This album was made around the time of Bowie's first major acting role, in the film "The Man Who Fell To Earth". In fact, this album was originally going to be a soundtrack for the film, until Bowie found out that he was one of several people who had been asked to create the soundtrack, so that the producers could choose between them. So he put the music he'd created into this album. This was made during the height of Bowie's musical output (from 1969 to 1980 he produced 13 studio albums), and also during the height of Bowie's drug-taking. He spent most of his life at the time being intensely paranoid, but it certainly didn't hurt the music. The diversity on this album is astounding: just listen to the 10 minute, rocky title track, the funk-inspired "Stay" and the velvet "Wild Is the Wind". My personal favourite is "Word on a Wing", which is brilliant musically, but also shows quite a different side of Bowie than normal. There is no other album that serves as a comparison, as is the case with all of Bowie's best.