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

Unusual for pretty much every song to work on an album. I always forget "It Ain't Easy" is on here, and it always catches me off guard like a sonic hitman.

I liked this but not nearly as much as later, Berlin-era Bowie.

Bowie had several iconic singles before this, but Ziggy Stardust is his first truly iconic album as a whole.

Een album dat leuk is om één keertje te luisteren. Een soort muzikale voorstelling. Ik waardeer de variatie. De stem slaat af en toe over, zonder dat er heel stevig wordt aangezet. Is dat om het verhaal aan te dikken? Voor mij hoeft dat niet.

The album opens up with a track about "five years", jumping right into the middle of a narrative story that climbs and climbs to an explosive crecendo. I doubt it is a coincidence that this is the opening song and this is Bowie's 5th album, each of which was released 1 year apart. The overall sound of the album is "big". The tracks are layered, and spatial thanks to various chorus effects and their use of the left/right/center channels. 'Star' and 'Suffragette City' are good example of what I mean. It will take a few more albums to be sure, but I think this might mark the point where Bowie fully realizes his initial musical vision and where he is really comfortable in his form.

I might just not get it but I'm really not a fan of Bowie...

All time great album.

I think it is impossible to say anything that everybody did not say in the past about this album.

A great piece of music history. It's awe-inspiring how much Bowie is eclectic and different among his different albums

When I was younger, my knowledge on David Bowie was very slim, I basically knew Space Oddity and that he was in Labyrinth, but when he sadly passed away I decided to change that, but I always kind of ignored this album because it was more rock 'n' roll than his later albums, and I had grown tired of classic rock as a genre. Boy do I regret this, that was amazing. I mean, of course Starman is great, but the rest of the album is no slouch either. It's no wonder I usually see this at the top of rankings for all his albums, and I'm super excited for his other eight on here.

For me, this is the glam rock album par excellence. Bowie, who started off as a folk singer, made the switch to rock and decided to create alter egos he could explore on stage. In later interviews, he said it was because he didn't know himself and was searching--fair enough! We all reap the benefit of his quest for self discovery. On stage, in the 1970s, Bowie was a very different person than he was off. He became a new person as he adopted each disguise. And Ziggy is perhaps his most famous disguise: a rock-star alien doomed in his quest to save the Earth, an alien complete with orange hair, fantastic makeup, and futuristic costumes. Ziggy Stardust is musical role-playing at its finest without being musical theater. The lyrics of the album create vivid images in the mind of the listener as the vocals shift from person to person within a song. The music is more subtle, though it is full of vocal and instrumental hooks that make every song memorable. Ziggy is mysterious but demands attention, he is simultaneously accessible and ambiguous, and in this creation, Bowie raises role-playing to an art form.

Listened to this album several times and keep wanting to resonate with it, but overall it doesn't happen.

That said, I've had Moonage Daydream stuck in my head for days! 3.5

One of the first albums that turned me onto music. It's not perfect (I'd probably go 4.5) but the highs are stratospheric

Really fun album. Starman and Moonage Daydream back to back is an amazing 1/2 punch. Not sure it is as great cover to cover as a few other Bowie albums. 4/5

excellent early bowie. so many great songs on this album

Lol tää hukkas mun notesit. 4/5 ei muuta sanottavaa enää

It's fine. Bowie not my bag though.

Hay canciones muy buenas, clásicos de 5 estrellas como Starman o Star. Con Bowie tengo el problema que he escuchado muchas de sus canciones famosas pero no sus discos, así que no sé en cuales están y aunque conozco las portadas confundo el contenido. En cualquier caso, David Bowie en su conjunto merece formar parte del Olimpo de la música moderna. Además de las 2 canciones mencionadas yo destacaría "Moonage Daydream" y "Ziggy Stardust".