10 Most Underrated Albums From Legendary Hard Rock Bands
5. The Man Who Sold the World - David Bowie
When talking about the greatest musicians to ever grace the hard rock genre, David Bowie doesn't really sound like he belongs in such hallowed company. Though there's no disputing the amount of impact Bowie has had on legions of rockers around the world, you're not really expecting gargantuan heavy riffs and hard rock diatribes from the same guy who brought you something like Let's Dance and the Jean Genie. That is, unless it's The Man Who Sold The World.
Much like his chameleon persona, this was Bowie's first foray into the world of heavier rock, coming after a well publicized vaudevillian period that he was desperate to break out of. Working with Tony Visconti and Mick Ronson for the first time in his career, the Man Who Sold the World is probably the closest to heavy metal that Bowie has ever sounded, with The Width of a Circle and Black Country Rock setting up a more primitive form of rock and roll.
On the production side of things, the songs still hold up as some of the heaviest of the time period, with riffs so menacing it's surprising that Tony Iommi doesn't have a co-writing credit on some of these tracks. Although most might know this album for that one song that Nirvana covered, this is the sound of the harsher side of rock discovering itself.