DAVID BOWIE: "Station To Station"

Original released on LP RCA Victor APL 1327

(UK 1976, January 23)

Taking the detached plastic soul of "Young Americans" to an elegant, robotic extreme, "Station to Station" is a transitional album that creates its own distinctive style. Abandoning any pretense of being a soulman, yet keeping rhythmic elements of soul, David Bowie positions himself as a cold, clinical crooner and explores a variety of styles. Everything from epic ballads and disco to synthesized avant pop is present on "Station to Station", but what ties it together is Bowie's cocaine-induced paranoia and detached musical persona. At its heart, "Station to Station" is an avant-garde art-rock album, most explicitly on "TVC 15" and the epic sprawl of the title track, but also on the cool crooning of "Wild Is the Wind" and "Word on a Wing," as well as the disco stylings of "Golden Years." It's not an easy album to warm to, but its epic structure and clinical sound were an impressive, individualistic achievement, as well as a style that would prove enormously influential on post-punk. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)

Wow, this is really good. Much of it was intended as the soundtrack to "The Man Who Fell To Earth", but the music wasn't actually used. It was the first record to feature Bowie's late-70s, Carlos Alomar-dominated band, and his last gold record for a while. Practically every song got airplay - the proto-industrial "TVC15," the romantic, irresistable disco number "Stay," the lengthy "return of the Thin White Duke" title track, and the Top Ten hit "Golden Years." Alomar and Slick smoke, the rhythm section is mega-funky, the chord progressions are mind-boggling, and Bowie affects a cool, slightly dissonant vocal style that grabs your attention. With only a half-dozen numbers and most of them plodding on past five minutes, some of it drags (the semi-acoustic ballad "Wild is the Wind"); but the high points make it a must-have for Bowie fans. The bonus tracks are contemporaneous live versions of "Stay," with just-filling-in-for-the-tour lead guitarist Stacey Heydon funking explosively, and "Word on a Wing." (Wilson Alroy in AllMusic)