“Station To Station” by David Bowie - album review

features in: Album Chart of 1976 ● Album Chart of the Decade: 1970s ● 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

“The return of the Thin White Duke, Throwing darts in lovers' eyes” warns Bowie in the very opening barb of the title-track. Charming! This was the formal introduction of The Thin White Duke persona, a well-groomed, well-dressed blonde haired character who'd been glimpsed in concert in the last year or so. Bowie described him as “A very Aryan, fascist type; a would-be romantic with absolutely no emotion at all but who spouted a lot of neo-romance.” A wrong 'un! Following his flirtation with Philly Soul on last years “Young Americans”, the soon-to-be 29-year-old recorded this one in his hometown of Los Angeles, where the session men sure could rock with that funk, giving us a Proto-Prince glance into the future. Tellingly, this became the second of only two Bowie albums which charted higher in the States (#3) than it did in the UK (#5), the first to do so since “Space Oddity” (1969). The album's funky and catchy lead single, “Golden Years”, is the clear standout, although you can't help but imagine album purchasers may have been left disappointed if they were expecting more of the same. It'd be fair to say I don't care much for this Duke character, nor his rather boring band of session men.

The Jukebox Rebel
29–Feb–2016

Tracklist

A1	[10:14] David Bowie - Station To Station (David Robert Jones) Cerebral Pop
A2	[04:00] David Bowie - Golden Years (David Robert Jones) Disco / Funk
A3	[06:03] David Bowie - Word On A Wing (David Robert Jones) Cerebral Pop
B1	[05:33] David Bowie - TVC 15 (David Robert Jones) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
B2	[06:15] David Bowie - Stay (David Robert Jones) Disco / Funk
B3	[06:02] David Bowie - Wild Is The Wind (Ned Washington, Dimitri Tiomkin) Cerebral Pop

ratings by TJR