How would you rate "Aladdin Sane" (1973) by David Bowie?

Track listing:
-Watch That Man
-Aladdin Sane (1913-1938-197?)
-Drive-In Saturday
-Panic in Detroit
-Cracked Actor

-Time
-The Prettiest Star
-Let's Spend the Night Together
-The Jean Genie
-The Prettiest Star
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1. "Hunky Dory" [1971] Rating: 4.79/5
2. "Station to Station" [1976] Rating: 4.73/5
3. "Heroes" [1977] Rating: 4.28/5
4. "Diamond Dogs" [1974] Rating: 4.27/5
5. "Space Oddity" [1969] Rating: 4.03/5
6. "Outside" [1995] Rating: 3.81/5
7. "The Next Day" [2013] Rating: 3.71/5
8. "Let's Dance" [1983] Rating: 3.58/5
9. "Reality" [2003] Rating: 3.47/5
10. "Tin Machine" [1989] Rating: 3.21/5
11. "Tonight" [1984] Rating: 2.39/5

 

A true classic...one of his best albums and one of the best of the 1970s/ever.

 

Don't you mean 1973?

 

True classic...one of his best albums and one of the best of the 1970s/ever.

Is there an echo in here?

 

Thanks for pointing that out. Just fixed it.

 

When I'm after some David Bowie rock I usually play this album.

"Cracked Actor" has long been my favourite song from this album. The guitar could cut through a brick it's so good, and the chorus is very memorable and hard hitting.

 

Essential and a classic. Bowie's last "rock star" album - at least for a long time. It was actually my introduction to Bowie apart from a track here and track there. I love how each track has the city of its composition attached to it - it's like a tour travelogue. It's got theatricality, avant garde, hard rock, and good ol' rock'n'roll. It would have been enough diversity for any other artist, but Bowie was just getting started.

 

"Time" has some of my favourite David Bowie lyrics of all time:

Breaking up is hard, but keeping dark is hateful
I had so many dreams, I had so many breakthroughs
But you, my love, were kind, but love has left you dreamless
The door to dreams was closed, your park was real dreamless
Perhaps you're smiling now, smiling through this darkness
But all I had to give was the guilt for dreaming

 

despite some rough mix production ("Watch That Man") and the sort of ill advised Stones cover, not a wasted note, perfect. 10/10

 

Strange I always rated the album cover pretty high for years. But ..apart from the lighting bolt on the face that's all find appealing the open out gatefold pose has lost its flash.

Of course exemplary music.

 

Essential to my collection. I'm not too worried about the rest of you.

Again, the cover song is the weakest thing on here by far...just as it was on Ziggy, and just as it will be on Young Americans. Still, a great album, even if the mix is a bit shaky here and there.

 

Of his regular studio catalog up to and arguably including Let's Dance, i'd say they're all essential. Even Pin Ups.

 

Best album cover ?
Z I G G Y

 

I think it's overrated. The song quality is average, it doesn't flow as an album and it sounds rushed in terms of playing and arrangements. I think there was obviously pressure to get product out at the time and it sounds like it. Of the classic run of Hunky Dory to Low I think it's the weakest (ignoring Pin Ups).

7/10

 

First of Bowie Albums I purchased when he died ( yea I'm one of those people, use me )

 

That

 

Especially love the title track. That piano solo, wow...

 

Essential to me. I heard it a few days ago and I absolutely loved Watch That Man, Aladdin Sane and Drive In Saturday.

 

First option. There's just something I've always loved about it. Great looking and sounding LP. Great sounding (early) CD as well. If you can power through the Stones cover, the album is nigh on perfect. Side 1 especially is incredible. The album was a perfect bridge between the Hunky/Ziggy era and the more interesting, diverse stuff that came later. The album sleeve is one of Bowie's best too, I think.

 

I clicked essential. Better than Hunky Dory or Diamond Dogs.

The only song I don't care for is the cover of "Let's Spend The Night Together". It makes me want to run and put on the Stones' original.

p.s. You listed "The Prettiest Star" twice instead of "Lady Grinning Soul" as the final track.

 

I LIKE the mix on "Watch That Man." It sounds like a party!

 

The Stones cover is certainly a matter of opinion. I absolutely love how they handled that one. It totally rocks and it's great fun, imo.

 

I wish he had kept it for Pin Ups, but if that song is the low point who can complain!

 

yeah whaddaya say? classic bowie in his prime- gimme a hard one!

 

A true classic, hands down. "The mechanical, fragmented, rather secondhand elegance of Aladdin Sane"...

I really don't get why people often say it's been recorded too quickly, that Bowie was too busy to make proper songs, or whatever. I would just leave it as is, and not change a single second of it. It's just a very raw "here, take these songs, will you?", that's the point of the record. He doesn't care, he just gives you some weird songs he had in his head, and that's all. And damn, Mike Garson.

It's also Bowie killing the thin and polite sound of the previous LP, and I love that.