It’s fitting that Hunky Dory opens with the classic single “Changes”: the record is much more diverse musically than the albums that preceded (I think–I’m not familiar with The Man Who Sold The World, but it doesn’t seem to have the significance of either Space Oddity or Hunky Dory).
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Month: August 2012
Record #116: David Bowie – Space Oddity (1969)
Space Oddity is not David Bowie’s first album, but it is the first Bowie album anyone cares about.
Its title track, with its tragic astronaut and hand clap coda is still well known, and is still the first song anyone thinks of when they think of Bowie. This album would be notable even if just for its single, but the amazing thing is that the rest of the album doesn’t dwell in its shadow.
Record #115: The Antlers – Undersea (2012)
Pete Silberman, frontman and former soloman of the Antlers made his releasing cathartic folk wrapped in ambient textures. Hospice, the project’s breakthrough, was heart wrenching, concept heavy, whisper quiet, and sonically (minus the track Bear) and lyrically devastating. Last year’s Burst Apart, however, saw him, following the addition of another multi-instrumentalist and drummer, shifting from that lyric-heavy catharsis and more fully into the ambience.
Record #114: Danielson – Tri-Danielson, Vol. 2: Omega (1998)
Part two of Danielson’s ambitious Tri-Danielson project, Omega is slightly less accessible than Alpha, with a denser track listing and fewer standouts. But to be fair, the entire project is hard to understand.
Record #113: Danielson – Tri-Danielson, Vol. 1: Alpha (1998)
If you don’t know who Danielson (slash Danielson Famile slash Danielson Family slash Brother Danielson slash Daniel Smith) is, you might not be interested at all in his music, which sounds something like a gypsy family band fronted by a helium voiced Gospel camp preacher. Once, while listening to the Omega disc of this double project on my iPod, I took an ear out and put it in a friend’s ear without any warning about what he might here. His face turned from curiosity to displeasure as he said, “why would you do that to me?”