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BowieADay 2025

While 1001 Other Albums wasn’t yet around last January, for those who follow my personal Mastodon account, you may have seen that I do a deep dive into David Bowie’s discography this time every year. Ever since Bowie left us in 2016, I’ve focused my listening time each January around his discography, starting on his birthday (January 8, aka “Bowiemas”) through to the anniversary of him leaving us (January 10, aka “Bowienalia”) until the end of the month (or later).

While in previous years I’ve typically crammed in as much Bowie as humanly possible, after a few of you expressed interest in joining me this year (yay!!!), I’ve decided to structure my Bowie vigil a bit more so we can all listen to the same albums together. And, since we learned our lesson after the whirlwind that was #TomWaitsAWeek, we’ve decided to take our time with Bowie, simply listening to one studio album a day in chronological order – a total of 26 albums over 26 days – with the option of listening to any extras on our own. Though we still have a few Bowie albums on The List to spotlight, unlike our Tom Waits week, I won’t be writing all those up to match our listening schedule this time around. However, we do have an excellent guest spotlight on the Low album lined up in time, so look for that next week (edit: here!). (Edit: We’re now planning on doing a community-wide, oral history sort of spotlight for Blackstar on its 10-year anniversary next year, January 8, 2026. Please message me if you’d like your thoughts included!)

In case anyone else wants to join us, below is our listening schedule (complete with listening links), and we’ll be using the hashtag #BowieADay to toot our thoughts about it as we go through the albums. For any of you wanting some extra credit, I’ve added some suggested bonus listening, as well as other goodies. Note the bonus picks are by no means exhaustive. Aside from all the music videos/interviews/etc. the Internets provides, there’s been a TON of live albums and other previously unreleased stuff put out posthumously that you might want to explore on your own. I also highly recommend perusing Chris O’Leary’s in-depth look into every single Bowie song, as found on his Pushing Ahead of the Dame blog and collected/edited in his two books, Rebel Rebel: All the Songs of David Bowie from ’64 to ’76 and Ashes to Ashes: The Songs of David Bowie, 1976-2016. I’ll be adding more bonus content as we go through the schedule, so feel free to check back later.

Happy listening!

#BowieADay 2025 Listening Schedule

• January 8: David Bowie (1967)
  • Bonus: If you want to skip to the end already, grab a tissue and also listen to Blackstar, released OTD. There was also a RSD release last year, Laughing With Liza (Vocalion And Deram Singles 1964-1967+), that has a couple earlier tracks from his time as “Davie Jones with The King Bees”. Also see the I Dig Everything: The 1966 Pye Singles EP, as well as a comp released in 1991 that isn’t on streaming services, Early On (1964-1966).
• January 9: David Bowie (aka Space Oddity) (1969)
  • Bonus: The ‘Mercury’ Demos (recorded in 1969, released 2019); Toy (mostly re-workings of songs originally from 1964-71, recorded in 2000 and released 2021)
• January 10: The Man Who Sold the World (1970)
  • Bonus: Again, perhaps listen to Blackstar, simply because Bowie left us on this day, leaving this album as his final parting gift.
• January 11: Hunky Dory (1971)
  • Bonus: Seu Jorge – The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions (2005)
• January 12: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)
  • Bonus: Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture film (1979) or soundtrack (1983). The version of “My Death” in the film/soundtrack is an absolute must-hear, in particular.
• January 13: Aladdin Sane (1973)
  • Bonus: Lou Reed – Transformer (1972) (Bowie co-produced); Iggy and the Stooges – Raw Power (1973) (Bowie co-produced/mixed; the linked deluxe edition has both the Bowie mix and the Iggy mix, for direct comparison)
• January 14: Pin Ups (1973)
  • Bonus: If you want to skip ahead a bit, also listen to Low, released OTD.
• January 15: Diamond Dogs (1974)
  • Bonus: David Live (1974)
• January 16: Young Americans (1975)
  • Bonus: I’m Only Dancing (The Soul Tour 74) (2020); Luther Vandross – Never Too Much (1981)
• January 17: Station to Station (1976)
  • Bonus: The Man Who Fell to Earth film (1976); Nina Simone – Wild is the Wind (1966)
• January 18: Low (1977) [blog feature]
  • Bonus: Philip Glass – Symphony No. 1 “Low” (1992); Iggy Pop – The Idiot (1977) (Bowie produced, co-wrote, and performed)
• January 19: “Heroes” (1977)
  • Bonus: Heroes/Helden/Héros EP (1977); Stage (1978); Iggy Pop – Lust for Life (1977) (Bowie co-produced, co-wrote, performed); Philip Glass – Symphony No. 4 “Heroes” (1996; 2007 performance linked)
• January 20: Lodger (1979)
  • Bonus: Philip Glass – Symphony No. 12 “Lodger” (2019)
• January 21: Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980)
  • Bonus: David Bowie in Bertolt Brecht’s Baal EP (1982)
• January 22: Let’s Dance (1983)
  • Bonus: Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence film (1983); The Hunger film (1983)
• January 23: Tonight (1984)
  • Bonus: Not going to lie, Tonight is a bit weak. So, you might want to re-listen to Station to Station again, released OTD. And/or check out the Labyrinth film/soundtrack (1986), or the Bowie tracks on the Absolute Beginners soundtrack (1986).
• January 24: Never Let Me Down (1987)
  • Bonus: If NLMD let you down (a likely situation), perhaps check out Tin Machine today! Tin Machine was a short-lived group with Bowie on vocals, Reeves Gabrels on guitar, Tony Fox Sales on bass and vocals, and Hunt Sales on drums. They put out 2 LPs, and there’s also 2 live albums:
    • Tin Machine (1989)
    • Tin Machine II (1991)
    • Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby (1992)
    • Tin Machine: Live at La Cigale, Paris, 25 June 1989 (2019)
• January 25: Black Tie White Noise (1993)
  • Bonus: The Walker Brothers – Nite Flights (1978)
• January 26: The Buddha of Suburbia (1993)
  • Bonus: The Buddha of Suburbia TV series (1993)
• January 27: 1. Outside (The Nathan Adler Diaries: A Hyper Cycle) (1995)
  • Bonus: The Leon Suites (1994); NIN/Bowie co-headlining “Dissonance” tour (1995)
• January 28: EART HL I NG (1997)
  • Bonus: TAO Jones Index – Pallas Athena/V2 Schneider (12″ from 1997, also included on the expanded edition of EARTHLING)
• January 29: ‘hours…’ (1999)
  • Bonus: Omikron: The Nomad Soul soundtrack (1999); Glastonbury 2000 (2018)
• January 30: Heathen (2002)
  • Bonus: Pixies – Surfer Rosa (1988)
• January 31: Reality (2003)
  • Bonus: A Reality Tour live DVD (2004) or album (2010); The Modern Lovers – s/t (1976)
• February 1: The Next Day (2013)
  • Bonus: The Next Day Extra EP (2013)
• February 2: ★ (aka Blackstar) (2016)
  • Bonus: The musical Lazarus, by Bowie and Irish playwright Enda Walsh, is meant to be a sort of sequel to The Man Who Fell to Earth, featuring the same main character, Thomas Newton, with Bowie songs as the soundtrack. The original cast recording (2016) features stunning performances from Michael C. Hall, Sophia Anne Caruso, Cristin Milioti, and Michael Esper, and includes tracks from the posthumously released No Plan EP (2017).
  • Moar bonus: I would also highly suggest Donny McCaslin – Beyond Now, featuring the same band that’s on Blackstar (McCaslin on sax, Tim Lefebvre on bass, Jason Linder on keys, and Mark Guiliana on drums) and a couple Bowie covers. ALSO, the recent documentary Moonage Daydream (2022) is a positively stunning film that any Bowie fan should see.