Review Summary: Bowie may have still been blossoming as a songwriter, but the embryonic Spiders From Mars simply cannot be missed...
It is evident that with each passing year since his debut in 1967, Bowie was perfecting slowly, but steadily his craft until it peaked in 1972’s
The Rise and Fall Of Ziggy Stardust. If his first release was a bunch of ordinary Brit-pop tunes and
Space Oddity your by-the-numbers hippie record, then
The Man Who Sold The World made the step from single-oriented studio efforts to complete, tight album releases. Why?
Well, the biggest reason is that this album is the birth of The Spiders From Mars, Bowie’s most famous backing band and the result is a rich, professional and
focused sound throughout. Let’s face it, his previous efforts were largely marred because of the mostly faceless musicians that supported his vision (save, of course, Rick Wakeman and Tony Visconti). The debut’s production, arrangements and playing were way too formulaic for a ‘67 record, while
Space Oddity relied too much on the potential atmosphere endless strumming could produce.
Not anymore, though, as Mick Ronson and Mick Woodmansey step to the guitars and drums, respectively, in order to create enthralling, vigorous and intoxicating interplay on every single song here. Whether the goal is crashing, dark proto-metal riffs and jamming as found on
The Width Of Circle, psychedelic, moody landscapes on
After All and the title track or simply heavy, ballsy accompaniment which finds its way everywhere here, the guys do not put a wrong foot during the album’s runtime.
What is more, David stays true to the “gradually growing” paradigm as, up until 1970, this is his most convincing offer as a talented songwriter. Everyone knows the beautiful, sorrowful title track with its lulling and unforgettable jazzy melody, but what about the dark, mystifying and quirky hooks on
After All, the climactic melodic outbursts found on
All The Madmen or the anthemic power of the “oh, oh, oh” chanting section in
The Width Of A Circle? All are essential gems for anybody who is interested in David Bowie’s early steps as a songwriter.
Unfortunately, the man hadn’t hit his stride yet as far as melody-making went. The aforementioned songs are all great, but what about the rest? It seems that he got
too comfortable with his new backing group, as few of the other tunes manage to hold any significance on a pure melodic basis. They’re better than the vast majority of
Space Oddity, but that’s not saying much since the bar on that album was pretty low anyway; their saving grace is the spectacular playing, which manages to bring such forgettable tunes as
Black Country Rock and
Running Gun Blues to entertaining listening levels.
When all is said and done, we’re left with an album that relies too much on arrangements, production and playing than actual songwriting, which is not a bad thing in itself, but since we’ve got proof that Bowie was capable of doing all that simultaneously,
The Man Who Sold The World remains an important step in his career, but flawed in retrospect. The following year, he would have a firmer grasp on songwriting and The Spiders From Mars would take their final form with the substitution of Visconti with Bolder on bass.
That year, though, he was still testing the waters…
yeah it's very ominous despite its sparse arrangement. maybe that's the reason of its effect on the listener. the antithesis
