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The Width of a Circle Image
Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 8 Critic Reviews What's this?

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  • Summary: The two-disc set features recording of Bowie from the 1970s including a John Peel Sunday Show concert; music from the televised play The Looking Glass Murders aka Pierrot in Turquoise; a performance on Sounds of the 70's: The Andy Ferris Show; a few singles and alternative mixes (plus fiveThe two-disc set features recording of Bowie from the 1970s including a John Peel Sunday Show concert; music from the televised play The Looking Glass Murders aka Pierrot in Turquoise; a performance on Sounds of the 70's: The Andy Ferris Show; a few singles and alternative mixes (plus five 2020 mixes by Tony Visconti). Expand
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  • Record Label: Rhino
  • Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Contemporary Pop/Rock, Album Rock, Experimental Rock, Hard Rock, Art Rock, Glam Rock
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. 90
    While this album encompasses only a fraction of the total trajectory, it’s a fascinating glimpse at his his seminal sound. In that regard, The Width of a Circle is expansive indeed.
  2. Jun 1, 2021
    84
    Bowie would create far more legendary music on “Hunky Dory” just a few months after the last track here was recorded (he would also record much more fully realized versions of “The Prettiest Star” and “Holy Holy” in the next couple of years). But for fans, “The Width of a Circle” presents a fascinating listen, and look, at how he got there.
  3. Classic Rock Magazine
    May 28, 2021
    80
    The Width Of A Circle displays brilliantly, he's not so much planning his next move as constantly shape-shifting. [Jul 2021, p.92]
  4. Mojo
    Jul 2, 2021
    80
    Bowie's live vocal is excellent on a cover of Jacques Brel's Amsterdam, and the sound is seriously beefed up by the addition of Tony Visconti and Mick Ronson partway through the set, but massively new or consistently brilliant it is not. [Aug 2021, p.98]
  5. Uncut
    May 28, 2021
    70
    Not all essential but a generally rich and respectable package. [Jul 2021, p.43]
  6. Jun 4, 2021
    70
    The Width of a Circle offers a rare peek at how his work was developing—an often ungainly evolution that listeners can now track chronologically. Whether they’d care to is the question.
  7. May 28, 2021
    70
    As a whole, The Width of a Circle doesn't quite add up to much more than an odds-and-sods collection, but then again, that's its appeal. It allows listeners to live within Bowie's 1970, a strange, weird, and absorbing year when he was figuring out his strengths and weaknesses.

See all 8 Critic Reviews