclaimed sequence of great albums from Bowie in the 70's - moving from style to style, but all revealing a truly creative artist. I personally like these more than any other of Bowie's. The more extreme the weirdness the greater the standards of the songs it seemed at the time (although Diamond Dogs seemed to break the chain a little).
Whether or not you can look in all seriousness at the androgynous Bowie dress and songs of this period...just listen to the songs themselves, they are great.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Half Rock, half futuristic Cabaret, August 16, 2008
This weird follow-up to Ziggy Stardust isn't really a rock album, with the exception of Watch That Man, The Prettiest Star, Cracked Actor and The Jean Genie, four classic rock numbers of which the latter was a prelude to punk with its short, sharp riffs and inherent aggression. Songs like Time, Aladdin Sane and Lady Grinning Soul are like futuristic torch songs, mostly bleak views of the future with slow arrangements over lounge piano arrangements. His cover of Let's Spend The Night Together is superfast, dispassionate and throwaway, not an exceptional addition to his body of work but rather a tribute to 1960s pop like his Pin Ups album. Although there Aladdin Sane contains some great songs, overall it is not one that invites repeated listening to the average rock music fan apart from the aforementioned songs like The Jean Genie and The Prettiest Star. It's a work of interesting experimentation in both the lyrics and the music and quite valuable on that level, but perhaps too stylistically weird. That's why so few tracks from Aladdin Sane ever make it onto Bowie compilation albums.
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