DAVID BOWIE: The Best Of David Bowie 1969/1974 (EMI) The stuff that made everyone love David Jones in the first place. A mere five of Bowie's 33-year career are represented here, but what years they were. Re-inventing himself as an alien blessed with super-glamorous tendencies, Bowie injected a brand new flavour into rock'n'roll: a bit camp and sensitive for the girls, yet wacky and raucous enough for boys to love too. Classics are genuinely abundant here; the ultra-tartiness of John I'm Only Dancing, head in the clouds wistfulness on Starman, the championing of gutter trash that is Suffragette City; 20 tunes with nary a duffer in there. It's almost impossible to imagine people who don't know these songs as well as their own brothers and sisters, but if you're one of them, acquire immediately.
Q-Rating: *****