Hunky Dory

After doing a deep dive on Bowie recently but never sitting down to listen to Hunky Dory, it was like learning about a superhero origin story for the first time While I think there's a few skips on this, this is square one for Bowie with greatness to follow

Life on Mars? Probably my first introduction to Bowie. Perfect album

I would never bother trying to rank a top 20 albums ever, because it would be a moot point. But this is one that would make it in immediately. Take note, kings of leon: you can have two albums generate in two weeks if you don't suck. It's sort of amazing listening to “Changes” now. It sounds like it was always a dusty nostalgia, like the first time you heard it was like finding an old photo album. Maybe it's because it goes from that almost motown sax riff to its ballad piano and into that soft focus rock chorus. It's a song that both finds strength in the change as well as looking back a bit at the inevitability… absolutely a warning to future generations that change is coming, like it or not, but also a warning to himself. It's sort of a marvel. But there are marvels throughout this album. “Quicksand” is no less philosophical, but also more emotional. Absolutely the underrated gem here. “Life on Mars” is no less catchy, even without the ch-ch-ch hook. It's such a theatrical setpiece, and it is flawless in a way that makes you need to hear the entirety of the musical it should come from. Arguably this is that musical. But while there are certainly big important pieces, from the eerie sci-fi threaded through Oh You Pretty Things to the shaggy mod punk of Queen Bitch, the latter of which spawned a thousand piss poor replicas (Mr Brightside is just Queen Bitch for people who hate music), it's the weirdness in the middle that makes this so good. How can a track like “Eight Line Poem” manage to feel so emotive (I mean, probably the pedal steel)? We have a double whammy of tribute songs, one that manages to capture Andy Warhol without being derivative like he himself was, another which is far more fan-service, far more worshipful, but manages to capture a certain truth of the Dylan sound. You can hear Bob sing along if you try, in your mind's eye. There's a duo of songs (“kooks” and “fill your heart”) which feel like they were stolen from gnomes, the former a hedonistic welcome to folks who don't fit in, the latter a jovial “the dark can't get you if you live in love” tapdance of a song, something that feels as radical as ever in today's era. Forget your mind and you'll be free. And then there is the Bewlay Brothers, part folk song, part psychedelia, and a sharp turn into what definitely appears to be a horde of Ogres marching past singing their working songs. There's an ominous vibe throughout, but also a puckish literarianism as Bowie plays with rhyme and rhythm and alliteration, managing to sing something like “we were so turned on at the mind warp pavilion” and let it hang there on this aching note. It gets weird for weirdness’ sake, but never anything but listenable. And that's sort of the magic here… there is so much going on, so many shifts in mood, so much music that goes from deep and serious to wildly playful… and it feels complete, perfectly complete. This album is absolutely part of what made me fall in love with music. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Andy Warhol got that Crazy Bus type beat

#126 Fantastic album. Melodic, grandiose, and full of great songwriting. It's Bowie at his best. Highlights: Life On Mars, Oh! You Pretty Things, Changes, Quicksand, The Bewlay Brothers

Fuck yeah bro

This is a really cool, quirky album. Life on Mars has been one of my favourites for years and I knew Changes and Oh You Pretty Thing, but the rest was unknown for me. Eight Line Poem is a gorgeous track that has some really nice guitar and piano work. Kooks and Andy Warhol are pretty fun and the other tracks are equally as good. Not quite Ziggy Stardust but a solid album. 3.5/5.

The List Maker unfortunately pushed so many Bowie and Bowie-adjacent selections onto the 1001 list that it had the unintended, reverse effect on me. I am left supremely disinterested in this man’s music, apart from some key songs. Well, this album happens to contain two of those songs: the well-crafted and intriguing “Is There Life on Mars?” and “Andy Warhol.” This is one of two Bowie albums that belongs on the list. But alas, I’m Bowied out.

Bowie is the greatest star of all time, but only having three songs that I will die for does not constitute a "classic" in my book.

The one that (for me) started it all. But, only a couple of songs echo after all these years.

A very accomplished record. It’s fun, vibrant and showcases a lot of what Bowie can do. Mostly piano led with a few acoustic tracks and a couple of up tempo rockers but feels like a really complete album. The hooks are great and kept me coming back to listen multiple times.

Very happy to have another Bowie pop up on here already. I honestly don’t return to this one often, so it was nice to do so for the first time in a while. Better stuff comes later in his career, but this is still incredible.

...and here we can observe Bowie in the process of becoming Bowie...

Out of all the David Bowie albums I have listened to, this one was the weakest. I still did like it though. The songs are very fun for sure. I'm a bit sleepy right now

To me this is the most English sounding David Bowie album made in his whole carreer. I features some stellar songs like Life on Mars?, Changes, Oh you pretty things, Queen bitch and deepest of deep cuts The Bewley brothers. Bowie also started to explore new paths in a more rock sound on this album which eventualy led to next album Ziggy Stardust. Hunky dory is a milestone in Bowie's carreer with Life on Mars? being one of his best songs ever.

Oh, this is weird. I like it. Changes was familiar, everything else was a first listen to the best of my knowledge.

This is a really good album. I love the sound of it. But all the best songs are right at the start and then the rest of it feels like filler. The album would nearly work better if the first songs were worse and then it would feel balanced. But the start of this album is so damn good it makes the rest of it look bad. I could listen to the hits from this album on repeat for hours. So, great songs but as an album it’s not absolutely amazing.

Working towards Ziggy Stardust

This is probably better than two stars, but I’ve just been assigned so much Bowie lately.

Cool eclectic mix of tracks. Feels like the soundtrack to a cabaret or variety show.

Not my favorite Bowie album but still a fun one

Woops. Forgot to review this yesterday when I finished listening so I had to listen to it again. Possibly Bowie at his absolute peak, but I'll accept arguments otherwise.

Have I listened to this album before No How familiar am I with this album Pretty familiar How do I feel about this artist? Love Bowie Pre-Listen Thoughts: I had to pause this for a week because work was too much, this is a great one to come back to. Favorite track(s): Changes, Andy Warhol Post-Listen Thoughts: Great Bowie album, but not quite a five. Fun listen, but I like his later stuff a bit more.

If asked what's my favourite Bowie's album, depending on the day, I would hesitate among Ziggy, Low, Heroes and this one... Some songs here are outstanding (Changes, Life on Mars?, Queen Bitch), all others are very very good...

One of the best Bowie albums. In fact, you could make a good argument as it being his best. Awesome album.

Bowie has always been an artist I battle to understand entirely creatively. I suppose he himself didn’t know either during all the drug escapades he endeavored over the course of his career. Again, He knows how to make hits, but this isn’t one of those albums for me that fully “clicks” outside of the top tracks. The highs are fun, but the lows are quite the slog. I’ve always felt like he’s either got a masterpiece of a song or something borderline unlistenable / unreplayable. There’s no middle ground when I listen to him. Aladdin Sane and Ziggy easily clear this record. Underated Fav: The Belway Bros

My personal Bowie favorite it’s got rock and roll it’s got ballads it’s got Life on Mars. It starts so strongly. Changes is one of more powerful Bowie songs. Follow along with the Bass you’ll see the power of musical intention. I also have a rule that if the first 4 tracks are good then the album is awesome. The record lulls in the beginning yet it still ends so strong. The belway brothers is good I mean this is classic Bowie and where he found his sound and made it great!

Perfect god damn amazing stone cold classic no notes 10/10. Bowie becomes Bowie here.

You can hear different pastiches of different bands and styles (Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Velvet Underground), but he puts his own Bowie twang on it. Not sure if original but definitely enjoyable. 4/5

awesome album

3-/5

Great album with some masterpiece rocksongs

Is Kooks the loveliest song ever written about becoming a dad? (Bonus points for a 24-year-old Bowie calling himself 'this old fool'.) And it's not even the best tracks on this brilliant album.

Life on Mars.

Artsy and interesting

Lots of piano and sax. I liked Heros better but this was still good.

Sometimes legends are legends for a reason and David Bowie is no exception. Simultaneously achingly tender and breathtakingly punchy, I had a great time with this! "Life on Mars?" is the obvious highlight, but everything on here is very solid, made all the better by Bowie's versatile and theatrical vocals.

Naja

I like this one better, but I think ultimately I will never be a super fan.

Another ould favourite

Might be a high rating, this is very uneven. 4 brilliant songs and a couple of almost good tries and some dross. But I love it. LOVE IT

you're joking me!! a third bowie this week?!? haunted by old randomness & computation profs, I did the math and the odds of this specific scenario happening were 0.00004%!! 1 in 2.5 million!! need to go get a lottery ticket!

8.0

✅️ STILL BANGS HARD Fav tracks: Oh! You Pretty Things Life on Mars? Andy Warhol The Bewlay Brothers

It's a good David Bowie album but clearly not the best. Even tho I find it a bit overrated I can see why some people would love it

4.6/5 uplifting

Awesome Bowie album and my 2nd favorite to Ziggy Stardust. This is when he starts to put it all together imo. I love the bass line on "Changes." It was one of the first complicated songs I could play from memory. I didn't realize till now that those were the first notes anyone ever heard from Trevor Bolder and that blew my mind. He's one of my top handful of favorite bassists and love the way he plays. "Life on Mars" is one of the greatest songs ever & love the Portuguese version by Seu Jorge in 'Life Aquatic.' Same movie... the ending slo-mo and walk out with the crew final ending to "Queen Bitch" is one of my favorite movie soundtrack moments.

Lots of really cool tracks. I like Andy Warhol a lot, among others. Maybe my favorite Bowie album overall. :) :)

Gran gran álbum. Una magia para hacer canciones tiene Bowie que es inexplicable. Son épicas, son simples, son perfectas. Dificil que no te guste un tema de este álbum. 8/10

그저 그런 느낌의 그렇다고 안 좋지도 않은 앨범이었다. It was an album that felt just average—though not bad, either.

Alternative rock Bowie is great.

Not a bad album but definitely not my favorite Bowie album. There are overall a nice variety of music and his vocals are excellent, it just doesn't have the extra grandeur of his later albums. In my opinion at least. This is still an album that I will put on from time to time if the mood strikes me.

I think I might like the concept of David Bowie more than his actual music. Like, he's a tremendous artist with insane showmanship and massive talent, both as a musician and as an actor, and his cultural significance could not be overstated. But the music on this album is not the best of Bowie. Nothing is bad here, this is still very high quality music, but apart from a few songs (most notably "Life on Mars?", which is one of the best song ever composed), the tracks on this album don't really do anything for me, they kinda sound like filler. "Changes" kind of annoys me too, I guess I listened to it too much. Still great, but not really something I would revisit, outside of a few chosen ones that managed to intrigue me (that song about Andy Warhol is weirdly catchy).

Easy listening Bowie album. Sounds almost like the Beatles at times. Great performances. Might be my favorite of his I’ve heard so far. 4.1/5.0

I like life on mars a lot

Now this is a good Bowie album unlike several on this project. 4 stars or B+.

This album is full of whimsy and fun.

5th, of 9, David Bowie albums I've gotten (and 2nd in my last 3 album pulls) and the first one I would consider a classic compared to the other ones. The album opens with one of my favorite songs of all time, Changes, but I've had albums start strong and then fizzle so that doesn't mean anything. Happy to say that while the songs after Changes vary in quality, especially when compared to the opener, the rest of the album is incredibly enjoyable. I really enjoyed songs like "Oh! You Pretty Things," "Life on Mars," "Song for Bob Dylan," and "Queen Bitch." 5 albums into his collection in this experience and this is my favorite album of his I've gotten (and I've yet to get Ziggy Stardust). 4/5

It has been quite the long ride with David Bowie being 9 albums and Hunky Dory is a great way to close it off because it is an amazing album. This album is the earliest of the Bowie albums on the list and it shows as it has quite a bit of the stuff that would go on to influence a lot of his later albums. This album also has songs that are tributed to a lot of real people and i think that is really interesting and the songs absolutely do fit what they are going for. The music in general here is just really great as for Bowie's vocals. There really isn't anything i can complain about when it comes to this album so it's definitely one of Bowie's best works. Best Song: Oh! You Pretty Things Worst Song: Song for Bob Dylan Side note: Last David Bowie album which means: 1. Low 2. The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars 3. Hunky Dory 4. Blackstar 5. Aladdin Sane 6. Young Americans 7. Heroes 8. Station To Station 9. The Next Day

I love this album.

🎭🎭🎭🎭

4.5/5

i wasn't all that enamored with this record. it felt like beyond one track or another, this mostly went in one ear and out the other. workmanlike, but ultimately doesn't hit me. maybe i wasn't in the mood for it. oh well! ooh fear my first time listens, so scary 🎃👻

A great Bowie album with some stand out tracks, just one of his weaker overall albums 4/4.5

Very normalized version of David Bowie. I think this album is ten to fifteen years ahead of when it came out. Listened to it three times today and enjoyed it each time. 7.5/10 Top song... Queen Bitch

Maybe a four and a half. The great songs are great, the rest are pretty good. “Changes”, “Life on Mars”, “Oh! You Pretty Things”, “Kooks” and “Queen Bitch” it’s awfully close to a five, but not quite there for me.

No-one ever talks about how Queen Bitch inspired Mr Brightside, but they share their jealous voyeurism, and there are obvious similarities between Bowie's lines "and I'm phoning a cab/'Cause my stomach feels small/There's a taste in my mouth" and The Killers' "she's calling a cab/While he's having a smoke and she's taking a drag/Now they're going to bed and my stomach is sick." Anyway, that's just something that occurred to me this time around. This might be my favourite Bowie album. It's certainly better than the next few (Ziggy, Aladdin Sane, Pin Ups and Diamond Dogs).

I had forgotten how jam-packed with all-timers this one is. It's hard to talk specifically about this album without attempting to reckon with Bowie overall, since it's so emblematic of him, and I'm not qualified to do that. I'll just say that here are some of the best songs ever written.

"Life On Mars" is one of my all-time favorite from his catalogue. "Changes" and "Oh! You Pretty Things" and a decent rest make it a weak four stars for me. 3,5

Kopplingen Bowie - Elton John görs alltför sällan, Honky Dory är full av pianomusik som ligger väldigt nära EJ stundtals, både boogie och softare grejer. "Oh you pretty thing" skulle utan tvivel kunna vara en Eltonlåt och det är en komplimang. Jag håller Honky högre än Ziggy för den är inte lika hurtfriskt tramsig, men den är absolut inte genombra. Topparna är skyhöga med "Changes", "Life on Mars" och helt ljuvliga "Bewlay brothers" (med Suede-refräng), Bowies kanske bästa låt pre-Young America. Men här finns också "Fill your heart" som är direkt dålig och "Quicksand" som musikaliskt låter farligt nära åt som Genesis eller nåt annat symfonirockband kunde spelat in vid samma tid, med Rick Wakeman med på ett hörn så borde man förstås se varningsflaggorna. Resten är habilt och småkul. Topparna drar upp den till en väldigt stabil trea men den är ju aldrig nära fyran

Här finns flera av Bowies verkliga signaturlåtar, Changes, Pretty things och Life on Mars. Men ingen av dem slår Quicksand. Man vill gärna tro att Hunky dory är ett mästerverk. Men skivan innehåller också några väldigt lättglömda spår. Fill your heart är ett exempel, Eight line poem ett annat. Song for Bob Dylan är inte heller särskilt speciell. En albumklassiker ändå på många sätt, men i Bowiekatalogen finns starkare skivor.

Ett ganska ojämnt album för att vara Bowie. Å ena sidan har enkla poplåtar som varken gör till eller från likt Kooks, Andy Warhol eller Oh You pretty things (klart de är bra, men nu utgår vi från Bowieskalan). Å andra sidan har vi Life on Mars och Quicksand som måste vara med och nämnas när vi pratar världens bästa låtar alla kategorier. Det spretiga får väl ses som en konsekvens av att detta är Bowies sista album som en ”vanlig” Singer/songwriter. Med tanke på vad som komma skulle, kunde väl HD inte avslutats bättre än med glammiga Queen Bitch och eftertanken backstage med the Bewlay brothers.

Soundmässigt ett sammanhållet album, men kvalitén på låtarna skiftar ordentligt. Changes, Life on Mars, Quicksand och Queen bitch håller hög klass medan Oh! You pretty things, Kooks och Fill your heart snarare låter som de hör hemma på debuten ”David Bowie”. Allt för ofta låter Bowie som en knarrande gammal gubbe. Han låter faktiskt äldre här än på Blackstar. Topparna övertrumfar dalarna. Svag fyra

Como con la mayoría de discos de los 70's, la batería es DURISIMA de escuchar. Más allá de eso, viva Bowie, gran disco.

This was i think the bowie album that i was most familiar with and it encapsulates his musical genius perfectly. idk what else to add but even IF im not the biggest Bowie fan this is a solid 8.5/10 4ever

Bowie at his winningest - friendly, optimistic popcraft with dips into millenarianism and the modernist literary tradition. Boy next door stuff, great for the first day of art history class and falling in love with the cutie at the next table and two-part harmonizing to your kid.

3.5

Every time I listen to a Bowie album, I hope that it’s going to be the one to change my opinion of him and his music. This one did not do that for me. I liked a few songs but overall the album did not hit for me. Bowie still has 5 albums to change my mind though

I like this album. I feel like its Bowie before peak bombastic-ness, and the hits here are hits for a reason. Changes and Life On Mars still have an awesome sound. Queen Bitch is also a super fun one. Most of the songs on this album sound both alt and anthemic and thats a line i think bowie did very well at walking. Bewlay brothers is a really nice closer. I like when the instrumentals blend very solid acoustic sounds with a very spacy backing or rhythm guitar.

Way less experimental than the other Bowie albums I've heard and pretty enjoyable top to bottom. Slows down noticeably in the second half Highlights: "Changes", "Oh! You Pretty Things", "Queen Bitch"

This is a very good album, it is a bit weirdly paced in places and I think the last song should be switched with the second last song to end with a bit of energy but overall a fun listening experience

The one where it all came together. After trying out a bunch of different musical styles Bowie hits a home run with this one. 5

Kooks is elite

very good

not my favorite bowie album but it was still fun and theres a couple song i love on it

Tits

IT HAS LIFE ON MARS? IN IT SO THAT ALONE IS A 3

One of my all time favorites

really good

8/10

i liked it

Me encanto

It's got pizazz, whimsy, and a lotta character. It's David Bowie damnit.

I don't know if theres life on mars, I do know this is a good ass album.

Right off the back I recognized the first song of the album. I had heard Changes in Shrek but, I had no clue what it's title was nor that it was by David Bowie. Also, I already had Life on Mars? liked.

great sounding, no skips really QuIcksand is the hidden gem

Bowie is not my jam...

Ganz okayer Piano Rock mit schönen Melodien. Die Hits sind richtig gut, ansonsten hat es noch nicht so ganz Klick gemacht. 3/5 - gut

Damn it Bowie, this one's a good one.

One of the best