The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars

This is probably my favorite David Bowie record! More rock-based than many of the others.

Now this is a great album and a classic. Other Bowie albums we’ve had so far seem to have some good songs but not quite all the way through. This has great songs from start to finish. And whilst every song is great in its own way the album still feels like a connected body of work.

Got to be 5 stars right?

I don’t like Bowie. What I like are his greatest hits. When he’s on he’s great but when he’s off he sucks. This album has maybe four great songs and the rest I can’t skip past fast enough.

Classic album. Bowies best in my opinion. Not a bad track on here.

I think there might be too much Bowie on this list, but this is the album I've been waiting for. By far my favorite album of his, and the one I go back and listen to the most.

It's not perfect, but it fits the era perfectly. just a great album and a great feeling.

This and Station to Station seem to me to be Bowie's major peaks. This 'hazy cosmic jive' has a lot going for it, but I'd like to think it abides b/c it has the humor and vitality that 'conceptual' projects do not always carry. This never crumbles under its own pretensions - no tedium or inanity here.

El mejor álbum de Bowie, que ya es decir. Corto, increíble de principio a fin, y precioso. Gracias por tanto.

This is a classic. I wouldn't listen to it on a daily basis, but it's worth listening at least once.

This album is a classic and a clear 5 out of 5.

“Five Years” is one of the greatest album openers ever recorded. It builds so perfectly, drawing you into the story with tension and emotion. From there the record barely puts a foot wrong. Every track feels essential to the Ziggy narrative and the whole thing flows brilliantly.

Then you get one of the strongest closing stretches on any album. “Suffragette City” explodes with energy and attitude, and “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide” is an unforgettable finale. Dramatic, theatrical and deeply moving, it is Bowie at his absolute best.

Favourite songs: Starman, Suffragette City and Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide
Least favourite: Every song is brilliant
Album artwork: An iconic cover that has become part of music history

Someone: “There’s no such thing as a perfect rock’n’roll album.”

Ziggy Stardust: *exists*

Еден од најдобрите албуми на сите времиња.

Alright.

3

I wanted to enjoy this album more as the songs are good, but some of the mixes are just bad. Vocals get lost in the rest of the music sometimes and really detracts from the overall quality of this album. Still really good though. 4/5

Such a fun album. Another one I have on vinyl at home so I got to listen to it multiple ways and I just love it.

Gutes Bowie Album. Konzeptionell gelungenes Album mit einen David in Topform. In dieser “Rockoper” setzt er sich dystrophobisch mit seinen Ego-1972 auseinander. Mit “Starman” verfügt es über einen Toptitel, der als Zugpferd auch zum Wiederhören des Rests vom Album dient.

Every bit as good as everyone says. I’ve been trying to be a stickler about not listening to albums I know to be on the generator list, and I’m regretting that now. My Bowie education was clearly done a great disservice by getting this later than most of the rest of his stuff on here. The first thing I drew from him on here was "Low!" That's the wrong order!

One of the greatest albums of all time. Not a bad song on here, and it's short and punchy - wham bam, thank you ma'am! Some fantastic riffs, really interesting and unique sci-fi concept, and Bowie himself is of course gives a transcendent performance throughout. I enjoyed giving this a listen on vinyl, haven't dug it out in a while. My copy is the 40th anniversary edition, which I just noticed is pressed from the original analogue tapes. Pretty cool. Still sounds fantastic, even now, well past the 50th anniversary.

Never fails.

Always found Ziggy to be strange and a little frightening. Really "trippy" without a TRACE of psychedelia. I wonder what it would have been like to hear this for the first time as a 17 year old, when it first came out. Imaginative and a little overwhelming. I don't think I ever really understood what was happening. It seems a little like a three act play, a musical (maybe? just brainstorming here).

Act one, Ziggy and "his" crew are not here yet, they're on their way. It's a Five Year mission, and someone is screaming at the end: maybe this is where they enter our world, where they discover love. Different kinds, different ways. This is our weakness, our strength, that we all share.I am also busting up my brains for the words. Moonage Daydream, arguably the best song on tis album. The protagonist is singing to the alien, he wants them (?) to love him. Desperately. We've all been there.

Notice how Starman starts. Like it's not in it's groove yet. I see this as the start of the next part, when the aliens figure out how to get here, how they're going to infiltrate us. See, a long time ago, aliens were not always evil, more like benefactors. Like the mythological Jesus. Is Ziggy the 2nd coming of Jesus, but now he shows up like this? At the END of Starman, "let the children boogie" and now there's a groove, right. They figured out how to play. Every song has some strange apparition at the beginning.

Through part two, we get sermons from, it would appear. We see the first worshiping by Lady Stardust. Star - has that early rock/doo wop vibe cut in with some heavy power chords. "I could play the wild mutation as a rock and star." WHO'S point ogf view is this? Ziggy? Wants to be a rock star so he can fall in love? THinks it will be easy? hmm

So, part three, the post-transformation, now Ziggy exists as a thing, too perfect, falls victim to the excesses of stardom (Suffragette City), then Rock 'n Roll Suicide, it's over man.

But your NOT alone. Just put this on, Ziggy is here to save us with his message of love.

I don’t usually like Bowie’s main work but this was fun. Probs won’t listen to it again though.