Bowie or Bust, Pt. 5
Several weeks back, Spectrum Culture has us sit down and listen to the albums of David Bowie. Not knowing which albums they'd ask me to comment on, I made some notes as we went along.
The Buddha of Suburbia, 1993
Did this really come out at the same time as Black Tie, White Noise? I was rather surprised, considering how dated it sounds. The Buddha of Suburbia on the other hand, sounds oddly fresh, it sounds like an album full of ambient electronica, but Bowie is trying to catch the nascent trip hop vibe. Instead, he’s reaching back and re-interpreting the sounds of the Berlin trilogy. The instrumental pieces that were meant to act as a soundtrack to a BBC adaption of the Hanif Kureishi novel of the same name, are distant cousins to songs like “Moss Garden.”
Outside, 1995
Again, this is one of those albums where, in retrospect, Bowie is playing around with some musical ideas. There’s a big guitar sound that flirts with industrial music. It’s about outer space and it rocks far more than anything Bowie had put out in over a decade. That said, it really doesn’t stand out when placed next to other albums like Aladdin Sane.
Earthling, 1997
Superficially, it would be easy to suggest that this album was conceived to celebrate Bowie’s fiftieth birthday publically. It featured a lot of dance-oriented singles, as Bowie actively encouraged DJs to remix the songs. It buzzes along with a heavy drum ‘n’ bass vibe, but it’s mostly remembered for the stunning video single “I’m Afraid of Americans.” The song is out of sync with a lot of the album, but acts a perfect summation of everything Bowie had tried to accomplish on Outside, complete with a collaboration with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, bringing a degree of authenticity to those pseudo-industrial sounds of the last album.
Hours, 1999
Bowie has a reputation of being an insincere musical magpie, thieving elements of the day for whatever happens to be his latest album. To some extent Hours falls into this category, but then so could Earthling and Outside. Bowie might be a magpie, stuffing Hours with some pretty standard guitar/drum arrangements, but insincere is too cruel a charge, especially given the deeply personal and emotional charge that “Thursday’s Child” carries. The album as whole also carries a lot of lyrical weight, so maybe it might be fair to suggest that if the music suffers a little on this one, it was because Bowie had a lot of things to get off his chest.
Heathen, 2002
Maybe Bowie just doesn’t know what to do in gentle times. His best albums came out during the turbulent 1969-1973 era, and I guess it’s not much of surprise that the post-9/11 environment saw him release something energizing and haunting in songs like “Slow Bur.n” Plus, much appreciation for a cover of the Pixies’ “Cactus.”
Reality, 2003
For a the brooding menace that found it’s way into Bowie’s work since 1993, Reality has much more of a pop sensibility to it, and not just through the presence of Jonathan Richman’s “Pablo Picasso.” It catches Bowie reflecting on the process of growing old in songs like “Bring Me The Disco King,” and “New Killer Star.” At the same time, he’s still pushing the odd musical envelope as there’s a moment in “Looking For Water” that crafty listeners can determine was the musical bonding point between Bowie and The Arcade Fire, cementing their 2005 collaboration.
