After the excesses of his glam era, David Bowie turned his attention to creating a musical based on George Orwell's "1984", but unable to secure the rights to the work, he decided to restructure the material into what ended up being "Diamond Dogs".  Still, the pedigree of the material brings it to a significantly different sound then any of Bowie's previous work-- a very much theatrical sound is present throughout the music, and it ends up coaxing some fine performances out of Bowie.