Customer Reviews

Outside (Exp)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Not only do I consider OUTSIDE Bowie's best album since 1981's SCARY MONSTERS, OUTSIDE is my current favorite Bowie album. I recommended it without hesitation to industrial rock fans, Enophiles, and anyone who appreciates dark, adventurous sounds. However, if you already own the original pressing, there's no need to buy this album a second time. The remastering offers no improvement over the original edition's superb sonics. As other reviewers have noted, the reproduction of the digital booklet art and Bowie's cover painting are markedly inferior to the original digipak. The bonus track is a throwaway. I would have preferred to see OUTSIDE reissued in a deluxe edition with a disc of live material from the OUTSIDE tour, which included blistering versions of "Look Back in Anger" and "Diamond Dogs," as well as electronic arrangements of vintage songs such as "Andy Warhol" and "The Man Who Sold the World."

by the mid 90's, David Bowie was at a crossroads. It'd been nearly a decade since his last success, and while his last album, Black Tie White Noise, was good, it quickly went out of print thanks to the label closing it's doors less than 2 months after it's release. Enter the mid-90's alternative era. Nirvana scored a hit with their Unplugged cover of The Man Who Sold The World, and Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor became a superstar making music that was very Bowie influenced, especially from Bowie's late 70's Berlin trilogy with Brian Eno.

Bowie and Trent quickly became friends, and subsequently went on tour to promote this album. Taking note at how Low/Heroes/Lodger was influencing a whole generation of new musicians, Bowie hooked up with Brian Eno and recorded what was to be the first of a trilogy. Outside was released in September 1995 with plenty of hype. MTV, which hadn't played Bowie since the Never Let Me Down video, played "The Heart's Filthy Lesson" in heavy rotation for a month before the album hit. That song may very well be not only the best song on the album, but David's best song of the entire 1990's.

In many ways, Outside is spotty. The story of the kidnapping of Baby Grace still makes very little sense 9 years on. However, it showed that Bowie was back in full swing again and he quickly reclaimed his place in music. While the seeds of Bowie's return to relevance (which has lasted through today) were planted with Black Tie White Noise, it blossomed with Outside.

Columbia (Virgin released the album in 1995, and it went out of print a year or two ago) reissued Outside in March 2004, and added Get Real, a track that appeared on the Japanese pressing of the album and the single for Strangers When We Meet. Try it out, not Bowie's best by a long shot, but one of his most interesting works.

I've always been intrigued by David Bowie's music without ever investigating his back-catalogue. The greatest hits packages were where I thought Bowie ruled.

Recently, however, I've started buying his albums and I can't believe the quality of Bowie's music. The reason I feel compelled to write about 'Outside' is that this was the first album I can remember being released with any significance since the mid-80's. I remember not being very impressed with the singles "Heart's Filthy Lesson" (not included on the 'Se7en' soundtrack) and "Hallo Spaceboy", so I dismissed this CD.

How wrong I was! 'Outside' is one of Bowie's best albums.

'Outside' is a concept album based on an investigation by Bowie's alter-ego PI Nathan Adler and is one of the most tremendous and audacious undertakings in rock history. It combines different styles of music including predominantly the 'industrial' sound which was made popular at the time by NIN (I recall Bowie even toured the US with Trent Reznor). The tracks flow together brilliantly with various segues performed by Bowie, resulting in much more than just a collection of songs. The stand-out tracks include mellow and melodic "I'm Deranged" (the opening track to David Lynch's film 'The Lost Highway') and the catchy "I Have Not Been to Oxford Town" (heard in the film 'Starship Troopers') - demonstrating how impressionable this album was and still is. I wouldn't be suprised to find alot of people having heard these songs and not attributing them to this album or perhaps even to David Bowie. Other stand-out tracks include the most typical Bowie tune "Strangers When We Meet" and the dark and smooth "No Control".

But, if you do treat this album as only a series of songs, then you will miss out, as there have not been many concept albums of this quality. Use the production skills of Brian Eno (yes! Eno is back on deck) and the song writing flexibility of David Bowie to enjoy one of rock's best collaborations. You will not be disappointed if you are a true lover of Bowie's music or one who enjoys quality work.

After the dance pop of Black Tie White Noise, David Bowie decided to return to darker territory. Bowie had become fascinated with the Industrial genre, which was mostly underground before Nine Inch Nails made it big, and noted that it was not too far removed from his Berlin-era recordings with Brian Eno. He decided to reteam with Eno to put together what the liner-notes describe as a "Non-linear Gothic Drama Hyper-cycle."

Translated into layman's terms, that means it's a concept album. It's better than any Roger Waters concept album because Bowie remembers that musicianship is most important, while Waters doesn't. But the album's concept is a bit confusing. They were going for something akin to Blade Runner, with a murder mystery that takes our narrator into a world of Art Clubs, Raves, and futuristic technology. The non-linear nature of the story makes it hard to follow(even in the liner notes) and it sometimes seem like you're listening to the soundtrack of a movie that was never made.

The musicianship is thankfully stronger. There is a mixture of Industrial, Art-Rock, and piano balladry with some slight Gothic tinges here and there. Unfortunatly, there are also some segues that are intended to remind us what the concept is(isn't that what liner notes are for?). Segues are annoying when Roger Waters does them, and they're annoying here too. Given the concerns about the album's length, they could've ditched the segues and left us with a leaner 15 tracks.

Standout tracks:

"The Heart's Filthy Lesson": Melodic number with some NIN style guitar work.

"Hallo Spaceboy": Hard rocking, straight ahead NIN style tune. Still a staple on Bowie's live setlist.

"The Motel": Dark, moody piano ballad.

"No Control": Up tempo number with Front 242 style keyboard work.

"I'm Deranged": About going insane, with Bowie's vocals driving home the desperation. Soundwise it could've fit right in on Bowie's 2002 album, Heathen.

"Strangers When We Meet": Melodic quasi ballad, which sounds like a cross between "Because You're Young" and "Heathen(The Rays)".

Bowie's late 90s return to form begins here, and if you like Industrial or Experimental Pop/Rock you'll find much to like here too.

Note: "I'm Afraid Of Americans" generally regarded as Bowie's best Industrial song, is not on this album.

Buy Bowie's European re-releases instead of the US versions. All of the European ones come with a full Bonus Disc containing remixes, b-sides and/or unreleased tracks. I purchased Outside in Germany. It contains a bonus disc of 14 tracks (5 remixes of Hearts..., 4 remixes of Hallo..., 2 unreleased tracks, an alternate version of A Small Plot of Land & a remix of I'm Deranged. A better investment if you're a completist.

OUTSIDE is one of the best yet also one of the hardest Bowie albums to listen to. It has its hits, but not many. This album was never meant to be a hit. It's an all-out concept album concerning occult-related rituals, "art crimes", human dissection and many other unpleasant events. As Bowie himself said, it is a "Non-linear, gothic, drama, hyper-circle".

The first thing you should know about this album is its length. Unlike some of his 70's albums that were often under 40-minutes (LODGER, for one), this hardcore-epic clocks in at over 75 minutes, and it is all on one disc. With that kind of time, it is blatantly obvious that not all of the tracks are going to be hits. But most of them do rock, and among the best are "Heart's Filthy Lesson," "Hallo Spaceboy," "No Control," "I'm Deranged," and "Strangers When We Meet." All of these tracks rock, and the others that surround them (and sometimes bog them down) aren't too shabby themselves.

Another reason to buy this disc is the intense and often disturbings booklet accompanying the album itself. After viewing some of the photos and reading the multiple diary entries by the concept-album's main character, Nathan Adler, it is obvious that Bowie is very interested in paintings and art (just check out the album's front cover that Bowie himself painted). Many of the photos in the booklet are surreal and often strange collages bordered by seemingly random text that offers some clues to the mystery which is the album's complex story.

If you are curious about the album's over-all sound, the best way to describe it as is a "Jazz-influenced, gothic, industrial rock-epic". There are a few spoken word tracks on this album that contribute heavily to the story, most notably "Segue- Baby Grace (A Horrid Cassette)," a particularly horrifying minute-and-a-half of some girl (Baby Grace Blue) talking about her wretched living conditions. During her abstract, distant descriptions that don't make a lot of sense but are still creepy as hell, jazzy music with eerie synthesizers play in the background. The song morphs right into "Hallo Spaceboy", which sounds a lot like all the other songs on the album. The bonus track, "Get Real," is okay but not worth buying the album all over again.

Over all, this album is one of Bowie's most artistic moments and also his best album since 1980's SCARY MONSTERS. I give it 4 stars (mainly because of the spoken-word-track's mediocrity), and the album is welcome in any industrial, Bowie, or simply eclectic music library. Bowie, you've done it again.

I know a lot of people don't like this album and write it off as "too conceptual" and i can see why a lot of people don't like it. I respect your opinions and I heartily disagree.

I will say that musically, this may not be Bowie's best album, but as a whole and as a concept album that is supposed to tell a story, it works the best. Bowie tries to tell stories or at least portray certian charachters in many of his albums and i think Outside is the most sucessful at this. As other people have mentioned, it tells a futuristic detective story of a detective hunting a killer. The story that goes along with the album is told in the liner. People say it's hard to follow, but even with the non-linear set up of the story i followed the flow of the story pretty well both as it is written in the liner and also as it is told on the album. I think the problem with this album is that it may not appeal to typical Bowie fans, and that it would appeal more to fans of industrial music. This is the album that was out when he was touring with NIN and i can hear a lot of their influance in the songs and also in the set up of the album. NIN sets up their albums to have some songs that really jump out and grab you and to have lower key, transitional songs in between to help the album flow, and i see this set up in Outside as well. I've been a fan of the industrial genre for a long time and also a Bowie fan and this album combines a lot of industrial sounds but it's definantly NOT NIN or any other industrial band, David Bowie manages sucessfully to take influances and ideas from the genre but makes a final product that is creative and all his own. (this is one of the things i like about David Bowie) Even if it may not be the strongest album he's done from a purely musical standpoint, it's still very good musically as well. I enjoy every song on this album, and i can't say that of too many other albums. I would reccomend it for people who like industrial music, are interested in crime drama (another thing i'm completly obessed with) and like music that makes them think. I have to say that this is my favorite Bowie album, though of course, that is just personal preferance.

This is a true masterpiece. I am a Bowie fan, but not a major Bowie fan. I have 3 or 4 of his albums. I prefer his sound from the ninties, rock with effects and electronics. Having said that I am also very fond of "Scary Monsters" from the eighties. So you may be getting a feel for my preference of his very varied sounds. This one has great, great, great songs. The segues between the songs are brilliant and captivating. There just are not that many albums, in music, which I would rate as high as this one.

I'm a huge Bowie fan (Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust probably my favorites) until now. OUTSIDE kinda took me by surprise, but not in a bad way. Bowie's music on this record is a quirky and addictive combination of an old school Nine Inch Nails sound, jazz, and some trippy sci-fi storylines.

'The Hearts Filthy Lesson', 'Hallo Spaceboy', and 'No Control' have that vintage Nine Inch Nails feel, however, Bowie manages to create a unique new take on the music because of his amazing vocal abilities and eccentric, jazzy sci-fi undertones. This album is great and proves once and for all how truly brilliant Trent Reznor is at this type of music. ('The Downward Spiral' came out the year before this!!!)

This album is a all of 77 minutes and there are some shortcomings. The first half the album is absolutely brilliant and has few weak spots. However, the album ends extremely poorly with some poppy 80s type sounds and music. (reason for the 1 star deduction) As far as the spoken voice overs, I kinda ejoyed them because they're so strange.

Otherwise, this album is must own and is right now........my favorite Bowie album.

i love this album. i think the remastering is beautiful. however, if it's quality of packaging you're looking for seek out the original issues, namely the japanese outside version 2, which has all this on disc 1, and a bonus disc full of other b-sides. i compared the art on this to the original cardboard sleeve, which i thought was gorgeous, and this issue does not do it justice. the transfer is weak, the images flat and fuzzy, whereas the original art is full of color and very lively. 5 stars for the album, 1 star for the packaging, or should i say the lack of care in reproducing it.