I'm positive towards the idea of organizing the game in heats too, makes it much more manageable.
The only problem I could possibly see is that, since only one album wins out from each eat, we may not necessarily get the albums deemed to be the "best" competing in the final round, because there's a possibility that f.ex. two albums from one heat is in the voters' opinion better than all the albums from another given heat, but only one in each heat will reach the final round. But I guess that's just the name of the game.
So yeah, despite that it seems to be a good idea and will probably encourage greater participation too.

Ok, well I'm back after an unexpected enforced absence (thank YOU, Virgin Media! :mad:) so having read what's been said here, does anyone feel confident taking on arranging the "heats" as it were, since I am a fan but not a very knowledgeable one (only getting to hear his first albums for my discography in the last few days)--- happy to defer to/take suggestions from anyone more versed in his catalogue.

Note: Urban would be perfect for this, but then, it's far from a perfect world.

More or less agree, but I would move Ziggy out of round 1 and have round 1 as the pre-Ziggy era. Put into round 2 and have that as the glam era.

I would also move Station to Station so it's with the Berlin era.

After that I would just do it by decade.

Good idea! Like that?

Round 1:
David Bowie (1967)
David Bowie (Space Oddity) (1969)
The Man Who Sold the World (1970)
Hunky Dory (1971)

Round 2:
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)
Aladdin Sane (1973)
Pin Ups (1973)
Diamond Dogs (1974)
Young Americans (1975)

Round 3:
Station to Station (1976)
Low (1977)
“Heroes” (1977)
Lodger (1979)
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980)

Round 4:
Let’s Dance (1983)
Tonight (1984)
Never Let Me Down (1987)
Black Tie White Noise (1993)

Round 5:
The Buddha of Suburbia (1993)
Outside (1995)
Earthling (1997)
Hours… (1999)

Round 6:
Heathen (2002)
Reality (2003)
The Next Day (2013)
Blackstar (2016)

yeah, spot on.

I realised when thinking about this how isolated Young Americans is. Doesn't really fit into any era or sound.

Don't think I ever heard that one. Seems to be an unusual one indeed.

I'd probably bump Scary Monsters up into round three as Let's Dance was a clear delineation when he dumped Tony Visconti for Nile Rogers.

It might be a good idea anyway, because Round 4 would be pretty boring, since Scary Monsters clearly stands out there.
How about moving it back and then moving Black Tie, White Noise into Round 4? I don't remember it at all, but I think it's one of his worse as well, would fit nicely into that round.
I'll edit my post accordingly.

Round 4 without Scary Monsters is basically his 3 EMI records but White Noise could probably get tacked on as he went with Nile Rogers again on that one.

I'd be happy to, but grindy has already done an admirable job.

This is pretty solid, although I'd almost be inclined to lump Young Americans in with the Station to Station/Berlin era because of the soul influences. I'd also suggest a separate bracket for Tin Machine (I believe there are four albums).

Edit: What does everyone thinking of tossing in Labyrinth?