113: HUNKY DORY | DAVID BOWIE

Quite possibly Bowie’s most personal album Hunky is certainly his most acoustic. Given it was released just 6 months before the electrifying masterpiece Ziggy Stardust, with most of the same personnel, is has a different sound from the rocking records that bookend it. The only track that could blend in on Stardust is ‘Oueen Bitch’ (below). The addition of Rick Wakeman of Yes on piano the element really separates it from his other releases from that era.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine at Allmusic: After the freakish hard rock of The Man Who Sold the World, David Bowie returned to singer/songwriter territory on Hunky Dory. Not only did the album boast more folky songs ("Song for Bob Dylan," "The Bewlay Brothers"), but he again flirted with Anthony Newley-esque dancehall music ("Kooks," "Fill Your Heart"), seemingly leaving heavy metal behind. As a result, Hunky Dory is a kaleidoscopic array of pop styles, tied together only by Bowie's sense of vision: a sweeping, cinematic mélange of high and low art, ambiguous sexuality, kitsch, and class. Mick Ronson's guitar is pushed to the back, leaving Rick Wakeman's cabaret piano to dominate the sound of the album. The subdued support accentuates the depth of Bowie's material, whether it's the revamped Tin Pan Alley of "Changes," the Neil Young homage "Quicksand," the soaring "Life on Mars?," the rolling, vaguely homosexual anthem "Oh! You Pretty Things," or the dark acoustic rocker "Andy Warhol." On the surface, such a wide range of styles and sounds would make an album incoherent, but Bowie's improved songwriting and determined sense of style instead made Hunky Dory a touchstone for reinterpreting pop's traditions into fresh, postmodern pop music.

wiki: Hunky Dory is the fourth studio album by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. Released on 17 December 1971, it was his first album for RCA Records, which would be his label for the next decade. It was recorded in mid-1971 at Trident Studios in London and featured Rick Wakeman on piano, and the musicians who would later become known as the Spiders from Mars – Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick Woodmansey. The album was co-produced by Bowie and Ken Scott, who had engineered Bowie's previous two albums. Hunky Dory was Scott's first album as a producer; he went on to co-produce Bowie's next three records.

After his previous album, The Man Who Sold the World (1970), Bowie took time off due to managerial problems and other conflicts. In February 1971, he was sent on a promotional tour of America, which helped shape the music and lyrics for Hunky Dory. Following the hard rock sound of its predecessor, Hunky Dory shifted Bowie's style towards art pop. The album contains three tribute songs to American icons Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan, and the Velvet Underground, as well as another to his newborn son Duncan. Unlike his previous records, the songs are primarily piano-led rather than guitar-led. Some of the songs contain lyrics influenced by the works of the occultist Aleister Crowley and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The album cover, photographed by Brian Ward in monochrome and re-coloured by Terry Pastor, was inspired by a Marlene Dietrich photo book that Bowie took to the session. The title, an English slang term meaning that everything is right in the world, was suggested to Bowie by Bob Grace of the music publisher Chrysalis.

Upon release, Hunky Dory received very positive reviews from British and American publications but failed to chart, partly due to poor marketing. After the commercial breakthrough of his follow-up album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972), Hunky Dory became a commercial success, peaking at number three on the UK Albums Chart. It was supported by the singles "Changes" in 1972 and "Life on Mars?" in 1973. Retrospectively, Hunky Dory has received critical acclaim and is regarded as one of Bowie's best works. It has been placed on lists of the greatest albums of all time by such publications as Time, Rolling Stone, NME and Q. The album has been reissued several times and was remastered in 2015 as part of the Five Years (1969–1973) box set. Full article