Before he found his form and success in 1971 with
Hunky Dory, young David Bowie went through a bumpy early career. He had a hit in 1969 with Space Oddity, but the singles he released after that didn't do him justice. His third album
The Man Who Sold The World (1970) didn't do much at first either. The music on this album sounded far away from the hippie-folk of his first two albums. With Mick Ronson
… on guitar for the first time and his later, loyal producer Tony Visconti on bass, it is dominated by heavy hard rock songs with a dark atmosphere. The Width Of A Circle collects the singles and radio sessions from those days. An equally whimsical and fascinating whole, in light of the phenomenon Bowie would rise a year later to permanently influence rock and pop. (MR)more
