Hunky Dory

iTunes Review

Though David Bowie is now enshrined as one of rock’s true visionaries, there was a time earlier in his career when he was clearly searching for his voice. 1971’s Hunky Dory helped Bowie find his footing, serving as the folk and glam influenced follow-up to the gritty hard rock of The Man Who Sold the World. Its welcome variety set the stage for Bowie’s emergence as one of the 1970’s most versatile artists. (His wildly popular Ziggy Stardust persona was on deck.) The album’s opening cut, “Changes,” eventually became a modest hit and serves as a definitive Bowie anthem. Elsewhere, Bowie’s Anthony Newley-English music hall influences are still ripe (“Kooks,” “Fill Your Heart,” “Andy Warhol”) and his attempts at otherworldly singer-songwriterdom — where acoustic and electric guitars are parceled out as required — are appealingly presented as “Song for Bob Dylan” and the ambitiously stream-of-conscious “The Bewlay Boys.” Bowie’s ambiguous sexuality takes a playful turn with the sparkling glam-rock of “Oh! You Pretty Things” and the Lou Reed-Velvet Underground influenced drive of “Queen Bitch.”