Let's Dance (1983)

"The album is highly impressive, yet mildly disappointing. This is partly because he is now working within an instantly recognisable, accessible field, as opposed to experimenting with Fripp or Eno, and partly because his brilliant single, Let’s Dance/Cat People, contributes the best two tracks on the album. At first hearing it may seem like Bowie is playing a little commercial and safe (even if this is a new musical direction for him), but with continued listening the sheer quality of the playing, the arrangements, and – most of all – his skill as a singer, make it sound more and more like a classic. Many of the songs mix a sparse, attacking, cool New York dance backing with melodies that have catchy, poppish hook lines. Modern Love, the plinky-plonk China Girl (a new treatment of the song he wrote with Iggy Pop) and Criminal World could all be good but common-place in lesser hands." (Guardian)