52. David Bowie, "Station to Station"

 So little of a Bowie-head am I that until yesterday I had never heard this album, except for, of course, "Golden Years," a Bowie staple that, it's rumored, he originally wrote for Elvis Presley, who turned it down.  It's a brilliant song, really, a funk/doo-wop/disco mashup with Bowie's indelible croon floating above the whole thing.

The rest of the album?  It's fine.  On the 2012 version of this list, it was number 324, which seems way more appropriate placement than 52.  It is not the 52nd best album of all time.  I doubt David Bowie would even say it's the 52nd best album of all time.  What happened between 2012 and 2021?  David Bowie died, returning him to the public consciousness in a big way and, I anticipate, giving all his classic albums a big boost.

There's only six songs on this album, ranging from the just under 4-minute "Golden Years" to the 10-plus minute title track, the first song on the album, wherein Bowie introduces the Thin White Duke character ("The return of the Thin White Duke/Throwing darts in lovers' eyes") and drops a hint about how the album was recorded ("It's not the side-effects of the cocaine/I'm thinking that it must be love").  For yes, this album was recorded in a drug-induced haze, during which Bowie subsisted on bell peppers, milk, and cocaine, staying up for days at a time and working in the studio for 24-hour stretches (one hopes he shared his stash with the band).  Bowie would later say he didn't recall making the album, which is really something.

So, as a casual Bowie fan, I would say I liked the album just fine, didn't love it.  That title track is like being locked in a room with somebody coked out of their mind, constantly throwing ideas at you - "ok, you like that?  Ok, Ok, how about we do like a slow blues-funk jam?  No good?  Ok, let's do some disco mixed with Neu!"  It's tiring.

I liked "TVC15," which was "reportedly inspired by Iggy Pop’s drug induced hallucination that the television set, in Bowie’s LA home, had swallowed his girlfriend."  Just to give you an idea of what it sounds like, here's some of the descriptions critics have given it: krautrock, new wave, boogie-woogie, pseudo-late-1950s, disco.  That about sums it up.

The album ends with "Wild Is the Wind," a Johnny Mathis cover by way of Nina Simone.  It's a slow build, and Bowie's voice sounds great, if a little fried.  It sounds like a Bond movie song, honestly, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

So that's about all I can say.  This album belongs back where it was, 324.

Is this album in my personal Top 100? No sir.