Side One
1 Leon Takes Us Outside, 1:24
2 Outside, 4:04
3 The Hearts Filthy Lesson, 4:56
4 A Small Plot Of Land, 6:33
5 Segue - Baby Grace (A Horrid Cassette),
1:39
6 Hallo Spaceboy, 5:14
Side Two
7 The Motel, 6:49
8 I Have Not Been To Oxford Town, 3:48
9 No Control,
4:32
10 Segue - Algeria Touchshriek, 2:04
11 The Voyeur Of Utter Destruction (As Beauty),
4:20
12 Segue - Ramona A. Stone - I Am With Name,
4:01
13 Wishful Beginnings, 5:08
14 We Prick You,
4:33
15 Segue - Nathan Adler, 1:00
16 I’m Deranged,
4:31
On CD Only
17 Thru’ These Architect’s Eyes, 4:20
18 Segue - Nathan Adler, 0:28
19 Strangers When We Meet, 5:06
Bonus Tracks
(on Columbia/ISO
re-release 2004, Columbia/ISO 511934 9 - 2CD)
20 The Hearts Filthy Lesson (Trent Reznor Alternative
Mix), 5:19
21 The Hearts Filthy Lesson (Rubber Mix), 7:48
22 The Hearts Filthy Lesson (Simple Text Mix),
6:39
23 The Hearts Filthy Lesson (Filthy Mix), 5:53
24 The Hearts Filthy Lesson (Good Karma Mix),
4:58
25 A Small Plot Of Land (Basquiat), 2:49
26 Hallo Spaceboy (12” Remix), 6:44
27 Hallo Spaceboy (Double Click Mix), 7:48
28 Hallo Spaceboy (Instrumental), 7:46
29 Hallo Spaceboy (Lost In Space Mix), 6:34
30 I Am With Name, 4:01
31 I’m Deranged (Jungle Mix),
7:03
32 Get Real, 2:49
33 Nothing To Be Desired, 2:14
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Recorded: Mountain Studios, Montreaux,
The Hit Factory, New York
(March 1994 – January 1995)
Musicians: David Bowie, vocals, guitar, keyboards,
saxophone
Brian
Eno, synthesizers,
treatments
& strategies
Reeves
Gabrels, guitar
Erdel
Kizilcay, bass, keyboards
Mike
Garson, piano
Carlos
Alomar, guitar
Sterling
Campbell, drums
Joey
Barron, drums
Yossi
Fine, bass
Tom
Frish, guitar
Kevin
Armstrong, guitar
Bryony,
backing vocals
Lola,
backing vocals
Josey
Edwards, backing vocals
Ruby
Edwards, backing vocals
Producers: David Bowie, Brian Eno, David Richards
Released: 25 September 1995
Label: Arista/BMG 74321 313392
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Strange days indeed. The
struggle for creative rebirth that has been David Bowie's career since Let's
Dance has finally and inexorably drawn him back to his '70s
heyday. Welcome back Brian Eno, control room conjuror of the
innovative, though largely feeble-selling, Berlin period; Mike
Garson and his spidery piano tumblings, first heard on Aladdin
Sane; Carlos Alomar, slick guitar charge from
Young Americans on. It is, in essence, as if the '80s never happened.
This is not to suggest Outside
should in any way be considered a regressive move, since it is a clear
statement of David Bowie aligning himself with the times to produce (and
let's not be coy about this) a concept album. First, apparently, in a
series of works centred around fictional art detective Nathan Adler (as
previewed in Q100) and the inhabitants of the Lynchian Oxford Town,
America, the narrative of Outside concerns itself with the art murder (a
notion inspired by Damien Hirst's animal carcass in formaldehyde prank) of
14-year-old runaway Baby Grace. In between-song narrative segues, by way of
voice synthesis, he assumes the roles of not only the victim, but suspects
Algeria Touchshriek (a shady 78-year-old man) and-get this-body parts
jewellery store owner Ramona A. Stone. In the album artwork David Bowie's
face is imprinted into weirdly brilliant computer collages featuring each
of characters.
So far out, so good, and all
this before you've heard a note. Clearly the music on Outside is
not designed for heavy commercial rotation, and as a whole it's wildly
eclectic, veering wide-eyed and sometimes hare-brained from techno (Hallo
Spaceboy) to avant-jazz (A Small Plot Of Land) to
the meandering epic of the title track. The entire back catalogue of David
Bowie vocal styles are employed to full, schizophrenic effect, often in the
space of a few lines of lyrical cut-ups that frequently border on the
impenetrably enigmatic. In the best moments, he offers the hypnotising noir
ballad of The Motel and the stylised collage funk
of I Have Not Been To Oxford Town,
easily the stand-out, while deflatingly, our 14-track trawl through a seedy
end-of-millennium landscape of interest drugs, brain patches and concept
mugging leads us to the stodgy rock Strangers When We Meet,
perhaps a Tina Turner duet had it featured on the
grim Tonight.
A bold and fascinating trip to
offer his devoted listenership, Outside is undoubtedly
David Bowie's most dense and uncompromising work since Scary
Monsters, and, as suggested on Black Tie White Noise, it's
clear that he is once again imaginatively sparking with life. Even so,
regulars might feel short changed on the tune front, and those legions who
came in on Let's Dance will most certainly be left
completely and utterly bewildered. Perhaps though, that's entirely the
point.
Tom Doyle
Q Magazine 1995
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