What's the best Bowie record and why is it Ziggy Stardust?

What's the best Bowie record and why is it Ziggy Stardust?

Ziggy is good. I prefer Station to Station, Low, and even Young Americans to it though.

Ziggy is great, but it's easy to say his popular albums are the best.
I personally think Buddha of Suburbia was his best.
Personally though, my favorite is 'hours...'

god Sup Forums is such a shithole

Wait shit, how could I forget this masterpiece

The chorus of It Ain't Easy is god-tier and I think Bowie's vocals on the track are just fine

That's actually pretty underrated.
I can easily listen through the album. I can't even name a song off it I don't like. Sure, Glass Spider's intro is lame after the first listen, and too dizzy is kinda bad, but it's got a lot of redeeming qualities, like Shining Star, Zeroes, and of course NLMD

Shut the fuck up

I don't get the hate for Never Let Me Down either. There are like 6 or so actually great songs off it. If any of his albums are "bad" it'd be Tonight if anything, but Loving the Alien is so good I don't even want to call the album bad.

His glam era stuff is usually the last stuff I want to listen to.

I more often listen to the late 70s stuff. The Thin White Duke era or transitioning into the 80s.

Always holds up, always a treat. Never get tired of this one.

count me in for this opinion

starman always gets me

>Sup Forums is a shithole because they like an artists work other then his top 40 radio hits.

Have you even listened to any of Bowie's other albums?

Moonage Daydream
Starman
It Aint Easy
Rock & Roll Star
Hang On To Yourself
Title Track
Suffregette City!

Actually the whole album is great but these tracks listed are my favorite.

However The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust is NOT Bowie's BEST record!

Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture Soundtrack IS!

Ziggy? Get the fuck outta here.

OK so what do you think is the best Bowie album and why ISN'T it Ziggy Stardust in your opinion?

earthling is his only good album

It's Ziggy.

Hunky and Blackstar complete the Top 3 for me but Bowie's not a great album artist.

This album is just fine.

At first I used to be like "wtf why does everyone really like Ziggy? Low and his more experimental crazy stuff is sssooo much better. Fuck this pop crap." When I would ask others why they liked Ziggy so much, they couldn't give me much of an answer outside it feeling his most accessible artsy work.

But nowadays I genuinely do think Ziggy is his best work. Yeah it's kinda poppy, but it has far more of the subtle complexities than any of his other albums. Like look at a track like Five Years (the first track), from an external perspective yeah it just sounds like a typical pop song. But look at it more deeply, you get a variety of just cool ideas. It has a minimalist build going through it, starting with just some bass, then drums, then vocals, then piano, then acoustic/electric guitar, then strings. As the track goes on, it not only has that build, but it gets more harmonically and melodically complex, too. Not to mention the psychoacoustic effects at work thanks to not only the harmonic aspect of the track, but also where each sound is placed frequency-wise so that when every single additional part that keeps coming in it gets legitimately more full sounding. It's like if you combine Pet Sounds, Steve Reich, and Rock n Roll music.

It really is like Pet Sounds in that aspect

Scary Monsters for me.

Out of his more famous ones Low and Station To Station are much better in my opinion. Ziggy isn't bad, it's just not that exceptional for me.

I change my mind every 2 weeks on this topic. Competitors:
>pic related
>Ziggy
>Low
>Hunky

I hate how contrarian people get when it comes to Bowie albums. Yes, Station to Station is great and so is Low and Hunky Dory but Ziggy is easily the standout best.

>Bowie's not a great album artist
What the fuck? Bowie's one of my favorite "album artists", each one feels unique and unified in it's style.

Really been digging Man Who Sold the World lately. But my absolute favorite is probably either Low orrrrrr Diamond Dogs.

>Not Man Who Sold the World or Low

There's literally like 10 valid answers to this question. Ziggy is up there for sure, Hunky Dory and Aladdin Sane are GOAT as well, then there's the Berlin trilogy of course, and dark horses like Station to Station and Diamond Dogs.

I think my favorite is Aladdin, though it changes all the time.

It's either Scary Monsters or Station

Objectively, his best is probably Station to Station, Low, Heroes, or Outside. Personally, Diamond Dogs is my favorite; I probably listen to Station to Station more, but DD holds a special place in my heart and I give it tons of points for the concept and how interestingly it tackles it. God-tier cut songs, too.

He made solid gold straight on down from Space Oddity to, arguably, Let's Dance. It's hard to find an objective one, because he wasn't objective, he wasn't just improving one sound; every one was its own, consistent thing.

The Man Who Sold the World is stupid underrated, too. For instance, it did that Zeppelin sound before it got huge, did it well, and the lyrics are dense as fuck. If you love that sound and see that, it's great. So much of it comes down to personal taste. In some sense, I listen to and love Diamond Dogs, Young Americans, and Station to Station as a soul-tinged funk trilogy just as people regard the Berlin Trilogy, and listen to it more.

Aladdin Sane is stupid underrated. Comparing the two I think it's straight better than Ziggy. I love Ziggy and what it meant, and the ending run from Ziggy Stardust on down is one of the best three song runs in music. However, I feel like I listen to Aladdin Sane more, I feel like it has a more solid track listing, and I feel like it's way more energetic. He perfected the sound after doing it for so long and going to America, it really deserves credit for it.

But Station to Station and Low are hardly contrarian, Ziggy is good but some people just prefer the Bowie's more seasoned work from 76 to 80

I.M.O:
Hunky Dory > Ziggy Stardust > Station to Station > Aladdin Sane > Man Who Sold the World > Young Americans > Blackstar > Space Oddity > Low > Heroes > Diamond Dogs > Scary Monsters > Pin-ups > Lodger > David Bowie > Reality > Let's Dance > Earthling

and the rest are complete trash

Ziggy is probably his best but personal favorite is Station to Station

Can we all appreciate for a second how no one knew of Bowie's cancer until he died and Blackstar was still praised.

He didn't want sympathy praise, he wanted to know that he still had it. He wanted to know that he was still great.

I don't know, but the upside of his death is that he can't produce shitty music ever again! :)

Personally this is my favorite

Go ahead. Lynch me.

hunky dory is the best