Bowie's glam summit doubles as its autopsy, recorded while Ziggy conquered America and watched the culture corrode him. Mike Garson's deranged piano splinters the title track into shards of avant-garde chaos, while The Jean Genie struts through Chuck Berry's junkyard wearing platform boots.

The lightning bolt makeup became more iconic than half the songs beneath it, but that's showbiz. Where Ziggy offered stardust, Aladdin Sane peddles paranoia and sleaze, American surfaces reflecting British artifice back until neither knows which is the mirror.