Customer Reviews
Bowie's darkest, most mysterious album - By: M. Evans, 09 Jan 2009 
The Man Who Sold The World was one of the last Bowie album's I got around to buying, & I could have kicked myself for not getting it sooner - it's a terrific album, full of dark, occult-tinged lyrics & haunting melodies. Only one below par track (She Shook Me Cold), this is also Bowie's heaviest album (in rock terms) & probably his most personal. Despite it's dark, mystical tone, the tunes are still great & Bowie's voice has never sounded so alien. One of his very best, I would say.
After All - not quite a superman yet - By: John Pownall, 29 Oct 2008 
This sounds like a great big jamming session. It is very much an album to showcase Mick Ronson's playing talent, but, from what I understand, Visconti has commented that Bowie himself was not very "present" for much of the work on the album. It shows. It is a brilliantly crafted & engineered piece of rock (as you'd expect from Visconti); but the sensibilities of the mainman himself seem very muchin the background except on the beautiful "After All" & "All the Madmen".
"Width of a Circle" sounds to me, for all its evident musical strengths, like Bowie trying hard to be Mick Jagger. But Bowie simply, at that age, did not have the balls for it. His instincts were theatrical & music hall; hardcore rhythm n blues was as alien to him as country & western or reggae.
The album has some, frankly, awful moments - Running Gun Blues, Saviour Machine, Black Country Rock (complete with its "Mock" Bolan vocals.)Even the title track starts to pall after about a minute & a half (Nirvana did it better).
For me, TMWSTW is the least successful of all Bowie's seventies output & represented a complete dead end for him; one he would only revisit againin 1988's Tin Machine; & look at the carnage that caused! Nonetheless, it is worth three stars for the great production & two lovely songs. Thank goodness for Hunky Dory, & the genuine songwriting genius that the next three albums showcased.
The Man Who Sold The World: What Ed thinks - By: Edward Hough, 04 Jul 2008 Now fully restored with the original 'Dress' cover- if you remember this with a black sleeve & Bowie/Ziggy performing a high kick, it is the same album. And what an album it is. You won't find any of this on the greaters hits CDs, as it contained....no hits. What you do get is one of those classic 'track 1 side 1s'in Width of a Circle, an 8+ minute piece of classic early '70s rock. There is a good balance here between rock (Black Country Rock, Running Gun Blues, Saviour Machine) & the quieter tracks that hark back to Bowie's previous 'Man of Words' album (After All being a casein point). The MWSTW album is the one album that confirmed I was, indeed, a Bowie fan. Can't mention the title track nowadays without mentioning Nirvana, who covered it on 'Unplugged'. Luckily for curious Nirvana fans wanting to hear the original, it sits on a rewarding album. Buy it.
Finding His Style But Too Much Filla - By: Mr. Anthony JONES, 31 Oct 2007 It feels bad to be a Bowie fan giving the lad a 3-star rating, but after just listening to this again, the minutes do drag somewhat.
The whole album feels like Bowie trying out "rock"in a Deep Purple stylie, but Bowie is pop to his very core & it is really a Ronson/Visconti album acoustically, while the lyrics feel throwaway.
"Width O A C" is certainly a great opener & a huge changein style from the last album. But it smells a bit prog to me - a welding of different song bits together rather than the "proper" songs that made his name.
"All The Madman" feels honest & open, which is very rare for DB. Depressing but my favourite cut off the album, here he is trying to work through the madness that had touched his family.
And after that, the album dies on its arse. Dull dull derivative rock all the way before a bright interlude of "Man Who Sold T' World" (a proper hit record hidden away) before the Nietzschian boredom of Superman.
This version doesn't have the extras of others, & that's a blessing. "Holy Holy" is a holy mess, & the early version of "Moonage Daydream" is dire. "Hang On To Yourself"'s energy is suppressed under lacklustre playing.
This is not an album for any but the most committed Bowie fan - newcomers should skip along to Hunky, Ziggy or Station.
I ran across a monster! - By: Trendy, 23 Sep 2007 So goes the lyricin the Width of a Circle, & this is a monster album. Not easy listening, but a deep, dark monster of a recording to really get you into another world. The intro to Width of a Circle is superb, but the highlight of the song is the thudding 'heavy metal' section towards the end where Bowie screams, 'His nebulous body swayed above - his tongue swollen with devil's love.' The best track on the album is 'All the Mad Men', Bowie's reaction to his half brother Terry's mental illness & admittance to Cane Hill mental hospitalin Croydon. 'I'd rather stay here with all the madmen - for I'm quite content they're all as sane as me.' What sort of a line is that? I love the play out of 'Zane zane zane - ouvre le chien.' It stays with you & was clearly important to BOwie as he recycled it on The Buddha of Suburbia 23 years later. The rest of this set is great, though the Supermen has always been one of my least favourites. 'After all' is beautiful, & the title track, well, what can you say about it? Lulu & Nirvana knew enough. All this, & a beutiful cover of Bowiein a dress, playing cards strewn on the floor of Haddon Hall. The album artwork is beautiful, too. If you are a BOwie fan, this is absolutely essential, & a classic beyond doubt. Get it.
