The King is back
Kai Quale | Oslo, Norway | 07/06/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"After a series of bland albums and outright disappointments, Outside blew me away. Like with many (good) Bowie albums, I didn't quite know what to make of it at first (which in my experience is a good sign). After 10-12 repetitions, I "got" it - and fell completely in love with it.
It's not the kind of album you can play from start to finish: Some of the tracks are just "segues" between the "real" songs, and others are plain annoying - but between them there are some absolute gems, belonging up there with the best Bowie songs from the 70's. And the failures fail for the right reasons, being experiments which happen to not work (as opposed to failed attempts at being commercially successful).
My personal favorites are:
(Leon Takes Us) Outside
The disquieting intro segues into an equally disquieting song, with the perfect mix of the weird and the catchy that characterize the best Bowie songs. Definitely grows on you.
The Motel
This is Bowie in gloom-and-doom mode, complete with escalation to the operatic towards the end. Not ground-breaking, but good solid Bowie.
I Have Not Been to Oxford Town
Sounded a bit whimsical to me when I first heard it - I couldn't quite take it seriously, with it's tinny soundscape and deceptively simple chorus. But boy, did it grow on me. Works on the dance floor as well.
Deranged
I wasn't sure what to make of it at first, with it's jungle beats, repetitive verses and lack of proper chorus. But, like the other ones, it grew on me. Another dance floor filler.
Through These Architect's Eyes
A song about architecture? I immediately liked it, but it took a while for the song's true greatness to shine through. At one point, I found myself weeping from sheer beauty overload. My all-time favorite from the album. Again, works on the dance floor too.
Sadly, the record company failed miserably in marketing the album: First, they insisted one of the weaker tracks as the first single - the rather bland Strangers When We Meet (lifted from the album The Buddha of Suburbia, for this purpose). The reason for this was apparently that they couldn't see the commercial potential of the existing tracks. Then, when the single sank without a trace, they panicked and followed up with another weak track - The Heart's Filthy Lesson. After that, the album was dead in the water.
Over all, one of the great, overlooked Bowie albums. In my opinion (although many Bowie purists will put out a contract on me for saying it), better than Scary Monsters
"
Criminally underrated
Heldaig | Washington D.C. | 04/22/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I sometimes feel like I'm the only person who thinks this record is a little slice of genius. It was Bowie's return to form after many years of trying to find himself. Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate Let's Dance and respected Tin Machine as an experiment in being part of a band... and even his low points of Never Let Me Down and Black Tie White Noise are better than the best of most artists. But Outside reassured me that the Bowie of the 70s never gave up making music.
A lot of people compared it to Scary Monsters and I fully see the comparison. While I can't say the individual songs are as good as SM, part of that is because this is a far more ambitious record and I have a very difficult time listening to less than the full work. Taken as a whole, this is a stunning and impressive piece of work that I think beats the pants off of Scary Monsters and every other Bowie record.
What I like most about this record is that it combined everything he'd learned after 25 years in the business... this melded the pop, dance, glam, punk, and ambient/experimental lessons into one meaty, well designed, brilliantly performed, and intelligently produced slab of wholly accessible art rock that worked primarily as a complete piece of music that could still be sliced up into a few catchy singles as standalone pieces. 15 years after its release, it holds up as well or better than most other Bowie records and still contains some of the best playing of many of the musicians included in the sessions. Really... this record is that good.
Writing any more about this record is counter-productive. If you don't own it, buy it and listen to it as a whole. If you do own it and don't think it was that good, listen to it again... as a whole. If you don't agree with me after that, you're entitled to your opinion...
...but you're wrong."
Track Listings (33) - Disc #1