David Bowie - Aladdin Sane

On Aladdin Sane, Bowie takes a turn for the weird, which is really saying something given how odd he had been up to this point in his career. You need look no further than the title track for evidence of this album's weirdness. It has a sort of Schoenbergian complexity and lack of harmonic beauty. While Aladdin Sane occasionally breaks into glorious simplicity, as it does on "Jean Genie," there are moments of pure frustration of this album.

While you certainly can't fault Bowie for his sonically diverse approach to this album, the overall effect just isn't good enough to place Aladdin Sane on the level of the two albums that preceded it. That being said, the cover art for this album is among the greatest ever made.