5 of the best albums from visionary rocker David Bowie
The British star was one of the most influential figures in modern music for almost 50 years
Over the course of a recording career that started in 1967, David Bowie was a musical chameleon who worked in a bewildering range of styles from pop and glam rock to electronic and experimental music. Of his 27 studio albums – the final being Blackstar, released on January 8, just two days before his death – here are the five most influential.
The breakthrough album that, after the baffling heavy rock of The Man Who Sold the World a few months before, announced Bowie as a significant artist.
Alongside future pop classics such as Oh! You Pretty Things and Life on Mars? could be found potted assessments of Dylan and Warhol.
Consistently ranked one of the greatest albums of all time, Bowie’s glam rock masterpiece is a concept album about a bisexual alien rock superstar. As rock operas go, it has better tunes than The Who’s Tommy and none of the bombast of Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell, concentrating instead on delivering a simple tale dramatically and stylishly.
