fantastic review and i agree through and through.
one of the things you have to consider are the circumstances at the time. while funk had already seen its heyday, it was still very much a monumental era for soul that pervaded throughout American culture. it wasn't so much a change in genre but a re-awakening of African-American pride and independence (much akin to the Anglo-African reggae movement across the pond). although you could say that Bowie was capitalizing on the sounds of the times, it's wholly evident that his particular vision of the "Young Americans" he saw was an enduring record which somehow never managed to garner the collective praise that so many of his other works hold claim to.
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