The Platinum Collection

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Diving into a new David Bowie collection is all about comfort. The listener should land somewhere between the reliable pool of radio staples like "Golden Years," "Suffragette City," and "Let's Dance" and the deep water of fan favorites like "TVC 15" and "Look Back in Anger." EMI's three-disc Platinum Collection does an awfully good job of placating fans of both reservoirs, focusing on the Thin White Duke's mercurial 1969-1987 offerings. Each disc covers an era -- 1969-1974, 1974-1979, and 1980-1987 -- allowing time for both classics ("Starman") and obscurities ("Velvet Goldmine"). The Platinum Collection gets high marks for the inclusion of oft-overlooked gems such as "All the Young Dudes" and "Wild Is the Wind," but it's the appearance of soundtrack nuggets like "When the Wind Blows," from the animated nuclear war fable of the same name, "Underground" from Labyrinth, and "Drowned Girl" from the play Baal that sets this anthology apart from others.

Tracklist

Disc: 1
1    The Jean Genie (1997 Remaster)
2    Space Oddity (1997 Remaster)
3    Starman (1997 Remaster)
4    Ziggy Stardust (1997 Remaster)
5    John, I'm Only Dancing (Sax Version) [1997 Remaster]
6    Rebel Rebel (1997 Remaster)
7    Let's Spend the Night Together (1997 Remaster)
8    Suffragette City (1997 Remaster)
9    Oh! You Pretty Things (1997 Remaster)
10    Velvet Goldmine (1997 Remaster)
11    Drive-In Saturday (1997 Remaster)
12    Diamond Dogs (1997 Remaster)
13    Changes (1997 Remaster)
14    Sorrow (1997 Remaster)
15    The Prettiest Star (1997 Remaster)
16    Life on Mars? (1997 Remaster)
17    Aladdin Sane (1997 Remaster)
18    The Man Who Sold the World (1997 Remaster)
19    Rock 'n' Roll Suicide (1997 Remaster)
20    All the Young Dudes (1997 Remaster)
Disc: 2
1    Sound and Vision (1998 Remaster)
2    Golden Years (1998 Remaster)
3    Fame (1998 Remaster)
4    Young Americans (1998 Remaster)
5    John, I'm Only Dancing (Again) [1998 Remaster]
6    Can You Hear Me (1998 Remaster)
7    Wild Is the Wind (1998 Remaster)
8    Knock on Wood (Live) [1998 Remaster]
9    TVC 15 (1998 Remaster)
10    1984 (1998 Remaster)
11    It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City
12    Look Back in Anger (1998 Remaster)
13    The Secret Life of Arabia (1998 Remaster)
14    D.J. (1998 Remaster)
15    Beauty and the Beast (1998 Remaster)
16    Breaking Glass (1998 Remaster)
17    Boys Keep Swinging (1998 Remaster)
18    Heroes (1998 Remaster)
Disc: 3
1    Let's Dance (2002 Remaster)
2    Ashes to Ashes (2002 Remaster)
3    Under Pressure (1994 Remaster) - Queen & David Bowie
4    Fashion
5    Modern Love (2002 Remaster)
6    China Girl (2002 Remaster)
7    Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) [2002 Remaster]
8    Up the Hill Backwards (1999 Remaster)
9    Alabama Song (Aufstieg Und Fall Der Stadt Mahagonny) [2005 Remaster]
10    The Drowned Girl
11    Cat People (Putting Out Fire) [Single Version] [2002 Remaster]
12    This Is Not America (2002 Remaster) - David Bowie & The Pat Metheny Group
13    Loving the Alien (1999 Remaster)
14    Absolute Beginners (2002 Remaster)
15    When the Wind Blows (2002 Remaster)
16    Blue Jean (1999 Remaster)
17    Day-In Day-Out (2002 Remaster)
18    Time Will Crawl (1999 Remaster)
19    Underground (2002 Remaster)