A review of David Bowie's "Buddha of Suburbia"

When I was in college, they re-released all of Bowie's albums. It was great; some of the harder to find stuff was now back in print and, literally , spilling off the shelves at the Tower Records two blocks away from my dorm.
Sadly, I was restricted from buying all twenty or so by a four year bout of impecuniousness, so, at times, I may have turned to the swollen teat of the burgeoning internet file sharing "trend". And one album that I kept seeing there but not on the shelves was Buddha of Suburbia. So, I downloaded it but never actually listened to it; it just kept falling through the cracks or not registering with me...
 Turns out, it wasn't just me; a lot of people seemed to have missed this even though it's considered a full on David Bowie album, and a very interesting one at that.
Once again, while in Rough Trade and having not found any Coil, I began to look for stuff that might have not made its way to the U.S. or, at least, U.K. versions of U.S. stuff as sometimes there's something on one that's not on the other. Among other strange gems in their Bowie section was this.

Buddha came out in 1994, bridging the gap (sonically and chronologically) between the painfully late 80's sound of (most of) Black Tie, White Noise in 1993 and the mind bending concept album 1. Outside in 1995. I always wondered what the hell had happened between those two albums, and now I know.
Of the elements held over from Black Tie are some of the awful 90's programming and that shitty and maddening saxophone that I like to think of  as "sweaty sax"*. You know what I mean; it can only be played under a streetlight or on a fire escape, at night, in the summer, while covered in sweat. It's this programming and sax that were the downfall of that album and what make some of Buddha unlistenable. Tracks like "South Horizon" and "Bleed Like A Craze, Dad" are fairly soaked in these anachronistic eye-stabbers and reek of crusty hair gel, while other tracks are so far from this...the bright and soaring "Dead Against It" and the rock solid, 90's Bowie radio-ready title track.
There's also the odd and almost experimental tracks such as "The Mysteries", which is mostly just a soft piano being played in what sounds like a sonic garden, and "Ian Fish U.K. Heir", which is basically just some Eno-esque textured silence.
Also, "Sex and The Church"...which...is a song by David Bowie from his album, Buddha of Suburbia.**

As an album, the whole thing feels a bit patchwork with no real unified sound or theme tying things together. Bowie said it was written and recorded in six days, which I completely believe.
The highs are acceptably high, but the lows are waaay low.
Whatever.
It's Bowie.
Some of it's good, some of it's bad, all of it's Bowie.





* Think of the sax from the opening of Red Shoe Diaries...

** Yeah.