Album Review: The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars [1972] #16

David Bowie's two most praised and well known records are two that can be attributed to different eras of Bowie's music. The first one being Ziggy Stardust, from his more glam rock oriented period and the second one being Low, from his more experimental, prog influenced era.

Now I personally have never been a huge fan of Bowie's music, I see the influence and I see the appeal of some of his hits, such as Heroes, Suffragette City and Starman but I really don't get much out of his albums, be it his cheesy glam rock era or his more experimental but equally uninteresting late 70's era.

This review however will focus on the album that is Ziggy Stardust, we'll later get to other releases such as Low and Hunky Dory which are also on this list.



There isn't a lack of hit songs on this album, songs like Suffragette City, Starman, the title track and several others are often remembered as some of Bowie's finest single tracks, a claim which they are well worth being known as. Despite this, my personal issue with this album lies in similar grounds to many of The Beatles' albums, there are undoubtedly many good songs on them but they never feel like much more than a singles collection at best.

Melody is what shines on most of the songs on Ziggy Stardust. Bowie's vocals aren't too interesting, his voice is honestly not that great, and his cryptic lyrics add little to the mythos that he attempts to create with this record. Instrumentally we see a mix of glam-rock meeting old fashioned rock'n'roll, a combination which I personally don't think Bowie ever pulled off in a successful fashion despite many attempts and despite the fact that most people seem to enjoy those parts of Bowie's music. I find that tracks like Ziggy Stardust mainly feel cheesy and over the top, an effect that most glam-influenced music from a similar era has on me unfortunately.

Despite the fact that I find many of the songs on here flawed, I still enjoy them to a certain degree. Ziggy Stardust is not an album I often revisit even if it is my favorite in Bowie's discography. There's a time and place for the hit songs from this record but it's not a mood that I often find myself in.

However there is one track that I find to be phenomenal on this album and that is the closing song Rock 'n' Roll Suicide which always felt like a great closer. It's a well written song that builds up from Bowie's lonely guitar strums into an epic cry into the world as strings and electric guitars come together for a final moment as Bowie shouts positive words while everything slowly fades away into nothingness.

It is possible that Ziggy Stardust is a record that I just won't be able to appreciate for many different reasons. Maybe I'd need to sit down and really dig through the mythos that Bowie created around the record, the alternate persona that he crafted to tell this certain story. But looking at the music as a standalone product, this isn't something I enjoy very much unfortunately.

The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars

David Bowie

4/10

Anton Öberg Sysojev