10. 1. Outside (1995)

The record that always gets overlooked when it comes to any discussion of Bowie’s greatest works is the boldly experimental and divisive 1. Outside. Intended to be the first instalment of a series dealing with the impending turn of the millennium, it is a strange blur of avant-garde rhythms, atonal riffs and dark textures that represents arguably the most high-minded and serious concept album of Bowie’s entire career – certainly that of its latter half.

Reuniting with Brian Eno for the first time since the ‘Berlin trilogy’, the sessions were unusual insofar as Bowie entered the studio without any musical ideas or lyrics whatsoever. Instead, he relied almost entirely upon a process of improvisation and ad hoc inspiration sparked from interactions with his band. While it saw Bowie continue his professional relationship with Reeves Gabrels, two figures from Bowie’s past came back for the record – pianist Mike Garson (from the Ziggy / Aladdin Sane period) and guitarist Carlos Alomar (an ever-present of his band from 1975-1987).

The loose narrative of a government ‘Art Crimes’ investigator, Nathan Adler, who works to solve the murder of a young girl killed as part of an experimental underground art movement, holds together through the individual songs which are sung from the perspectives of different characters, broken up by ghostly spoken-word interludes. Musically, 1. Outside sees Bowie more fully embrace the industrial and moody electronic sounds he had been flirting with throughout the Tin Machine years and its predecessor Black Tie White Noise. Virtually nothing from it was suitable for release as a single, although a Pet Shop Boys remix of ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ hit the UK Top 20.

Much was made of Bowie’s classic works upon his death in 2016, but the startling modernity and angularity of 1. Outside does appear to have fallen through the cracks. Having never been re-issued, it is in dire need of critical reappraisal after more than 20 years. (LISTEN)

In his own words: “The one thing I can truly, seriously think about in the future that I would like to get my teeth into – it’s just so daunting – is the rest of the work that Eno and I did when we started to do the Outside album. We did improv for eight days, and we had something in the area of 20 hours’ worth of stuff that I just cannot begin to get close to listening to. But there are some absolute gems in there.”

Highlights: ‘Outside’; ‘The Hearts Filthy Lesson’; ‘Strangers When We Meet’