working my way from hunky dory up to scary monsters atm, and am just wondering how his 80s/90s stuff compares to his earlier work

what albums are a MUST, and what others can i comfortably avoid?

you know hunky dory isn't his first album right?
i would say get all the 60s/70s stuff
80s bowie..alright sometimes
90s...haven't heard much
00s...no clue
guess i need to get more bowie too lol

i really like the more recent bowie, prob my fav era.
BR<> i'd say the must listen albums that i know well are tonight, tin machine, black tie white noise, earthling, and heathen.


but then again i think they are all good, you just have to be in the right mood for each album.

earthling is pretty solid

you know hunky dory isn't his first album right?

and yeah if you missed it the album before hunky dory - the man who sold the world - it's fucking awesome, prob my fav bowie album.

ah cool...i just started with hunky dory because it was the earliest one i had

Skip Angela Bowie's biography/bs book at all costs. What a fucking BS rant full of shit. Horrible stuff. I've only heard a mixture of post 70s here an there, and what I've heard, I liked.

and yeah if you missed it the album before hunky dory - the man who sold the world - it's fucking awesome, prob my fav bowie album.

and don't forget Space Oddity. Or his horrible self-titled. Or his awesome output from 64-66.

1983 Let's Dance
This is the only Bowie album that he didn't play ANY of the instruments on the recordings. Good pop album. Great catchy tunes. Very different from Scary Monsters though.

1984 Tonight and 1987 Never Let Me Down
i avoided these two for a long time, even though i'm a huge Bowie fan. once i finally came them some listens they're actually pretty decent albums. Some fun stuff. as long as you can get past the cheesy 80's drums and reverb. Standout tracks I can think off just by looking at track titles are: Don't Look Down, Tumble And Twirl, Blue Jean, '87 And Cry, Beat Of Your Drum, Never Let Me Down.

1989 Tin Machine and 1991 Tin Machine II
i'm not too familiar with these albums as i don't think they're very good. Bowie started a band (instead of being a solo artist) and they encouraged him to not think to hard with the lyrics, more improve type stuff and it shows. horrible lyrics, mostly. a couple good tracks though especially "I Can Read", "You've Been Around" and "You Belong In Rock 'N' Roll". well, those are actually the three songs i can think of that iactually enjoy.

1993 The Buddha of Suburbia
Cool mostly instrumental album. not poppy in the least (except, i guess for the title track). not a bad album, just mostly ambient (i guess) instrumental songs.

1993 Black Tie, White Noise
the title track is a steaming pile of shit. the rest of the album ain't too bad. it's a good indication of where Bowie was going to go with his next two albums. some early 90's electronic beats litter the album, before Bowie got a little more high tech. standout tracks: a great rerecording of the Tin Machine song "You've Been Around", "Jump They Say", "Pallas Athena" "Don;t Let Me Down And Down", and "Miracle Goodnight"

1995 Outside
Awesome album. one of my favorites by Bowie. really cool, creepy concept and not a bad track in site. Bowie pulls of some interesting segues as different characters within the "story" of the album. more of an industrial album. i'd list the standout tracks but that'd be a long list. i highly recommend this one.

1997 Earthling
another industrial album. not as good as Outside, and actually a little repetitive. not as...interesting. a little harsher, i guess, but not as dark. some songs seem to go on a bit too long without doing quite enough. standout tracks: "Little Wonder", "Battle For Britain (The Letter)" "I'm Afraid Of Americans", "Law (Earthling On Fire)".

1999 Hours...
boring. avoid at all costs.

2002 Heathen
great album. a good mix of a little bit of the electronic Bowie as well as the more traditional guitar and/or piano Bowie. many well played tracks on here. stand outs: Sunday, Slow Burn, I Would Be Your Slave, 5:15 The Angels Have Gone, A Better Future, Heathen (The Rays). there was also a version that came with a bonus that had two great remixes by Air and Moby and a great rerecording of an older song "Conversation Piece" which is one of my favorites from this album era.

2003 Reality
a nice follow up to Heathen, though i'd say i like Heathen more. not as many electronics on this one, but a good solid album. standouts: Pablo Picasso, The Loneliest Guy, Looking For Water, Try Some, Buy Some, Bring Me The Disco King.

hope this all helps. i have a ton of Bowie non-album, demo, unreleased shit so if you're interested in any of it, just let me know.

Tonight is shitsville. Save it for last if at all!

and yeah if you missed it the album before hunky dory - the man who sold the world - it's fucking awesome, prob my fav bowie album.

yeah, it is great, for the stuff before that you have:
man of words/man of music (reissued as 'space oddity') [69]
the deram anthology [66-68] and "early on" [64-66]
i have 'deram' tho i've only listened to it a couple times [i should again]..haven't heard 'early on'. haven't been on a bowie trip in a couple years, i'm prolly due for one