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Originally Posted by Silent Dan Speaks
So I have Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars which I absolutely love, and I have Hunky Dory which is pretty good, but I'm not sure where else to go with Bowie. Suggestions, anyone?
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Sure, start with Space Oddity, which is a great album beyond the title track (which is great as well of course, though played to death). It's a bit more folky, and indeed hippie, than anything later, but that's not a bad thing. He was definiltely taking in Dylan as an influence big time on a few tracks, especially "Cygnet Committee", but he clearly filtered it through his own sensibilities.
The Man Who Sold the World is also an excellent record and gets a bit heavier. Again, it's just too bad Kurt Cobain covered the title track without adding a thing to it, and that this was overplayed to the point it's hard to enjoy the original in quite the same way as before. "Width of a Circle", however, is a really cool tune tinged with the metal of the era, and "All the Madmen" is one of my favorite songs he's ever done.
then, after the ones you already have, there's Aladin Sane , which while a bit uneven still contains some of his best era work including "Cracked Actor", "Time", "Drive in Saturday", and "Panic in Detroit". Also the same year he did Pin-Ups, which is all covers (which was a highly unusual thing for a major rock musician to do back in '73) done his style. You probably have to decide you're seriously a bowie fan to want it, but much of it is really great, especially his version of Syd's Floyd's "See Emily Play" which is arguably even weirder than the original.
With Diamond Dogs, he began to fuse disco and soul elements into his sound, but he did it in an album that grew out of a failed soundtrack to 1984. Consequently, the record feels like a soundtrack in a very good way, and manages to be pop music contemporary to the day, and highly experimental at the same time. This record, along with Hunky Dory, and Low are the ones I most often find myself in phases of listening to repeatedly for weeks.
That said, I don't get that excited about his discography again until Low, which is his collaboration with Brian Eno, and fucking genius electo-pop. Gary Numan modelled his whole sound after this album in my opinion (and I'm a big fan of early Numan and Tubeway Army), and sadly Bowie never again returned to those heights for me (though the next three albums certainly have their moments and some great songs).
I've never liked Lets Dance, though it's not awful or anything. After that, most of his stuff is for me, especially that dismal crap he did with Reznor. Actually to be honest, much of his later work is just highly mediocre, but then that's a tragedy given the earlier heights. Kids, don't let your friends lock themselves in closets with unlimited supplies of cocaine for months on end...