I've only listened to Pin Ups a handful of times. A couple of the tracks are nice but overall I'm not a fan. Covers in general don't appeal to me and especially with Dave his ideas and his own songs are just so much better than anyone else I'd rather hear that.

I do like hearing Prince cover other people's work though, Whole Lotta Love/Creep/WMGGW are so good but that's cos I enjoy Prince's take on it and his skill with instruments and the guitar work he puts in. I feel like he is more suited to this. Hopefully this makes sense.

So what I'm saying is I agree with this post about Pin Ups.

Yeah, I just feel that maybe his fans might have considered themselves cheated. New Bowie album coming out! Great! Oh. It's a covers album. Great. :(

Of course it probably was very successful, but personally, like you, I'm not really a fan of covers. I'll listen to them, sure, but if it's an artist I like then usually I'd prefer new material to spend my money/waste my bandwidth on.

This is far and away my favourite Bowie album and is the only one I still occassionally play from start to finish. It's full of great songs and fresh ideas; unusual lyrics, fabulous guitar riffs, but some delicate piano bits too. Even the rather light "Kooks" has it's little golden moment; "And if the homework brings you down we'll throw it on the fire and take the car downtown" What a seductive -no, not in that way- what a seductive line for students everywhere! Also, afaik, Bowie was one of the very first artists who openly encouraged the interpretation that he was gay in his songwriting and presentation. Finally, when Hunky Dory first came out, Bowie was still something of a cult secret, which added to the lure of this album; Were you in yet on how good his songs were? Were you sufficiently tolerant to enjoy an artist who was apparently gay?

:D

I've always liked that line about punching people's dads.

Cute song.

On this album, Bowie backs off the heavy, hard rock and starts to become the David Bowie that most people probably think of him as. Rick Wakeman joins the band for the recording sessions and Mick Ronson's guitar is more subdued than in the previous album. A bit more variety than the previous album, Bowie is hitting his stride as a songwriter and front man and is starting to get noticed. Stardom is now coming within his reach.

David Bowie's 'Hunky Dory'

The album has several good songs - some of them excellent. Life On Mars is one of my favorite Bowie vocal performances so far. But I've gotta be honest. The mid section of this album (Kooks, Quicksand, Fill Your Heart) doesn't register as very good to me. Kinda sounds like something any middling artist could have done.

The album starts really strong though.

3/5, because I really like several things about this album, but I've got to imagine he's got several albums that are more consistently good. Doesn't really live up to The Man Who Sold the World in my book.

_Previous ratings:__________________
David Bowie: 1/5
Space Oddity: 2/5
The Man Who Sold The World 4/5
Hunky Dory 3/5
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
Aladdin Sane
PinUps
Diamond Dogs
Young Americans
Station to Station
Low
Heroes
Lodger
Scary Monsters
Let's Dance
Tonight
Never Let Me Down
Black Tie White Noise
1. Outside
Earthling
Hours
Heathen
Reality
The Next Day
Blackstar

Dude. Quicksand is soulcrushingly beautiful. Actually made me cry a few times.

"Quicksand" is amazing. And the idea behind "Kooks" is similarly pulling at the heartstrings. Imagine growing up and telling people "my dad wrote that for me"??

:D

Great song.

Sorry. I really find the musical arrangement to be sort of bland. Those strings do nothing for me and neither does the piano. Would probably like it better if there was a much newer live version where bowie sang it just with an acoustic guitar or something.