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George Orwell's classic tale of totalitarianism, 1984, was the inspiration for a project that David Bowie hoped would further solidify his standing as a rock visionary. Bowie was a natural artist to helm a musical companion to Orwell's allegory, since his own music exhibits an innate alienation. The concept ultimately broke down, but the music didn't. "Rebel Rebel" has become a rock staple, while "Sweet Thing," "Candidate," and the forthright yet experimental title track (Bowie as puppet master) offer additional highlights. Still, despite such benchmarks and its conceptual flaws, Diamond Dogs is best listened to as a thematic collection. --Rob O'Connor
Customer Review: Great album, a Bowie must have.
I bought this album having only heard "1984", and what a great album it turned out to be. This here is Bowie in his glam freakish deca-dance period, so you can imagine that the music sounds just like that, weird but glamorous. The only flaw I find is that the notes for "Sweet thing" are a little bit overstretched but thats not really an issue because it still makes a great song. Buy this and once you put it in your player make sure you have the volume down for the part after the intro, because it will blast your ears.
Customer Review: A transitional album from Ziggy to the Thin White Duke, but where's the rock?
Diamond Dogs is somewhat problematic for me. It's a concept album, perhaps Bowie's most theatrical, that marked a turn of direction away from the Ziggy-glam period and hinted at the "plastic soul" era of Young Americans. But while there are some excellent songs on Diamond Dogs and the concept is good, there is a lot of show tune-like theatrical music that focuses too much on vocal stylings and bombast for my taste. Because some songs were written for the failed concept album 1984 might explain the change of direction and the mannerist quality to some of the more bombastic songs. But Diamond Dogs is also a document of it's time: Bowie was moving away from glam and rock and towards a different yet still theatrical aesthetic. Unfortunately none of the songs on Diamond Dogs resonate with me as did the best from Ziggy or from Alladin Sane. I lay some of the blame on the absence of guitarist Mick Ronson. Bowie does a credible job on guitar but the rock that Mick would have brought to the mix just isn't there. Ultimately Diamond Dogs is good but has, for me, some things going against it. Mick Ronson is missing, some of the music is overly showtune theatrical and emotionally the album is quite a downer, the primary theme being societal decay. On the plus side, Diamond Dogs is lyrically and thematically ambitious, there are some very good tunes on this album and David sings well. But there's just not enough rock and roll and I miss it.


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