A Divine Symmetry (An alternative journey through Hunky Dory)

To most, ‘Hunky Dory’ is probably a very familiar album and even more so if you’re a Bowie fan. I’d be surprised if it wasn’t an essential acquisition. The album rightfully marked Bowie’s fully fledged entry into the world of pop music and acted as the platform for Ziggy’s emergence.To be fair, this ‘new’ album isn’t vastly different from the original. If you’re really familiar with that original, you’ll notice interesting, often subtle, differences; a different vocal here or a phased guitar there, a variance in a saxophone solo. Wakeman’s piano seems more up front in the mix on some tracks and yet, none of these additions or differences distract from the enjoyment of hearing this album again, in the same running order (save the addition of ‘Bombers’ the track dropped from the final album. It’s a masterpiece and I would have been equally happy in buying and listening to this version back in the day.So, does it stand up as an essential acquisition today? Probably not but it’s certainly worthy of a good listen. One for completists, perhaps?The album, however, is flat as a pancake; a fabulous pressing without a pop or a crackle. Not like my original!

Honestly it’s not much different from the original release bar the welcome extra song. However the vinyl quality isn’t great - far from silent playback. This is a problem with so many new releases. Not as lousy as the Pink Floyd reissues but not perfect.

A Divine Symmetry is a remix of David Bowie's Hunky Dory, an album not in need of a remix. However, the new mixes are all great, especially Changes and Song For Bob Dylan. Add in the BOWPROMO mixes and Bombers, you have yourself a great album. I have just two issues with the release:1. Andy Warhol is just the 2015 remaster2. It isn't available as a stand-alone CDThe first isn't a large issue since it fits well with the rest of the alternative mixes, and the second isn't a fault of this particular release.

Not much can be done to the original Hunky Dory, but this alternative effort is pretty good. The only downside is it just puts more money in Parlophones pocket and encourages them to keep releasing the same Bowie songs over and over again.

A worthy addition to the Bowie collection. Lovely cover with a great twist on the original cover. Physically the quality is superb. A perfectly flat heavy pressing in a matt black plastic-lined inner sleeve and a tri fold insert with three full sized b/w photographs from the original photo shoot. Clever change of different versions and takes. Fully worthy of the money. Buy it!!

What can I say it’s Bowie perfection waited 50 years to get it but worth it.

Sound is fabulous. My system is a Project Classic turntable, Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista amp, and Monitor Audio Studio 50 speakers.

If you are familiar with Hunky Dory and already own an original I’d say this is a non essential purchase. Unless you are a big Bowie fan and want to just experience this alternate version of the album anyway.Anyone who has neither version - buy the original and you are done, you can’t improve on what was a definitive Bowie release. The original has the best versions of these tracks. The different versions on this release are missing some instruments on occasion. On tracks such as Quicksand which here on this album is more stripped back than the original release and sounds lacking because of it.The track Queenbitch to me sounds lacking in dynamics and energy compared to the original version. That’s just a couple of examples where differences are negative in my opinion. I am also comparing against a true original pressing not remastered re issues. On the whole most of the differences are more subtle with the biggest difference being David’s vocals are more prominent on some tracks and just a few slightly different arrangements here and there within the mix. On the whole there isn’t enough of a change or any improvements over Hunky Dory.It’s by no means bad, it’s still mostly Hunky Dory with the extra track Bombers included which was dropped from the original release. You would have to know the album to tell the differences, but they are there. I’ve given it 3 stars because it’s not really a noteworthy alternative version, just stick with the original.Pressing quality is good and Amazon’s packaging has really been stepped up it seems. This arrived in excellent packaging and free of damage.