David Bowie - The Man Who Sold the World

Record cover aficionados will probably know The Man Who Sold the World more for the cover in which Bowie is wearing a dress and lounging seductively on a settee than this one in which he is performing a fairly impressive kick. I bought this alternate cover edition because it came with a poster featuring the cover art, and that selfsame poster hung on all the walls of every crappy bachelor apartment I ever lived in.

The Man Who Sold the World is an interesting listen from start to finish. There isn't a lot of greatest hits compilation fodder on this album, but it still forms a very cohesive whole. The Man Who Sold the World rocks harder in general than every other Bowie album up to this point. Just look at that high leg kick again. Bowie is totally rocking it out. I really liked "Running Gun Blues" and "All the Madmen," but they're just the tracks that stood out to me. That doesn't mean they're necessarily the best this album has to offer. I can't think of another album that is as generally great as this one that doesn't offer any true standout tracks. This is a moneyball album. It's chocked full of high VORP low salary players and manages to make it into the playoffs while seemingly coming out of nowhere.