The principle of In the Can is straight forward. Two tracks have been selected from the same album to go head-to-head, and it’s up to you to decide which is the best. Certain L.P.s have been disqualified due to lack of quality (see Unfit for Human Consumption).

Pre Space Oddity

Space Oddity

The Man Who Sold The World

Hunky Dory

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

Aladdin Sane

Diamond Dogs

Young Americans

Station to Station

“Heroes”

Low

Lodger

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

Earthling

Hours

Heathen

Reality

Tags: Be my Wife, Big Brother, Black Country Rock, Blackout, Breaking Glass, D.J., Diamond Dogs, Drive in Saturday, Earthling, Fame, Fashion, Hang onto Yourself, Head-to-Head, hours, janine, Let me Sleep Beside You, Life on Mars, Panic in Detroit, Reality, Red Sails, Scary Monsters, station to station, Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed, V-2 Schneider, We are the Dead, Win

Who am I to criticise Bowie? Someone who has bought Tonight, Never Let me Down, and pre-Space Oddity compilations featuring numbers as poor as When I’m Five, and Love you till Tuesday. Anyone who has endured the anti-climatic Black Tie/White Noise and the half-arsed covers on Pin Ups, has a near-constitutional right to have his/her tuppence’ worth. Therefore…

The first halves of the albums Low and “Heroes” are truly magnificent; the second halves are a dreary, ambient drone. Imagine if you will, a single entity containing such classics as Breaking Glass, Sound and Vision, V-2 Schneider, “Heroes”, Speed of Life, Be my Wife, Beauty and the Beast, Blackout, and Always Crashing in the Same Car. Now consider over half an hour of grinding, funeral parlour music (albeit technically competent) including such plodding examples as Moss Garden, and that one about Warsaw, that starts off dull, then rapidly turns silly, with tribal chantings and the like.

Am I alone in my sense of doubt? Please feel free to leave a comment:

Tags: "Heroes", Album of two halves, Be my Wife, Berlin, Berlin Divided, Berlin Wall of Sound, Bowie discussion, Low, Prussia, Sense of Doubt, V-2 Schneider