David Bowie's tenth studio album Station to Station was released in 1976. During the time of recording, Bowie had taken on the persona of the character of the Thin White Duke, who is mentioned on the title track. It was also during the recording sessions when Bowie had becoming extremely addicted to drugs to the point where he says that he remembers little of sessions. After the album was released and he had completed its supporting tour, he moved to Berlin to escape the LA drug culture and attempt to get sober. Station to Station was released to critical acclaim and sold well upon release. It is often considered of Bowie's best albums.
Before this, Aladdin Sane featured the best rock'n'roll on any Bowie album and I was so impressed at the time that I praised Mick Ronson for becoming an integral member of the band. Although he indeed had, it's good he's been gone since '73 because Ronson wouldn't have been able to keep up by this time. True, Bowie has never written with such complexity but he's also relying on pure riff power, a concept first introduced on "Rebel Rebel" and reaches its full potential on Station to Station, which is no far cry from the density and drudgery of Exile on Main St. In general, the album could have benefitted from shorter songs--especially the ten minute title track, which is the weakest song--but Bowie's detached vocal performance, the excellent studio work, and the dynamic song structures result in his most impressive album, which never seems to become more familiar to my ears. A- [Later: A]
(scroll down for a ranking of Bowie's best albums!)
Welp, we finished the saga of David Bowie! Bowie has a number of famous albums after Station to Station (in fact, Robert Christgau believes this is where Bowie finally starts getting consistent), but I generally try to keep sagas under eleven albums because I know it can get boring reading so much about one artist. Besides, we've covered the most well-known Bowie albums already. Although my grades indicate a rocky career so far--they were either B+ and up or B- and below--Bowie had an excellent song or two on every album starting with his second release Space Oddity (also known as David Bowie). Additionally, other than his first two albums, Bowie's albums were always dense and interesting, which made it difficult to discredit them, and I could see myself going back to any of them at least of curiosity. Overall, I'd say Bowie met my expectations.
Here's a ranking of Bowie's best albums so far:
4. Aladdin Sane (1973):
While having a weak storyline, it's not terribly far behind Ziggy Stardust in terms of aural enjoyment. Some of the songs meander but the overall product sounds like the Stones, at a slight creative downturn, went to space. B+
3. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972):
It's perfectly fair to say this is Bowie's masterpiece--it achieves everything it sets out to. Mostly, it simply falls behind Hunky Dory and Station to Station for me because it's not a genre I find myself needing. However, it's quite the achievement in it of itself to get me to enjoy and care about this type of music. B+
2. Hunky Dory (1971):
Bowie's most accessible album is nearly his best too. The piano leads to a brightness and easygoing nature that Bowie should have experimented with more at least because of the fantastic product it produced here. "Andy Warhol"! A-
1. Station to Station (1976):
I was annoyed with how long it took me to finally get to reviewing this album but now I'm fine with it because three days ago I probably would have ranked Hunky Dory over this. There's a certain quality to the album that takes time to really sink in and understand, which is why it reminded me of Exile on Main St. "TVC 15" is probably my favorite Bowie song. A-