13. Mark KermodeHunky Dory

When I first started collection David Bowie records somebody bought me Changesonebowie, the greatest hits, and I loved every single song on it. I said to him, "You should have this", and he said, "No, because I’m going to buy every single Bowie album." We started trying to work back, and work through the Bowie back catalogue, starting with Space Oddity, then all that stuff on Deram records – remember Images which had all the early stuff like ‘The Laughing Gnome’ on it? Then there was The Man Who Sold The World and then? Then there was Hunky Dory, and it’s got ‘Life On Mars’ and it’s got ‘Kooks’ and it’s got ‘Queen Bitch’, and ‘Changes’ of course. I remember listening to Hunky Dory and saying, "Okay, you’re right, I do have to buy everything by David Bowie now." That began that thing – you do Hunky Dory, you do Ziggy Stardust, you do Aladdin Sane, you do Diamond Dogs and you do Station To Station and you do Low, and I kept up with it right up until Scary Monsters…, that was the point where I lost track. If you think, "How do the albums go after Scary Monsters?" It’s "Well… was there that Tonight one? Was there one where he’s dressed as a boxer?" and by that point, of course, he’s making the most successful records he’s made, but I sort of lost interest. The most recent album, The Next Day, I thought was fantastic though, I thought it was almost up there with some of the best work he’d ever done. I was tempted to choose it for this, but I’ve lived with Hunky Dory for so long, and I know it works over the course of years.