How would you rate "Outside" (1995) by David Bowie?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Haristar, Jun 29, 2017.

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  1. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Picture Disc

    Location:
    England
    I'm so glad I never got into The Smiths like so many of my mid 80s school pals... Morrissey is an awful nightmare of a person from what I read / hear.
     
  2. mooseman

    mooseman Forum Resident

    I voted so so..to many weak spots for me. The album would have been better if it was released like a normal 40 minute album size. To many cds from the 90's albums suffer from long lengths.
     
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  3. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    I don't know if I prefer it, but I find what he was trying to do on Black Tie more interesting than the NIN-inspired Outside. And there's nothing on Outside that comes within a mile of "Jump They Say".

    That was my immediate impression when I saw the first video playing at the Virgin Megastore in San Francisco a week or so after the album came out.

    (I was always hoping someone would open a Mega Virginstore.)
     
  4. e.s.

    e.s. Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    The Dandy Warhols are awesome! (Well, can be awesome. I've been to good shows and some that were endurance tests...)
     
  5. PacificOceanBlue

    PacificOceanBlue Senior Member

    Location:
    The Southwest
    I can appreciate that Bowie was engaged with then alternative and contemporary sounds and production, but I don't think the album succeeded the way Bowie's other previous creative explorations had.
     
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  6. Purple Jim

    Purple Jim Senior Member

    Location:
    Bretagne
    I couldn't listen to Outside as it is, so I made this more listenable version which is structured like Low and Heroes:

    CD1
    -(Segue) Baby Grace (A Horrid Cassette)
    -Hallo Spaceboy
    -The Hearts Filthy Lesson
    -I Have Not Been to Oxford Town
    -Thru' These Architects Eyes
    -No Control
    -Leon Takes Us Outside
    -Outside
    -The Man Who Sold The World (from CD single)
    -I'm Deranged
    -We Prick You
    -Strangers When We Meet

    CD2
    -(Segue) Algeria Touchshriek
    -The Motel
    -(Segue) Ramona A. Stone/I Am with Name
    -A Small Plot of Land
    -(Segue) Nathan Adler
    -The Voyeur of Utter Destruction (as Beauty)
    -(Segue) Nathan Adler
    -Wishful Beginnings
    +
    - Nothing ToBe Desired
    - Get Real
     
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  7. scobb

    scobb Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    I bought the Japanese CD of this album when it came out (for the lyrics), Get Real is a bonus track at the end and I thinks it works well. Not in the traditional sense but in that the album is quite difficult and heavy and Get Real feels so different it works as a nice piece of light relief whilst the "credits role" (as if it were a film) after the main album finishes.
     
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  8. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

    Location:
    Gone away.
    He may be a difficult person, but those four Smiths LPs are all classics. He's a bit of an eccentric alright.

    Nicholas Pegg has a few good quotes by Mozza - "You have to worship at the temple of David when you become involved. He was a fascinating artist in 1970, 71, 72, but not now." (so he didn't think much of Aladdin Sane, DD, STS and the 'Berlin' LPs), and Bowie was "not the person he was. He is no longer David Bowie at all." :laugh:

    And apparently Bowie had just been dissed in a big way by Liam Gallagher on the same Jools Holland programme when he did Hello Spaceboy. Oasis were sharing the bill but Liam got chucked off the show for calling Bowie "a washed-up old fart" and trying to throw a punch at him.
    When Liam Gallagher ever records anything as adventurous as Outside let me know.

    Unrelated - here's Bowie on US TV doing a great version of Strangers When we Meet. (Edit: Interview contains funny Tony Mascia anecdotes - the driver from TMWFTE and Bowie's real driver but you knew that didn't you?)




    Try and argue with that you haters! Read the YT comments if you want some positivity!
     
    Last edited: Jul 7, 2017
  9. e.s.

    e.s. Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    Man, there's never any shortage of reasons to dislike Liam Gallagher...
     
  10. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

    Location:
    Gone away.
    His brother had to sing lead vocal himself - Liam was pronounced "ill".
     
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  11. e.s.

    e.s. Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    Which is never a problem for me. I liked Oasis for what they were, and Liam was a great vocalist for a lot of that material, but I've always preferred Noel. He's no less arrogant, but at least he's funny. He would have probably made a fine standup comic.
     
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  12. NightGoatToCairo

    NightGoatToCairo Forum Resident

    Location:
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    Get stuffed! It's Hallo Spaceboy
     
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  13. Octowen

    Octowen Forum Resident

    It's my favorite Bowie album.
     
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  14. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    I went "so-so". I think "Outside" was/is overrated because in 1995, everyone viewed it as a big "return to form".

    Which I get. It was his first "real Bowie-sounding album" since "Scary Monsters", for God's sake! Between the dance/pop 80s albums and the semi-metal of Tin Machine and the 1990s soul-inflected "BTWN", "Outside" was something that came across as a more "serious" Bowie, one not overtly scratching for a pop hit or whatever it was he wanted to do with TM.

    I loved the 1995 tour due to those awesome setlists, and I think "Outside" has its moments, but the little "playacting" bits have not aged well, and the album just feels too long.

    There's a strong 40-minute album lost in the muck...
     
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  15. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

    Location:
    Gone away.
    It is a real splitter. It WAS more serious Bowie after the 1980s, but BTWN which had got to no 1 in the UK album charts had also been seen as more serious and a return to form. For me Outside is better that The Next Day, Heathen and Black star. Those three are very good albums, but Outside benefits from being designed to push boundaries, it was composed at the dawn of the internet age and reflected it well, previewing technological New Millennium Paranoia, and being the only album since Low which has had Bowie being on the cutting edge of music like he was in the 70s.
    As for being too long I don't agree, because there's no filler on there. I think Heathen is too long of an album, but on Outside all the songs are strong and add to the whole piece. He was struggling to fill up a cd of strong songs on The Next Day, Hours or Reality.
    It could be that people hold the RCA albums in such reverence that they are unwilling to accept Outside as the classic it surely is. Maybe what really annoys people about this album is its 'industrial' feel and connection to NIN. Bowie trying to seem down with the kids when he should be behaving with more dignity for an old guy. It will be interesting how people write about Earthling when that one is polled.
     
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  16. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

    Location:
    Gone away.
    I quite like Liam for being such a cartoon rebel against well...everything (including his own brother). He's certainly got a rock n roll attitude, but it's almost like a pastiche of Johnny Rotten 76 era without the intelligence or philosophy. I do have an interview cd called (I think) Wibling Rivalry, where the two brothers just a have a massive argument for 15 minutes.
    It was deluded arrogance slagging Bowie on that program though.
     
  17. California Couple

    California Couple dislike us on facebook

    Location:
    Newport Beach
    Not for me. I got Earthling first, then Suburbia, then Outside. I see those three albums like a trilogy.

    If you go with the Deluxe Black, that album can seem like an intro to this trilogy. The long versions of Pallas Athena, Night Flights, Black Tie, Jump and a shot of Lester lead nicely into South Horizons, Sex In The Church, Mysteries and Ian Fish,

    They all go well together. But Hours seems like he's in rehab in comparison.
     
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  18. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

    Location:
    Gone away.
    I'd agree with you there, they do seem to me to be a trilogy. Although they are different in style, a common sense of adventure and exploration runs through them. Not so after Earthling IMO. Hours does sound like a rehab album as you say. Pallas Athena was the key track on BTWN IMO and is my favourite on that album.
     
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2017
  19. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    It has merit, but I don't listen to it.
     
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  20. 3coloursbeige

    3coloursbeige Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Glad it's had a bit of a re-appraisal in recent years. Think Thru These Architect's Eyes is an amazing track. Love Earthling too.
     
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  21. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Has it really? I had the impression "Outside" got a lot of praise in its era but had slipped under the radar since then... :shrug:
     
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  22. Isaac K.

    Isaac K. Forum Resident

    It's far too long. I almost never listen to it and when I do I rarely get to the end.
     
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  23. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Gives me a headache.
     
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  24. zappinnati

    zappinnati Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cincinnati, OH
    I used to frequent the Teenage Wildlife forums and a lot of people there loved this one. I tried really hard to like it but never got past the "it's ok" stage. The filler casts a negative impression over the good stuff for me.
     
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  25. oldturkey

    oldturkey Forum Resident

    Location:
    Gone away.
    I really don't see any filler on there at all. What tracks are you regarding as filler? Strangers? The segues? Don't see it at all, but since so far 15% of the poll don't like this album I will accept there will be some extremists who dissent.
     
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