Consider
The Width of a Circle as a companion to
The Man Who Sold the World, or perhaps The Metrobolist, the variation of
Man released upon the record's 50th anniversary. Appearing a few months after the
Tony Visconti-shepherded The Metrobolist -- an album that restores the originally planned artwork and title for
The Man Who Sold the World, then adds a largely new remix of the album --
The Width of a Circle is a double-disc set collecting a bunch of stray recordings from 1970. The centerpiece is a John Peel Sunday Show from February 1970, a complete concert released in part on the 2000 compilation Bowie at the Beeb. Here, it's possible to hear
David Bowie transition from the slightly unwashed hippie singer of the late 1960s into the muscular rocker of the 1970s, as the first part of the show features solo
Bowie, with
Tony Visconti's Hype entering halfway through and guitarist
Mick Ronson joining for the second half of the set. The second disc combines selections recorded for the televised play The Looking Glass Murders aka Pierrot in Turquoise, a bunch of non-LP singles (including alternate mixes), and an appearance on Sounds of the 70's: The Andy Ferris Show from March 1970, plus five new mixes from
Visconti. While this second disc is a bit of a clearinghouse, there is a lot to like here. The rarest material, the music
Bowie wrote for the play The Looking Glass Murders, has its stagey charms and it's interesting to hear the origins of the "London Bye Ta-Ta" melody in "Threepenny Pierrot." Some of the rare 45s appeared on Rykodisc's Sound + Vision CD reissue series but it's nice to get "London Bye Ta-Ta," "Holy Holy," and the re-recorded "Memory of a Free Festival" back in circulation, while the
Andy Ferris performance contains a brawny version of "Waiting for the Man" and a robust take on "The Width of a Circle." 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. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine