The Buddha of Suburbia

The Buddha of Suburbia is the 19th album by David Bowie, originally released on 8 November 1993 through Arista Records. It's rough, and has an air of the deliberately unfinished about it. Had it not been linked with Hanif Kureishi's exemplary dramatisation of his book and Bowie called it something like Strangers, it would have been retrospectively given a great deal more air and talked about being the belated follow-up to Low and Heroes. Because the pressure was to an extent, off, it left Bowie free to score a soundtrack, pay homage to himself and his roots while rifling through various stages of his career.

Working in partnership with Erdal Kizilcay with David Richards engineering and programming, Bowie returned to strange, alien landscapes. The supper jazz of "South Horizon" - complete with Mike Garson's customary overwrought tinkling; the great Bowie pop of "Strangers When We Meet" (the interpretation on 1:Outside may be better, but this is still touching) and the two versions of the title track; one tender and the other triumphant with Lenny Kravitz doing his best Stevie Ray Vaughn.