David Bowie - "Hunky Dory" (1971)

The first time this album was in my possession was my 11th or 12th birthday. I owned it for a few days, until I returned it to the store. I had wished for Let's Dance, which my father was not really aware of. A Bowie album is a Bowie album, I guess he thought, and obeyed the staff's recommendation that this was the album to have.

At the time, Let's Dance surely was the right album for me, but seen in a larger perspective, I without a doubt prefer Hunky Dory. It's relatively new in my collection, but since my older brother owned it and played it regularly during my younger years, it has been in my life for many years. So it doesn't feel like a new album to me.

The version I have is a Spanish reissue with the addition of  A Pedir De Boca in the title, and I don't know how official it is. What's different with it is that it's a brown vinyl, which when held up to the light becomes almost purple in color. I have read online about Spanish editions with different colors, but the brown one I have found difficult to find information on. But the other colored Spanish editions are usually mentioned as non official releases, so I guess this goes for mine as well.

This is almost a classic and it's a really good album. Songs like Changes, Life On Mars? or Andy Warhol are well known to the public (I think anyway). This was Bowie's fourth album but the first on his new record company RCA. When he began the recording he was actually without a contract, but RCA heard a demo tape and signed him.

Hunky Dory sold quite OK initially, but it wasn't until Bowie's big break the following year, with the album Ziggy Stardust, it began selling in higher numbers. It is on countless lists of best album ever made, best album from the 70's and so on. Bowie himself considers it one of his most important album throughout his career.

It's relatively easily-accessible music, while at the same time not mainstream. I think it can suite quite a lot of people, whether you identify yourself as a music connoisseur and a knower of great stature or prefer to listen to today's radio with more impersonal computer-generated music. Should I mention something negative, it's Bowie's voice, at the time a little thin and nasal, which I can't say I'm overly fond of. It gives the songs a touch that feels on the verge of somewhat neurotic. Nevertheless a really good album that should probably be in every person's album collection.


Tracklist

Side A
1. Changes 3:37
2. Oh! You Pretty Things 3:12
3. Eight Line Poem 2:55
4. Life On Mars? 3:53
5. Kooks 2:53
6. Quicksand 5:08

Side B
1. Fill Your Heart 3:07
2. Andy Warhol 3:56
3. Song For Bob Dylan 4:12
4. Quen Bitch 3:18
5. The Bewlay Brothers 5:22