Smally2401's Music Reviews and More

16/05/2025

David Bowie - Station to Station

1976 / Art Rock, Funk Rock

In January 1976, David Bowie released Station to Station while living in Los Angeles and surviving on a diet of milk, peppers and a lot of cocaine. Bowie’s style had gone through a lot of changes, leaving his Ziggy Stardust persona behind and presenting the Thin White Duke, a rather controversial figure, often described as a “mad aristocrat” or an “amoral zombie”. Bowie himself would go on to explain that he started seeing this persona as a nasty character, it was a dangerous period for him, the darkest days of his life according to his own words, and he couldn’t even remember most of the recording sessions of the album.

So, is Station to Station a remarkable album in his discography? Yes. Yes, it is. I’d go as far as to call it a top three Bowie album. The title track alone is one of the finest pieces he ever recorded (seriously, what a masterpiece), and his cover of Wild Is the Wind is beautifully tragic and emotionally compelling. His vocals throughout the album are simply stunning, especially on Wild Is the Wind and Word on a Wing, and the funk rock style gives it a unique energy that sets it apart from anything else in his catalog. Even with a runtime of less than 40 minutes and only six tracks, Station to Station manages to achieve a lot, both musically and emotionally.

Station to Station also marks a deeply meaningful shift in Bowie’s career. It signals the beginning of his art rock era, a path he’d fully embrace in the acclaimed Berlin Trilogy that followed. Despite the personal chaos surrounding its creation, the album became a bridge between his soul album Young Americans and the colder, more experimental sounds of Low, his next LP.

Overall, Station to Station is not only a standout in Bowie’s discography, it’s one of the most significant albums of its time. It captures an artist on the edge, transforming personal collapse into creative rebirth, and to this day it remains as one of his greatest and most important works.

Final rating: ★★★★⯪ / Masterful

Favorite tracks:

🥇 Station to Station

🥈 Wild Is the Wind

🥉 Word on a Wing

11/05/2025

Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon

1973 / Art Rock, Progressive Rock

Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon is a very special album to me. No, it’s not my favorite album of all time, it’s not even my favorite Pink Floyd album. But it’s the album that made me realize really how good music can get. It’s so unbelievably perfect in every way and on my first listen I felt things that I didn’t know music could be capable of.

But enough about me, let’s talk about the album itself. DSOTM is a very beloved album, and it’s easy to see why. It perfectly captures the entire human experience in just 40 minutes, in only 10 tracks it’s capable of telling you everything about life, from the moment you’re born until the moment you die. But it’s not just how the album feels, it’s also how the album sounds. Pink Floyd had just moved on from their psychedelic era but you can still feel some of the space rock in there, especially on Breathe. It has also aged beautifully, thanks to its theme and the incredible production and engineering.

The lyrics on here are splendid. In fact, they’re so good that it’s almost impossible to just highlight a few. Time specially is as perfect as a song can get when it comes to lyrics. “And then one day you find ten years have got behind you, no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun”. Other highlights include “I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon” on Brain Damage, as well as the repetition of the same sentence structure on Eclipse, which feels like the music equivalent of life flashing before your eyes.

Every single song on the album is important, and the way they all transition into each other is fantastic. Time, a song about, well, the passing of time and the concept of ageing, leads to The Great Gig in the Sky, a song about trying to accept the fact that you’re eventually going to die. Money has themes of wealth and greed, and Us and Them talks about conflict, specifically war. Even the “worse” tracks on the album like Speak to Me or On the Run are essential and help the album as a whole.

Dark Side of the Moon is a masterpiece, and that is undeniable. You could tell me you believe it’s the pinnacle of music and the greatest album of all time and I wouldn’t disagree at all. It’s a timeless work of art that will remain significant for as long as humanity exists.

Final rating: ★★★★★ / Transcendental

Favorite tracks:

🥇 Brain Damage / Eclipse

🥈 Us and Them

🥉 The Great Gig in the Sky