This album is so good because it is so different. The first thing you hear on "Speed of Life" is what could be a microwave exploding, and that's just the beginning. The drums are horrendously loud, the vocals are disjointed and sometimes nonexistent, and the synthesizers, which dominate the record, wash everything in an eerie dark cloud. But that is what makes it so special. No one had ever done some of the things Bowie did on this album (check out the snare drum on "New Town"), and that made it so groundbreaking.