David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.

Its probably a dead heat between this and Hunky Dory for the accolade of being my favourite Bowie album. Ziggy Stardust is an absolute bloody masterpiece. Bowie's songwriting was perfect, the concept excellent (the album is set 5 years before the end of the world and tells the story of an alien rockstar sent to spread a message of hope to humanity), Mick Ronson's guitar playing is sublime and the overall arrangements and producton couldn't be any better. From the opening "Five Years" to the closing desperation of "Rock & Roll Suicide" there's not a second of it's 38 minutes wasted.

This is another one of those albums that you really should own, seriously, go and order it now because it's fantastic. It's got "Starman", "Ziggy Stardust", "Rock And Roll Suicide" and "Suffragette City" on it, plus a few you may not know which are just as good. here's "Moonage Daydream"...