The Buddha Of Suburbia
BMG International, 1993
REVIEW BY: Roland Fratzl
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 05/27/2008
How the hell David Bowie managed to put out such a surprisingly strong, obscure little release in the same year as his woeful solo comeback album, Black Tie White Noise, is truly baffling.
Written for a British TV miniseries (though only the title track was actually used in the show), The Buddha Of Suburbia is mistakenly labeled as a soundtrack when it really is a full length
The Buddha Of Suburbia is a collection of fairly mellow, but well-crafted pop tunes with
There is also an impressive diversity to the songwriting, with ambient, Eno-like instrumentals that recall Bowie’s Berlin era (the jazzy “South Horizon” for example, complete with atonal piano solo), and a few energetic synth rockers that Bowie surprisingly doesn’t embarrass himself with (“Bleed Like A Craze, Dad” is as wonderfully strange as it sounds, as well as the Britpoppy “Dead Against It”). There’s even a hypnotically danceable, dark club track (“Sex And The Church”) that sounds stylistically like a leftover from Black Tie White Noise yet is far superior to anything on that shoddy misfire.
Although The Buddha Of Suburbia received virtually nil promotion or airplay upon release and was a total commercial failure, it has attained a cult-like reputation as one of David Bowie’s best works in the years since. I agree heartily – it’s full of catchy songs and intelligent, inventive instrumentation, with a subtle nod to his experimental tendencies of the past. Not to be missed.