Station to Station is the 10th studio album by English musician David Bowie, released on 23 January 1976 by RCA Records. In early 1975, Bowie moved to Los Angeles, California to shoot a role for Nicolas Roeg's film The Man Who Fell to Earth. His role in the film would heavily influence him and his next onstage persona for the rest of the year. Having developed an addiction to cocaine the previous year, Bowie's mental state deteriorated rapidly during his time in the city, affecting numerous personal relationships. The commercial success of his previous album Young Americans (1975) allowed him greater freedom when he began recording his next album.
Station to Station was co-produced by Bowie and Harry Maslin and mostly recorded at L.A.'s Cherokee Studios in late 1975, with additional recording done at Record Plant Studios. The sessions established the lineup of guitarist Carlos Alomar, bassist George Murray and drummer Dennis Davis that Bowie would use for the rest of the decade, with additional contributions from guitarist Earl Slick and pianist Roy Bittan. With an emphasis on experimentation, the sessions cemented a new recording process—backing tracks followed by overdubs and vocals—that Bowie would use on subsequent albums. Nevertheless, Bowie's cocaine use during the sessions escalated to the point where he recalled almost nothing of the album's production.
Musically, Station to Station was a transitional album for Bowie, developing the funk and soul of Young Americans while presenting a new art rock direction influenced by electronic music and the German music genre of krautrock, particularly bands such as Neu! and Kraftwerk. Lyrically, the albums contains themes that preoccupied Bowie's mind at the time, including the ideologies of Friedrich Nietzsche, Aleister Crowley, mythology and religion, while the title track introduced the persona of the Thin White Duke. The cover artwork is a still frame from The Man Who Fell to Earth. While the original was in black-and-white and featured a thick white border, subsequent reissues have used a full-size colour version.
Preceded by the single "Golden Years", Bowie promoted the album with numerous appearances on television. Upon release, Station to Station was a commercial success, reaching the top five in the UK and US charts. After scrapping a soundtrack for The Man Who Fell to Earth, Bowie supported the album with the Isolar Tour in early 1976, where he often performed in character as the Thin White Duke. He attracted controversy during the tour after making statements related to supporting fascism. At the end of the tour, Bowie moved to Europe to remove himself from the L.A. drug culture. The styles explored on Station to Station culminated in some of Bowie's most acclaimed work with the Berlin Trilogy over the following three years. Positively received by music critics on release, Station to Station is retrospectively regarded as one of Bowie's greatest works, with many praising its cohesiveness and musical growth. It has subsequently appeared on several lists of the greatest albums of all time.
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