Album of the Day

DIAMOND DOGS was David Bowie's third U.K. No.1 album and his first Top 10 hit in America. If George Orwell's estate had been more amenable, the set would have been a concept album based on 1984, and that book's dystopian outlook runs through many of these songs - most directly in “1984” and “Big Brother.” “In a way, it was a precursor to the punk thing,” Bowie later noted of the characters in “Diamond Dogs.” But the real unifier here is the swaggering rock of that title track and iconic single “Rebel Rebel”; having recently retired his Spiders from Mars, the collection would be the last Bowie would make in his signature glam style. With frequent collaborator Tony Visconti returning to supply string arrangements, the gold-certified DIAMOND DOGS is a striking summation of this phase of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer's career.