Deconstructing "Nineties Bowie"
Created | Updated Feb 2, 2017
It's difficult to write about Bowie's 1990s albums and not feel a sense of 'opportunity lost'.
Given that the 'Dame' released a total of 5 studio albums plus one Tin Machine collection during the decade, it's easy to write them off as one of the two stock phrases used repeatedly to describe Bowie's post-1980 output:
1) "The best album since Scary Monsters"
2) "Never quite as good as his 70s stuff"
Unfortunately for David it appears that many have seen his recordings as being an attempt at a middle-aged man trying to regain favour with the young(er) generation.
The 90s began for Mr Bowie with the second Tin Machine album. For me, anyway, it was far more accessible (and more of an aural pleasure) than the first eponymous LP released just before the end of the prior decade.
Tin Machine II heralded the band's only UK Top 40 hit, 'You Belong In Rock n' Roll', and a gamut of largely Bowie-written and Bowie-led songs including the sublime 'Amlapura', the near-perfect 'Shopping For Girls' and wonderful 'Goodbye Mr. Ed'. In essence, this 'group project' turned out to be a Bowie album with assistance from others - which was essentially much of Bowie's 80s and some of Bowie's late-70s skill and mastery. To have this album, in particular, written off is an inappropriate as saying that side one of 1987's Never Let Me Down is the worst thing he recorded in the aftermath of the Let's Dance success of the early-80s. I think the entirety of Tonight takes that trophy, hands down!
However it is Bowie's fully-fledged solo work which should be considered here. It all began in 1993. A decade after David's most commercial album and trio of UK Top 3 hits from one album (the aforementioned Let's Dance) and twenty years after the success of Aladdin Sane (his first chart-topping album] and the most dramatic demise of a "global superstar" in rock history when Ziggy was made to be no more in the Summer of 1973, Bowie recorded Black Tie White Noise. Teaming up with Nile Rodgers again, he made a Bowie-influenced re-make of the Rodgers-influenced 1983 smash. Things started well and the album stormed into the chart, becoming David's 8th No.1 album, all of which entered at No.1. In the UK, lead single 'Jump They Say' rose to No.9 and provided him with his first Top 10 hit since 'Absolute Beginners' in 1986 and, unfortunately, probably his last non-reissued Top 10 (who knows what will happen come the day of the man's demise?)
Strong beginnings but the outcome was less successful than the decade before. David chose not to tour, having recently married Iman, and the two follow-up singles didn't make the Top 30. Fans, including myself, felt cheated. The man had produced one of the best albums for a good decade and the outcome was criminally under-evolved. Many experts say 'Miracle Goodnight' would have seen Bowie with another strong Top 10 hit, perhaps even another No.1, but the chance was missed and his downward spiral into low-charting singles and always "bubbling under" began.
The album itself had strong, infectious grooves and lyrics - the better tracks on the album being the three singles and the excellent cover versions of 'Nite Flights' and 'I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday' making this album one of the few where the new stuff mixes successfully with the old. Bonus track 'Lucy Can't Dance', potentially a wonderful single, was lost to the vinyl buyer and, if edited from its near-six minutes to a palatable, radio-friendly length, could have done well.
In quick succession, Bowie released the unofficial official soundtrack to Hanif Kureishi's Buddha of Suburbia. For those uninitiated to Mr Bowie's experimental prowess (through Low, "Heroes" and the darker tracks of Lodger), this takes the whole aspect one leap further. Playing most of the music himself and composing like a demon, this is positively Bowie's finest hour of the last 20 years. Limping to a chart placing outside the Top 75 in the album chart, this LP should be brought out and thrust under the noses of those who scream "HAS-BEEN" when they hear David's name mentioned. Reading the copious motives behind this collection in the accompanying booklet, it is clear from the beginning how David honed the perception and conception of this epic project which took less than 2 months to write, record and mix. Stand-out tracks include 'Bleed Like A Craze, Dad' and the slowed-down, atmospheric elegance of 'The Mysteries'. With such excellence in such a small paradigm of Bowie's creative re-birth, it is amazing that this jewel was under-nourished at the time (in favour of The Singles Collection, another EMI trawl through the back catalogue to capitalise on the recent successes of Black Tie White Noise) and remains Bowie's favourite album. Indeed whenever he is asked about Buddha his deflated responses indicate a man still hurting from the lack of interest in such an essential album.
1.Outside was Bowie's next foray into chart-attacking and accompanied one of the two tours I saw him perform during the 1990s, the first being the "Greatest Hits" tour (Sound and Vision) in 1990. Having taken the step to refrain from singing the 'classic' Bowie tracks during that 1990 tour, watching him at Manchester in 1995 caused a stir of emotions veering from the desire that he'd sing 'Life On Mars' to the hope that he'd leave out 'The Hearts Filthy Lesson', though it became the first Top 40 hit from the 1.Outside album. I remember vividly that the people standing around were bemused and baffled by the Eno-influenced tracks purveyed for them and the phrase I overheard from one of the audience behind me at the concert that "this one must be from that Tin Box band" still haunts me to this day. The album itself had some extremely tuneful and exploratory tracks. Those which stand out (and stand the test of time) include 'I Have Not Been To Oxford Town' and 'Thru' These Architects' Eyes' as well as the long-overdue No.40 hit 'Strangers When We Meet' which remains the only track to have been reworked from a previous Bowie album ('Buddha') for inclusion on another official studio release.
The only flaw with 1.Outside is its length and pretensions. There is no doubt that it is an impressive piece of work with over 15 finely-produced tracks with only a couple being beyond comprehension ('I Am With Name') or beyond temperance ('Wishful Beginnings') which leaves the listener both intrigued and frustrated at every turn - a notion Bowie embraces with every album - a quote from the man himself at the time of his 50th birthday alluded to the fact that Bowie fans like that fact the he "annoys" the audience.
Again, there was the reference by the critics to his "best album since 1980" and the parallels to his earlier work - the similarities with the premise of Diamond Dogs and the characterisations of Ziggy and Aladdin are abound. Yet this album creates a multitude of peoploids whose fabricated lives intertwine with an assurance not achieved by any other concept album of which I am aware. Moreover, the fascination and the involvement was rumoured to extend (Bowie's original concept was up to 5 albums to complete the decade) but, as is his wont, David seemed to get bored once the LP was released and a lot of the recordings remain un(der)finished. A shame that a 'better' set of 7" singles could have been released but the Pet Shop Boys' remix of the excellent 'Hallo Spaceboy' did Bowie proud with a Top 15 hit in 1996.
Bowie turned 50 in January 1997 and the event was heralded with Earthling. This, another reference to David's penchant for plumbing the areas of things other-wordly, became another Top 10 LP success and landed the chameleon of pop with the moniker of being the first 50 year old to use garage music in his compositions. With hindsight, it's very blinkered to think that this album is purely an indulgent foray into the world of a 'trip-hop' culture 30 years his junior. In fact there are only, really, three tracks which could even be considered as stictly 'garage' at its core - most notably Bowie's last UK Top 15 hit 'Little Wonder' released to great appreciation of his 50th birthday but met with low sales and a frustrating option over and above the obvious smash hit 'Looking For Satellites'. Again, a chance missed to create a gamut of hits and a more-than-middling sales figure for a new Bowie album.
In fact, like the previous album, Earthling produced one Top 20 hit and two further chart hits, the folly of the limited edition clear vinyl 'Seven Years in Tibet' limping into the Top 75, and the furore over this career-changing, lifestyle-influencing magician of popular music reignited a passion in him that continued through the rest of the decade. Most notably a further track, unreleased in the UK, scored Bowie's first US Top 75 hit since the late-80s. 'I'm Afraid of Americans' struck a note with an increasingly frustrated youth in the States and actually attained a Top 10 placing in the US's North American neighbour's single chart, the Canadians aware that their continental cousins need a bit of jibing from their commonwealth comrades from time to time.
Earthling remains Bowie's most commercially-successful 'risky' album and its listening pleasure is enhanced by the knowledge that the following albums have never regained that sense of newness and honesty that Earthling's rough edges embraces. It is with this in mind that my attention moves to David's last project of the 1990s, Hours....
Hours... (released intentionally with lower case letters which echoed Bowie's phraseology of EART HL I NG) was released 30 years after his first album proper (David Bowie/Man of Words, Man of Music/Space Oddity) in 1969 and saw, I feel, a return to the old-fashioned Bowie; efforts drawn from as early as Hunky Dory (particularly in chart hits 'Seven' and 'Survive') but also the Eno and post-Eno era in instrumental 'Brilliant Adventure' and 'Something In The Air'. Lead single, and first track, 'Thursday's Child' was a good (but not the best) selection as a new 7" release from a new offering for many a year and just missed the chance of cracking the Top 15 on the UK chart. Had the aforementioned 'Seven' or the near-perfect 'Survive' been the initial stab at chart glory, I am sure the album would have sustained itself for far longer than it did.
Most interestingly, it is possible to charge that many of Bowie's successful moments simply weren't recognised by EMI, RCA, Arista/BMG and Virgin (all of which helped to release David's 90s output) as being potential hits and commercially viable. However, it may also be assumed, Bowie's influence with respect of singles release may indicate that his days of wanting a massive singles success had long gone and that, certainly until the late-90s, his passion for producing art and other interests seemed to outweigh his desire to record music.
Whichever is the reason, it is clear to see that Bowie's work has come full circle. From the cult act of the early 1970s to the mega-stardom of the Serious Moonlight tour, David Robert Jones is now back to being a cult star as he approaches his SIXTIETH birthday. His legacy will continue in the old classics and I am sure that Space Oddity, coupled with Let's Dance as a double A-side, will be re-released as a mark of respect once his light is snuffed out. It will be intriguing to be around to see this respectful release - it may even become the first re-released single to top the chart by the same artist consisting of two previous chart-topping tracks. Another record Mr Bowie may hold, posthumously or not.
The recent success of Heathen, Bowie's 22nd studio album, is testament to the fact that the man can still cut it. Strangely, this collection was far more commercially successful than Reality, whose concerts attracted rave reviews and consistently high audience figures, selling out in minutes in many countries. Though the set of concerts was cut short by illness, Bowie hints at being able to tour as he reaches 60 and there is always talk of new albums, studio or otherwise, being available in the coming months.
As a Bowie fan since 1980, when 'Fashion' was languishing in the Top Ten at the same position as my age (No.5), it was so important for me to support this creative icon through a decade which saw creative highs, commercial lows and frustrating mediocrity from those who felt unable to market "Nineties Bowie".
I look forward to seeing my hero writing and producing some of the most impressive music of his life. Bowie has referred to himself as a musical magpie, dipping into cultures and experiences and fusing them together to create his own indulgences. I hope this continues for many more years to come. David Bowie - Essential.
Given that the 'Dame' released a total of 5 studio albums plus one Tin Machine collection during the decade, it's easy to write them off as one of the two stock phrases used repeatedly to describe Bowie's post-1980 output:
1) "The best album since Scary Monsters"
2) "Never quite as good as his 70s stuff"
Unfortunately for David it appears that many have seen his recordings as being an attempt at a middle-aged man trying to regain favour with the young(er) generation.
The 90s began for Mr Bowie with the second Tin Machine album. For me, anyway, it was far more accessible (and more of an aural pleasure) than the first eponymous LP released just before the end of the prior decade.
Tin Machine II heralded the band's only UK Top 40 hit, 'You Belong In Rock n' Roll', and a gamut of largely Bowie-written and Bowie-led songs including the sublime 'Amlapura', the near-perfect 'Shopping For Girls' and wonderful 'Goodbye Mr. Ed'. In essence, this 'group project' turned out to be a Bowie album with assistance from others - which was essentially much of Bowie's 80s and some of Bowie's late-70s skill and mastery. To have this album, in particular, written off is an inappropriate as saying that side one of 1987's Never Let Me Down is the worst thing he recorded in the aftermath of the Let's Dance success of the early-80s. I think the entirety of Tonight takes that trophy, hands down!
However it is Bowie's fully-fledged solo work which should be considered here. It all began in 1993. A decade after David's most commercial album and trio of UK Top 3 hits from one album (the aforementioned Let's Dance) and twenty years after the success of Aladdin Sane (his first chart-topping album] and the most dramatic demise of a "global superstar" in rock history when Ziggy was made to be no more in the Summer of 1973, Bowie recorded Black Tie White Noise. Teaming up with Nile Rodgers again, he made a Bowie-influenced re-make of the Rodgers-influenced 1983 smash. Things started well and the album stormed into the chart, becoming David's 8th No.1 album, all of which entered at No.1. In the UK, lead single 'Jump They Say' rose to No.9 and provided him with his first Top 10 hit since 'Absolute Beginners' in 1986 and, unfortunately, probably his last non-reissued Top 10 (who knows what will happen come the day of the man's demise?)
Strong beginnings but the outcome was less successful than the decade before. David chose not to tour, having recently married Iman, and the two follow-up singles didn't make the Top 30. Fans, including myself, felt cheated. The man had produced one of the best albums for a good decade and the outcome was criminally under-evolved. Many experts say 'Miracle Goodnight' would have seen Bowie with another strong Top 10 hit, perhaps even another No.1, but the chance was missed and his downward spiral into low-charting singles and always "bubbling under" began.
The album itself had strong, infectious grooves and lyrics - the better tracks on the album being the three singles and the excellent cover versions of 'Nite Flights' and 'I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday' making this album one of the few where the new stuff mixes successfully with the old. Bonus track 'Lucy Can't Dance', potentially a wonderful single, was lost to the vinyl buyer and, if edited from its near-six minutes to a palatable, radio-friendly length, could have done well.
In quick succession, Bowie released the unofficial official soundtrack to Hanif Kureishi's Buddha of Suburbia. For those uninitiated to Mr Bowie's experimental prowess (through Low, "Heroes" and the darker tracks of Lodger), this takes the whole aspect one leap further. Playing most of the music himself and composing like a demon, this is positively Bowie's finest hour of the last 20 years. Limping to a chart placing outside the Top 75 in the album chart, this LP should be brought out and thrust under the noses of those who scream "HAS-BEEN" when they hear David's name mentioned. Reading the copious motives behind this collection in the accompanying booklet, it is clear from the beginning how David honed the perception and conception of this epic project which took less than 2 months to write, record and mix. Stand-out tracks include 'Bleed Like A Craze, Dad' and the slowed-down, atmospheric elegance of 'The Mysteries'. With such excellence in such a small paradigm of Bowie's creative re-birth, it is amazing that this jewel was under-nourished at the time (in favour of The Singles Collection, another EMI trawl through the back catalogue to capitalise on the recent successes of Black Tie White Noise) and remains Bowie's favourite album. Indeed whenever he is asked about Buddha his deflated responses indicate a man still hurting from the lack of interest in such an essential album.
1.Outside was Bowie's next foray into chart-attacking and accompanied one of the two tours I saw him perform during the 1990s, the first being the "Greatest Hits" tour (Sound and Vision) in 1990. Having taken the step to refrain from singing the 'classic' Bowie tracks during that 1990 tour, watching him at Manchester in 1995 caused a stir of emotions veering from the desire that he'd sing 'Life On Mars' to the hope that he'd leave out 'The Hearts Filthy Lesson', though it became the first Top 40 hit from the 1.Outside album. I remember vividly that the people standing around were bemused and baffled by the Eno-influenced tracks purveyed for them and the phrase I overheard from one of the audience behind me at the concert that "this one must be from that Tin Box band" still haunts me to this day. The album itself had some extremely tuneful and exploratory tracks. Those which stand out (and stand the test of time) include 'I Have Not Been To Oxford Town' and 'Thru' These Architects' Eyes' as well as the long-overdue No.40 hit 'Strangers When We Meet' which remains the only track to have been reworked from a previous Bowie album ('Buddha') for inclusion on another official studio release.
The only flaw with 1.Outside is its length and pretensions. There is no doubt that it is an impressive piece of work with over 15 finely-produced tracks with only a couple being beyond comprehension ('I Am With Name') or beyond temperance ('Wishful Beginnings') which leaves the listener both intrigued and frustrated at every turn - a notion Bowie embraces with every album - a quote from the man himself at the time of his 50th birthday alluded to the fact that Bowie fans like that fact the he "annoys" the audience.
Again, there was the reference by the critics to his "best album since 1980" and the parallels to his earlier work - the similarities with the premise of Diamond Dogs and the characterisations of Ziggy and Aladdin are abound. Yet this album creates a multitude of peoploids whose fabricated lives intertwine with an assurance not achieved by any other concept album of which I am aware. Moreover, the fascination and the involvement was rumoured to extend (Bowie's original concept was up to 5 albums to complete the decade) but, as is his wont, David seemed to get bored once the LP was released and a lot of the recordings remain un(der)finished. A shame that a 'better' set of 7" singles could have been released but the Pet Shop Boys' remix of the excellent 'Hallo Spaceboy' did Bowie proud with a Top 15 hit in 1996.
Bowie turned 50 in January 1997 and the event was heralded with Earthling. This, another reference to David's penchant for plumbing the areas of things other-wordly, became another Top 10 LP success and landed the chameleon of pop with the moniker of being the first 50 year old to use garage music in his compositions. With hindsight, it's very blinkered to think that this album is purely an indulgent foray into the world of a 'trip-hop' culture 30 years his junior. In fact there are only, really, three tracks which could even be considered as stictly 'garage' at its core - most notably Bowie's last UK Top 15 hit 'Little Wonder' released to great appreciation of his 50th birthday but met with low sales and a frustrating option over and above the obvious smash hit 'Looking For Satellites'. Again, a chance missed to create a gamut of hits and a more-than-middling sales figure for a new Bowie album.
In fact, like the previous album, Earthling produced one Top 20 hit and two further chart hits, the folly of the limited edition clear vinyl 'Seven Years in Tibet' limping into the Top 75, and the furore over this career-changing, lifestyle-influencing magician of popular music reignited a passion in him that continued through the rest of the decade. Most notably a further track, unreleased in the UK, scored Bowie's first US Top 75 hit since the late-80s. 'I'm Afraid of Americans' struck a note with an increasingly frustrated youth in the States and actually attained a Top 10 placing in the US's North American neighbour's single chart, the Canadians aware that their continental cousins need a bit of jibing from their commonwealth comrades from time to time.
Earthling remains Bowie's most commercially-successful 'risky' album and its listening pleasure is enhanced by the knowledge that the following albums have never regained that sense of newness and honesty that Earthling's rough edges embraces. It is with this in mind that my attention moves to David's last project of the 1990s, Hours....
Hours... (released intentionally with lower case letters which echoed Bowie's phraseology of EART HL I NG) was released 30 years after his first album proper (David Bowie/Man of Words, Man of Music/Space Oddity) in 1969 and saw, I feel, a return to the old-fashioned Bowie; efforts drawn from as early as Hunky Dory (particularly in chart hits 'Seven' and 'Survive') but also the Eno and post-Eno era in instrumental 'Brilliant Adventure' and 'Something In The Air'. Lead single, and first track, 'Thursday's Child' was a good (but not the best) selection as a new 7" release from a new offering for many a year and just missed the chance of cracking the Top 15 on the UK chart. Had the aforementioned 'Seven' or the near-perfect 'Survive' been the initial stab at chart glory, I am sure the album would have sustained itself for far longer than it did.
Most interestingly, it is possible to charge that many of Bowie's successful moments simply weren't recognised by EMI, RCA, Arista/BMG and Virgin (all of which helped to release David's 90s output) as being potential hits and commercially viable. However, it may also be assumed, Bowie's influence with respect of singles release may indicate that his days of wanting a massive singles success had long gone and that, certainly until the late-90s, his passion for producing art and other interests seemed to outweigh his desire to record music.
Whichever is the reason, it is clear to see that Bowie's work has come full circle. From the cult act of the early 1970s to the mega-stardom of the Serious Moonlight tour, David Robert Jones is now back to being a cult star as he approaches his SIXTIETH birthday. His legacy will continue in the old classics and I am sure that Space Oddity, coupled with Let's Dance as a double A-side, will be re-released as a mark of respect once his light is snuffed out. It will be intriguing to be around to see this respectful release - it may even become the first re-released single to top the chart by the same artist consisting of two previous chart-topping tracks. Another record Mr Bowie may hold, posthumously or not.
The recent success of Heathen, Bowie's 22nd studio album, is testament to the fact that the man can still cut it. Strangely, this collection was far more commercially successful than Reality, whose concerts attracted rave reviews and consistently high audience figures, selling out in minutes in many countries. Though the set of concerts was cut short by illness, Bowie hints at being able to tour as he reaches 60 and there is always talk of new albums, studio or otherwise, being available in the coming months.
As a Bowie fan since 1980, when 'Fashion' was languishing in the Top Ten at the same position as my age (No.5), it was so important for me to support this creative icon through a decade which saw creative highs, commercial lows and frustrating mediocrity from those who felt unable to market "Nineties Bowie".
I look forward to seeing my hero writing and producing some of the most impressive music of his life. Bowie has referred to himself as a musical magpie, dipping into cultures and experiences and fusing them together to create his own indulgences. I hope this continues for many more years to come. David Bowie - Essential.
