10 Most Underrated David Bowie Albums

Plenty of artists tend to have those albums that are seen as nothing more than contract fulfillers. Rather than be a fresh new body of work, these are normally cheap albums comprised of odds and ends in an attempt to just make a quick buck off of your average music fan. There's pretty much no better example of this kind of album than Pin Ups, but even when Bowie was phoning it in, there's still some interesting stuff on display.

Looking to expose the British pop scene to a new market, most of this album is just Bowie doing a bunch of covers of the artists he grew up listening to, from the Who to the Kinks to early Pink Floyd. Even though some tracks like his version of Can't Explain are nowhere near as transcendent as the original, there are still plenty of fantastic cuts on here. The twisted take on See Emily Play by Floyd is one of the darker passages of this era of Bowie, while something like Friday on My Mind shows that he can just as easily sell a great hook rather than just create an art rock masterpiece.

For an artist that was all about taking risks, this album makes you feel like a fly on the wall in the recording studio, as Bowie uses these tracks as an opportunity to cut loose. There might be plenty of Bowie originals that would come before this, but don't let that deter from the freewheeling energy on here.