David Bowie | Space Oddity | The Man Who Sold the World | Hunky Dory
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars | Aladdin Sane | Pin Ups | Diamond Dogs | Young Americans
Station to Station | Low | "Heroes" | Lodger | Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) | Let's Dance | Tonight | Never Let Me Down
Tin Machine | Black Tie White Noise | The Buddha of Suburbia | Outside | Earthling | 'hours...' | Heathen | Reality | 'hours...'
The Next Day | ★ | Changesonebowie
- Acclaimed Flop: The album got some positive reviews, but a huge commercial underperformance compared to Bowie's previous three albums, which lead to heightened apprehension towards Tin Machine from EMI that culminated in Bowie leaving the label in 1990.
- Creator-Driven Successor: Bowie himself considered this album one to Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), being a similar blend of hard rock and art rock with lyrical themes of sociopolitical protest. Additionally, while Scary Monsters is typically classified as a Post-Punk record, Tin Machine falls in-line with post-punk's daughter genre, Alternative Rock.
- Refitted for Sequel: A cover of "If There is Something" by Roxy Music was recorded during the sessions for this album, but wasn't released until 1991, when it was included on Tin Machine II.
- Similarly Named Works:
- Despite sharing a title and release year, the "Run" on this album and the "Run" by New Order are unrelated.
- "Bus Stop" is an original song with no relation to The Hollies' 1965 hit of the same name.
- What Could Have Been: Tin Machine recorded around 35 songs in the six weeks that the album sessions spanned, but only 14 were included on Tin Machine (12 on the LP and cassette releases); guitarist Reeves Gabriels claimed in a 2017 interview that they could've made Tin Machine a double album if they had wanted to.
- Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: The album's songs were written primarily through improvisation. This extends to the lyrics as well: David Bowie was discouraged from altering any of his lyrics, instead being instructed to sing them exactly as how he first wrote them. So heavily did the band emphasize improvisation that Tin Machine consists entirely of demo recordings, as stated by Gabrels.
