HUNKY DORY

Even though I've later on developed a bigger crush with other Bowie albums, this release will always keep the honorary position of being the one that started it all. Side one is just flawless, featuring such well established classics like Changes, Oh! You Pretty Things and Life On Mars?. Unlike The Man Who Sold The World, which showed that Bowie was still struggling to find a direction, Hunky Dory feels like a very competent album that shows off all the best sides of the artist's repertoire and leaves very little room for improvement. This type of an overnight transformation is highly unusually and primerally shows the raw talent that David Bowie had in him. This talent would eventually be put to even greater use after the whole Ziggy Stardust craze died down and people began to acknowledge Bowie for his versatile artistry.

Side two of Hunky Dory might not be as strong as the first but I honestly didn't care much about it back in the day. This concern has only became apparent to me in the last few years where I started to question this album's high status in my collection. The two last songs, titled Queen Bitch and The Bewlay Brothers, are just not on par with everything that comes before them. But after revisiting Hunky Dory earlier today I was once again convinced that my love for this release is just as strong as ever and therefore there is no way that I'll back down from awarding it the highest honor of the essential rating!

Even if you dismiss this review as just another crazy fan rant, I still would recommend that you'll at least give Hunky Dory a visit since it definitely needs to be heard by more people. It might not be Bowie's artistic peak in terms of Art Rock but musically this is easily among his best performances both as a composer and performer.

***** star songs: Changes (3:34) Oh! You Pretty Things (3:12) Eight Line Poem (2:53) Life On Mars? (3:49) Kooks (2:49) Fill Your Heart (3:07) Andy Warhol (3:53)

**** star songs: Quicksand (5:04) Song For Bob Dylan (4:12) Queen Bitch (3:14) The Bewlay Brothers (5:22)

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