Track Listing

1. Buddha Of Suburbia
2. Sex And The Church
3. South Horizon
4. Mysteries
5. Bleed Like A Craze Dad
6. Strangers When We Meet
7. Dead Against It
8. Untitled
9. Ian Fish UK Heir
10. Buddha Of Suburbia

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7771 in Music
• Released on: 2007-09-17
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

CD Description
Written as a TV miniseries soundtrack, THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA goes well beyond the simple function of theme music. It stands proudly on its own, filled with the intensity of DavidBowie's greatest work, fueled by Bowie's ever-present devotion to exploring technology. It is a testament to his gift as a songwriter and musical visionary that he is able to walkso deftly between experimentation and accessiblility.
From the dreamy, sprawling epic that is the album's title track, BUDDHA moves swiftly from one futuristic idea to another--"Sex And The Church" features a chilling spoken vocal backed by a sensuous, throbbing rhythm track. The offkey swirls of "South Horizon" melt into a sparse, beautiful cloud of mesmerizing sound. The energetic, sequenced pulse of "Dead Against It" steers the proceedings in a more upbeat direction, and the guest Lenny Kravitz's wild guitar lends his trademarkswagger as the album closes with a rocked-up take on the title track.

Customer Reviews

I'm not 'Dead Against' this!
Even though I'm a huge David Bowie fan and have a fairly large knowledge of his music, the reviews below me are of such a high standard that I feel I maybe punching above my weight, but I'll give it my best shot anyway. Here goes:-

This is a very experimental rhythmic multi-layered album that sounds all the better for being digitally remastered. The various styles of music on this take in everything from Jazz, Rock, Techno and Ambient (including instrumentals). There are some great tracks featured here that include: 'Bleed Like A Craze Dad' which has an Underworld quality about it, as does the rhythmically hypnotic 'S*x And The Church'. Also worth mentioning is 'Dead Against It' and possibly my favourite - the Ambient ballad 'Untitled No 1' that will just make you melt. The only dead wood on this album in my opinion is 'Mysteries', 'Ian Fish Uk Heir' and a second version of 'Buddha Of Suburbia' which although is very good isn't strictly necessary, as it's practically the same as the original - as stated by another reviewer.

Finally, let's clear this up once and for all, this is a 100% bonafide Bowie studio album that happens to be a 10% soundtrack as well - in as much as the title track only. So please buy this underrated little gem this time round as it deserves to be discovered.

Muted efulgence
It's not really important (though interesting) that this album started life as a soundtrack.

What you find when you spin this disc is that it's a very, very satisfying album which is located at a large remove from David Bowie's other work but is not unrelated. Several of the tracks are largely instrumental. Bowie's lovely vocals seem more like another layer of musical information rather than having any particular literal meaning. Pianist Mike Garson makes a simply electric contribution on a track called "South Horizons." It might be the best bit of jazz ever performed by a non-jazz musician (older readers will remember Garson from Bowie`s 70s period.) The tension of his playing is astonishing and recalls something of Lalo Schifrin's controlled force. Multi-instrumentalist Erdal Kizilcay (who worked on "Never Let Me Down" amongst other albums) contributed much to this record too and his percussion deserves wider attention.

It really is hard to say quite what this album is. It's not really a soundtrack since the tracks are able stand to alone and are more than musical fragments. You don't need to have read the book or seen the television programme to appreciate it either. It's not really pop, rock or jazz but contains elements of all of these. It's lush, rich and low-key but not soporific. There's a huge amount of life in this album but it won't blow your woofers and tweeters. According to the liner notes,Bowie produced this in about a week or so; the freshness is palpable. The main criticism of the album might be the unnecessary repetition of the title track which starts and closes the album. The difference between the two versions is nugatory. The song "Strangers When We Meet" made a second appearance on the album "Outside" a few year later. This was presumably because Bowie reckoned nobody heard it the first time. The thing is that the version on "Buddha Of Suburbia" is rather better. What a shame this album came out at the same time as more easily-marketable "Best Of..." collection. Jazz and electronica fans as well as Bowie-philes will appreciate this record. I seldom give five stars but this record deserves all of them.

Excellent....
First things first, this is not the soundtrack to the BBC play... It is an album Bowie created afterwards, using some of the material from the soundtrack and adding quite a bit of new material, to create an album.

Only the theme song (the second version of which doesn't really add much) survives intact from the original source.

This is the 'bridge' between the lacklustre Black Tie-White Noise and the experimental '1-Outside'. It's a mixture of great songs (eg Dead Against It, Strangers When We Meet) and instrumentals (eg Ian Fish, South Horizon) which blend together wonderfully. It clocks in at just over 55 minutes.

This is a proper album, in the manner of 1-Outside, rather than just a collection of songs/tunes. Not as experimental as 1-Outside, but a long way from the blandness that marred the previous decade...

Recommended.