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Buddha of Suburbia


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Excellent....
Review date: 2007-11-05 Rating: 10 out of 10

First things first, this is not the soundtrack to the BBC play... It is an album Bowie created afterwards, using some of the material from the soundtrack and adding quite a bit of new material, to create an album.

Only the theme song (the second version of which doesn't really add much) survives intact from the original source.

This is the 'bridge' between the lacklustre Black Tie-White Noise and the experimental '1-Outside'. It's a mixture of great songs (eg Dead Against It, Strangers When We Meet) and instrumentals (eg Ian Fish, South Horizon) which blend together wonderfully. It clocks in at just over 55 minutes.

This is a proper album, in the manner of 1-Outside, rather than just a collection of songs/tunes. Not as experimental as 1-Outside, but a long way from the blandness that marred the previous decade...

Recommended.

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Reviews


Bowie's 90s Resurgence
Review date: 2007-09-25 Rating: 8 out of 10

I became a hardcore Bowie fan as a teenager in the early 90s, when the vintage-years reissues started to come through. Whilst his archive gave up more and more wonder, his new material at the time was a little weak - Tin Machine, Real Cool World and the album Black Tie White Noise (nothwithstanding the excellent single Jump They Say). And then The Buddha of Suburbia started on TV and the theme tune blew me away - a Bowie song worthy to stand alongside anything from Scary Monsters.

The eventual album did not disappoint. Only the chart placing did. No one seemed to pay attention to this excellent set of songs. Bowie's voice was richly aged by now, at once world-weary and twinkling, and etched with experience. Always adept at self-referencing, the title track contains cheeky nods to Space Oddity and All The Madmen without breaking outside of its own world. Bleed Like A Craze Dad sounds like it was written in the old cut-up style, and has a riff reminiscent of Red Money from Lodger (itself a lift from the Iggy Pop co-write, Sister Midnight). Dead Against It is a relative of What in the World from Low, whilst on Untitled Number 1 Bowie sings like Marc Bolan. The Mysteries and Ian Fish, UK Heir are akin to Eno's ambient music. These backwards nods suit the show it was inspired by, and not once does it feel like a simple rehash of past glories. Sex and the Church might use outdated vocoders but it doesn't feel old, whilst South Horizon begins with a spacious jazz workout before a robotic buzz heralds in a skipping drum loop.

Bowie obviously felt a freedom of songwriting he'd not felt for a good long time, perhaps helped by the fact this was a soundtrack album and as such wasn't going to be viewed as part of his canon. It's a shame that this proved to be true, as this was the first indication that Bowie was back on track. So it proved to be - his subsequent album, Outside, is perhaps his most overlooked album of any era and Strangers When We Meet, first heard on Buddha, was beefed up to be its closing track.

I hope this reissue brings Buddha a wider audience, and further weight to the fact that Bowie's blip was shortlived and that here began Bowie's re-emerging relevance.


Down on my knees in suburbia
Review date: 2007-09-23 Rating: 10 out of 10

And quite literally, I was. As a Bowie fan for 30 years I'd never been able to get hold of this album so it was with great excitement that I saw it being re-released. I knew the title track was epic from the Best of Bowie DVD. This music from start to finish is beautiful. It has everything, soaring saxes, piano and guitar, electronica - you name it. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Thank-you once again, David Jones - you are a genius.

I'm not 'Dead Against' this!
Review date: 2007-09-16 Rating: 8 out of 10

Even though I'm a huge David Bowie fan and have a fairly large knowledge of his music, the reviews below me are of such a high standard that I feel I maybe punching above my weight, but I'll give it my best shot anyway. Here goes:-

This is a very experimental rhythmic multi-layered album that sounds all the better for being digitally remastered. The various styles of music on this take in everything from Jazz, Rock, Techno and Ambient (including instrumentals). There are some great tracks featured here that include: 'Bleed Like A Craze Dad' which has an Underworld quality about it, as does the rhythmically hypnotic 'S*x And The Church'. Also worth mentioning is 'Dead Against It' and possibly my favourite - the Ambient ballad 'Untitled No 1' that will just make you melt. The only dead wood on this album in my opinion is 'Mysteries', 'Ian Fish Uk Heir' and a second version of 'Buddha Of Suburbia' which although is very good isn't strictly necessary, as it's practically the same as the original - as stated by another reviewer.

Finally, let's clear this up once and for all, this is a 100% bonafide Bowie studio album that happens to be a 10% soundtrack as well - in as much as the title track only. So please buy this underrated little gem this time round as it deserves to be discovered.



Muted efulgence
Review date: 2007-09-12 Rating: 10 out of 10

It's not really important (though interesting) that this album started life as a soundtrack.

What you find when you spin this disc is that it's a very, very satisfying album which is located at a large remove from David Bowie's other work but is not unrelated. Several of the tracks are largely instrumental. Bowie's lovely vocals seem more like another layer of musical information rather than having any particular literal meaning. Pianist Mike Garson makes a simply electric contribution on a track called "South Horizons." It might be the best bit of jazz ever performed by a non-jazz musician (older readers will remember Garson from Bowie`s 70s period.) The tension of his playing is astonishing and recalls something of Lalo Schifrin's controlled force. Multi-instrumentalist Erdal Kizilcay (who worked on "Never Let Me Down" amongst other albums) contributed much to this record too and his percussion deserves wider attention.

It really is hard to say quite what this album is. It's not really a soundtrack since the tracks are able stand to alone and are more than musical fragments. You don't need to have read the book or seen the television programme to appreciate it either. It's not really pop, rock or jazz but contains elements of all of these. It's lush, rich and low-key but not soporific. There's a huge amount of life in this album but it won't blow your woofers and tweeters. According to the liner notes,Bowie produced this in about a week or so; the freshness is palpable. The main criticism of the album might be the unnecessary repetition of the title track which starts and closes the album. The difference between the two versions is nugatory. The song "Strangers When We Meet" made a second appearance on the album "Outside" a few year later. This was presumably because Bowie reckoned nobody heard it the first time. The thing is that the version on "Buddha Of Suburbia" is rather better. What a shame this album came out at the same time as more easily-marketable "Best Of..." collection. Jazz and electronica fans as well as Bowie-philes will appreciate this record. I seldom give five stars but this record deserves all of them.





Product Details/Specifications


Artist(s):
David Bowie

Recording label: EMI
Manufacturer: EMI
EAN: 5099950046324
Binding: Audio CD
Format: Soundtrack,
Release date: 2007-09-17
Number of discs: 1

Disc 1 Tracks:
1. Buddha Of Suburbia
2. Sex And The Church
3. South Horizon
4. Mysteries
5. Bleed Like A Craze Dad
6. Strangers When We Meet
7. Dead Against It
8. Untitled
9. Ian Fish UK Heir
10. Buddha Of Suburbia

Publishers: EMI

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