To the rear its the same image and handwritten style track list and annotations, but no 'Mainmain' or 'Gem Productions' although 'Gem Productions' appears on the labels and the logo is on the insert.

Bowie and the future Spiders officially started work on the new album at Trident Studios in London on 8 June 1971. You Pretty Things' builds like any great anthem does, and brings in one the album's odder themes; on occultism. The music contains Dylanesque chord changes and the chorus is derived from the titles of two Velvet Underground songs, "Here She Comes Now" and "There She Goes Again". The cover photograph was taken by Brian Ward, who was introduced to Bowie by Bob Grace at Ward's studio in Heddon Street. The album's cover artwork, photographed in monochrome and subsequently recoloured, features Bowie in a pose inspired by actresses of the Hollywood Golden Age.Although Mercury had intended to renew it on improved terms, Defries forced the label to terminate the contract in May by threatening to deliver a low-quality album. Hunky Dory has frequently appeared on several lists of the greatest albums of all time by multiple publications. Boosting the volume of Staff’s remaster reveals more heft and brings it a bit closer to the original’s more aggressive sound.

In an interview with Mojo in 2007, KT Tunstall declared Hunky Dory her favorite album, saying: "It's the only record where I've experienced total jaw-dropping awe for the whole of it because that feeling of being lost and being taken somewhere else is so strong. He was surprised when he and the Spiders would think a vocal or guitar part needed re-recording but Bowie would say "No, wait, listen", and when everything was played simultaneously it would sound perfect. Wakeman contended in a BBC interview in 2017 that Bowie played piano in the beginning section before he took over for the rest of the track. Pegg summarises the lyrics as Bowie "holding a mirror to his face" just as he is about to achieve stardom. Biographer Christopher Sandford states that "the songs [are] characterised by the lush ambience established by Bowie's vocal and the piano" and, along with Elton John and Phil Collins, helped create music on the "easy-listening continuum".I don’t know how to proceed but there is à New issue of this specific reference, but in papersleeve, marketed in november 2023. Although Bowie was fixated on becoming Ziggy Stardust at the time of its recording, the song has no connection to Mars itself; the title was a reference to the recent media frenzy of the US and Soviet Union racing to get to the red planet. VG+ (Very Good Plus): This record has clearly been played before, but has only a moderate reduction in sound quality, despite a possible slight loss of shine and some surface marks. In 2013, NME ranked the album third in their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, behind the Beatles' Revolver and the Smiths' The Queen Is Dead.

Pegg states: "Part of the genius of 'Queen Bitch' is that it filters the archness of Marc Bolan and Kemp through the streetwise attitude of Reed: this is a song that succeeds in making the phrase 'bipperty-bopperty hat' sound raunchy and cool. Similarly, Michael Gallucci of Ultimate Classic Rock contended that Hunky Dory is "where Bowie starts to become Bowie", featuring lyrical and stylistic themes he would replicate on future releases. Following a tour of the United States, Bowie assembled a new backing band consisting of guitarist Mick Ronson, bassist Trevor Bolder and drummer Mick Woodmansey, and began to record a new album in mid-1971 at Trident Studios in London.

In November 2022, a multi-disc box set focusing on Hunky Dory was released with the title Divine Symmetry: The Journey to Hunky Dory.