What's the best David Bowie studio album

I might actually think that Black Star is my favourite of his albums now.

who the fuck voted for hours?

Came here expecting to see disparaging mention of "Hours". But who else is wondering if this maligned album is suddenly going to see some kind of critical reevaluation?

Needs a new poll to capture his final two albums

Also, akm OTM. Even with an emotional connection to hours IRL, I still think it's one of his worst.

I know it has its fans but after a listen last night I reckon Diamond Dogs needs a lot more love. It kind of gets overshadowed by Ziggy and Aladdin Sane from that period, but is easily better than both IMO. I mean I know it's a tough catalogue (in the sense of being full of crucial gems) but DD is a fucking fantastic album and feels very 2020 in many ways.

i vote: the best of david bowie

There's a lot to dislike about Diamond Dogs! Many songs are marred by annoying sax arrangements, I personally have no taste for "Sweet Thing/Candidate" (I do love the demo version of "Candidate" on the Ryko reissue, though), "Rebel Rebel" is not a bad single but it cribs too close to the Stones for me to ever have loved anything but the lyrics of the chorus, "Rock N Roll With Me" is bad, "We Are The Dead" is mostly awkward monologue, I like "1984" but it IS bad disco, and we're back on the annoying saxes again on "Big Brother". Prob my least favourite from that string of albums

For some reason I’ve never been able to make it through the first track of Diamond Dogs, let alone the whole album. Just felt like the house lights came on or something. aladdin sane is my favorite.

xp Hmmm well, a toss-up between DD and "Heroes" for my least-favourite "classic" album, I've never understood why it attained classic status (esp with the presence of Bowie's worst 70s original song, "..Arabia")

I love Aladdin Sane-- title track and "Drive-In Saturday" alone

If any Bowie album needs a reappraisal-- assuming we're all on the same page that "1. Outside" is classic-- it's "The Man Who Sold The World", that album is so crazy good

(esp with the presence of Bowie's worst 70s original song, "..Arabia")

Now you've gone too far.

Anyway, how weird that "Hunky Dory" won this, I think Geir rigged the poll.

Ha well clearly the time for the DD reappraisal is Not Yet - although I must say I do like the sax (and like even more Bowie's brutal guitar playing).

Totally agree that TMWSTW is another one that is overlooked/underrated - possibly partly because it didn't have a "marquee" song/single until the Nirvana cover? But when I was a teen I was completely besotted with that one, great songs, great band, amazing SOUND. It has that kind of entropic New Worlds SF darkness that I also associate with Hawkwind and VDGG.

1. Outside is a near masterpiece imo

Outside is so unreal, my favourite Bowie album (though Hunky Dory, Station To Station and Black Star are right up there). My only strike against it (aside from "Hallo Spaceboy" which doesn't do much for me, and yet I prefer it to any of the dud covers on the 70s albums) is a kind-of cheeseball quality in the synthesis of plot and lyric, which I find charming in the same way I find 80s Michael Mann movies charming, but not necessarily engrossing. The lyrics on "Oxford Town" and "Heart's Filthy Lesson" are, to me, sound like they've been typed up in the same font as the cover of Billy Idol's Cyberpunk.

The real winner on TMWSTW is the opening track, "A Width Of A Circle", Bowie never told a better long-form narrative imo, it's all the failures on Space Oddity corrected.

And I don't think it's weird at all that Hunky Dory won... it's wall-to-wall hits. I remember in the 90s, "Quicksand" won 2nd in a Bowie fansite poll for his best song, after "Ashes To Ashes". Even the lesser tracks ("Andy Warhol", "Song For Bob Dylan") are really solid! "Kooks" is prob my favourite "hey guys, we had a kid!" song in existence. Again, it's only the cover song that I would scuttle, aside from a few tracks on "Pin-Ups" I think Bowie's a bad interpreter across the board.

And ya that unfortunately includes "Wild Is The Wind", never liked it :(

idk "fill your heart" is really charming imo, and in any case it's not the "interpretation" that's to blame; have you ever tried to sit through biff rose's original ? it's not exactly pleasant.

i would've voted for "hunky dory" in 2007, as a high school kid, and still would today. it's always been my favorite. "wall-to-wall hits" otm

Hunky Dory is perhaps his most consistent album, and the one where he truly found his voice imo, but maybe a bit of a boring choice?

Talking of boring, there's "Song For Bob Dylan".

idk "fill your heart" is really charming imo, and in any case it's not the "interpretation" that's to blame; have you ever tried to sit through biff rose's original ? it's not exactly pleasant.

Pretty pointless doing this song at all after Tiny Tim's version.

these days my fav bowie is station to station, but i think hunky dory is still probably the one i'd give to someone who'd never heard bowie before. it doesn't really give any hint of his later sound but it's probably his most immediately accessible and enjoyable album in a lot of ways.

Let's not forget what a seductively queer album Hunky Dory is for its era - "Oh You Pretty Things", "Life on Mars", "Queen Bitch" ooze androgyne eros, but the songs are so catchy it slipped through and left the door open for Queen. But yeah my (mid teen) daughters took this one to heart and are only exploring the others gradually.
Right now ★ is getting me through an evening of work, what a towering achievement.

and "Quicksand" is such a singular tune. No one else could've written it.

and the way "Kooks" queers a father-son relationship

Yeah I feel like we're really lucky that we got that album, it feels like the perfect hybrid of "I'm now a confident songwriter" and "I have not yet become cynical". "Queen Bitch" is really the biggest and best thing, T. Rex could never

i dislike the production and arrangements on Diamond Dogs quite a bit. It's screechy cluttered sounding.

my favorite albums bookend the Berlin trilogy: Station to Station and Scary Monsters.

Station To Station is a top-five Bowie album in my books for half-of-it alone. I am cool on "Stay" and don't like "Word" or "Wild" but the title track, "Golden Years" and "TVC15" make it an utter classic