Wish List

A half-speed master holds off time as it waits in the wings.

- Jason Draper

Aladdin Sane: oof, you want to get some after-sun on that, Dave

David Bowie

Aladdin Sane: 50th Anniversary Half-Speed Master

Parlophone 5054197183140 (DBAS 50) (LP)

Covid has done something interesting to the David Bowie reissues schedule: delaying the 50thanniversary box sets by a year (The Width Of A Circle, a live and rarities counterpart to The Man Who Sold The World [1970], appeared in 2021; Divine Symmetry mapped out the road to Hunky Dory [1971] in 2022. We hope for a The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars companion collection this year). We now have the opportunity to deep-dive one aspect of Bowie’s past while also immersing ourselves in what was coming around the corner, via the latest attempt at the holy grail: the perfect vinyl pressing.

Where the half-speed masters are concerned, it’s all about the cut (this 50th-anniversary reissue of