David Bowie - Hunky Dory

Hunky Dory is the fourth studio album by English musician David Bowie, released in December 1971 via RCA Records. It was his first release through RCA, which would be his label for the next decade.

David Robert Jones (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016), better known by his stage name David Bowie, was an English singer, songwriter and actor. For over five decades, he was regarded by critics and musicians as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s. His career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation, his music and stagecraft significantly influencing popular music. During his lifetime, his record sales, estimated at 140 million worldwide, made him one of the world’s best selling music artists. In the UK, he was awarded nine platinum album certifications, eleven gold and eight silver, releasing eleven number on albums. In the US, he received five platinum and seven gold certifications. He was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1996.

Hunky Dory saw Bowie return to singer / songwriter territory after the harder edged The Man Who Sold the World. Not only did the album boast more folky songs like Song For Bob Dylan, and The Bewlay Brothers, but he again flirted with dancehallish music on tracks like Kooks, and Fill Your Heart.

As a result, Hunky Dory is a kaleidoscopic array of pop styles, tied together only by Bowie’s sense of vision. A sweeping, cinematic mélange of high and low art, ambiguous sexuality, kitsch, and class.

Mick Ronson’s guitar is pushed to the back, leaving Rick Wakeman’s cabaret piano to dominate the sound of the album. The subdued support accentuates the depth of Bowie’s material, whether it's the revamped Tin Pan Alley of Changes, the Neil Young homage Quicksand, the soaring Life On Mars?, the rolling, Oh! You Pretty Things, or the dark acoustic rocker Andy Warhol.

On the surface, such a wide range of styles and sounds would make an album incoherent, but Bowie’s songwriting and determined sense of style makes Hunky Dory a touchstone for reinterpreting pop's traditions into fresh, postmodern pop music.

The album has received critical acclaim since its release, and is regarded as one of Bowie's best works.

This limited edition LP on 180 gram heavyweight vinyl with reproduced original artwork is pressed in Europe.