This month’ Album Club choice comes courtesy of Ian (Ian7632) with David Bowie’s 'Aladdin Sane'. As always please listen to the album in its entirety before you comment and/or vote.



David Bowie – ‘Aladdin Sane’

For this month’s Album Club I've chosen Aladdin Sane by David Bowie. This is my favourite Bowie album for many reasons. It was the first one I heard as a kid, my brother played it to death and as the years passed and I heard more I still went back to Aladdin Sane.




Released in 1973 it met with mixed reviews, some loving it and others disappointed it wasn't more like Ziggy Stardust. It is quite different from Ziggy, more melodic and dare I say more of a rock album and more American than anything previous. It came in his most creative period and was followed by Pin Ups, Diamond Dogs and Young Americans before his Berlin period.

From the first track Watch that man, you know he's moved on from Ziggy, hard guitars and a driving rhythm. Then comes the title track Aladdin Sane, a sumptuous and stylish blend of simple sounding but complicated guitars and bass, almost romantic piano and the most astonishing and stunningly beautiful piano solo performed by Mike Garson. It's quite a busy track despite being so laid back. Two singles came from the album: 'Drive in Saturday' and 'Jean Genie'. There's a powerful cover of The Rolling Stone's 'Let's Spend the Night Together' and the album is rounded off with the beautiful 'Lady Grinning Soul'.


The Wikipedia entry has some very interesting information about the concept and creation of Aladdin Sane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aladdin_Sane

I really hope you like it. One thing I will mention is that the latest version on vinyl is not the best exercise in re-mastering, the best modern version I've heard is the 30th anniversary release with a second CD of studio and live performances.

Spotify link https://open.spotify.com/album/3HZKO...Rk2adkyYJ1Csqw

YouTube https://youtu.be/G1loH-YvTDY