Eamon Blog

Today's Shelf Pull: David Bowie, Hunky Dory

There is more going on behind that piano.

Hunky Dory rewards staying for the warmth, unease and sharper turns that make the whole album such good company.

It is easy to arrive at David Bowie with a collection of images already in your head. The clothes, the faces, the changes of direction. Hunky Dory gives you a useful place to put all that down for a moment and listen to the songs.

Released in 1971, before the Ziggy Stardust album, it already has a remarkable amount of personality. Much of the welcome comes from the piano: bright, mobile, and perfectly capable of leading you somewhere rather stranger than the first few bars suggested. The invitation is friendly. The company is interesting.

That makes it a good record for someone who knows a few Bowie songs and would like an album to begin with. There are familiar doors here, particularly Changes and Life on Mars?, but the rooms behind them are worth spending time in. Nobody is checking your credentials.

Changes is an excellent opening argument. The melody makes itself comfortable quickly, while the phrasing keeps shifting the furniture. It sounds assured without sitting still. You can enjoy the tune immediately and spend much longer noticing how restless the song is underneath it.

On the shelf today

David Bowie - Hunky Dory

LP / Rock / 1971

EUR25.95 / Available now

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