David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (1972)

YAY!!! More David Bowie! The world would be a much better place with more David Bowie, regardless if he were to release awesome music (Station To Station) or somewhat meh music (The Next Day). I obviously hope for the former, but I'd be OK with the latter right now too, as the best new album I've heard lately was by some band called XTC.

Ziggy Stardust was a persona David Bowie created and imbued on his tours during the early 70s. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars was the first and only studio album Bowie made surrounding the character. It is a glam-rock concept album telling the story of a bi-sexual alien rock and roll god, and his performances as Ziggy Stardust fueled contemporary speculation of Bowie's sexuality and clouded the album in controversy. Nowadays The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars is regularly regarded as one of the greatest albums ever made.

But I don't really care about all that. I really only care if the music is any good. And the answer is yes, it definitely is. To me it's somewhere between Aladdin Sane and Station To Station, which is a bit odd because it was made before both those albums rather than between or after them. I liked the former and love the latter. Aladdin Sane shared more of this album's pure glam-rock attitude- I wouldn't be surprised if this is the first and purest glam-rock album ever recorded. I prefer the David Bowie from Station To Station, which is definitely funkier, but at times is way harder like on the title track, and also way softer like on "Word On A Wing".

What's also interesting to me is how Bowie's voice has changed over the years. His voice on Ziggy Stardust sounds practically identical to how he sounded on Aladdin Sane (makes sense, they were released a year apart). However the voice that I recently heard on his debut album actually sounded most like what he used on his penultimate album The Next Day. Nothing I've heard thus far sounds like his voice on Station To Station. I wonder if the man ever had a "natural singing voice" or if like his fashion sense he was a total chameleon.

Did I really even talk about the music on Ziggy Stardust? It's good, I liked it quite a bit. Per usual I was completely thrilled by the length of the album (about 40 minutes) and the individual songs (3 to 4 minutes apiece). And the songs were complex, diverse, entertaining, all those cool buzzwords. It's my second-favorite David Bowie album thus far. Gotta give it 4 stars.