Well folks, we’ve done it. We’ve hit the end, er, we will in a few hundred words. I’ve listened to every studio album Bowie put out during his original run, and it’s been…..an experience. It was as enlightening as I had hoped, but maybe not quite as good as I had wished. A lot of these albums weren’t the best! But we still have a few more to get through before the finish line. Back at it.

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BLACK TIE WHITE NOISE (1993)

It wouldn’t be the whirlwind of the Bowie catalog without another total reinvention. This feels like Bowie’s most adventurous album to date, a breezy and atmospheric art-pop album with forays into soul, jazz and electronic. The album was born out of excitement and tragedy, with Bowie’s marriage to Iman and the LA police riots, two things that occurred in the same week. The album is reflective of that, and I can feel it in the genre blend. Although all of these songs are fun and smooth, there is definitely a melding of influences. The added influence of the king Nile Rodgers behind the scenes only helps this.

It’s a bit of a confounding record, to be honest. Each track feels both complex and innately digestible, so the product all feels like manufactured soul. But there’s an earnestness to it too, with Bowie shedding yet another persona. You can listen to this either as forgettable background music or as a complex and curious work that ranks among Bowie’s more underrated albums. I suppose I, even more confusingly, took it both ways. It isn’t super cohesive – although I would argue it is more cohesive than the most slanderous of reviews claim – but it does seem to have an identity. There’s no standout track, not one I would grab for my general collection, but as a whole it’s a passable, fun listen.

As is the case with some previous albums, the low point for me was a cover – this time of Cream’s “I Feel Free,” arguably my personal favorite Cream song. It’s a pretty lifeless song, ironically, and a bad example of a “lyrics only” cover. It loses the spirit! There’s some other low points, though the album really does just flow as a whole. “Looking For Lester” is a fun jazzy jam for a while, until it belabors the point and you realize it’s very rehearsed. And the opening track “The Wedding” works for a bit but overstays its welcome.

As an experimental and dedicated record, I think this mostly works. It shakes the stink of “obligation” off form the 80’s pop records, this sounds like an album Bowie made for himself. It’s never really great but it has few low points too. I would maybe revisit this at some point, but I’d have to be in the right mood. I don’t know!

Grade: 7/10

Fav non-hit track: Well like the two Tin Machine records, this didn’t really provide a hit. I’ll say the dreamy “You’ve Been Around”

OUTSIDE (1995)

Man I don’t know what to make of this one. I had no clue coming into this that Bowie had done a massive concept album like this. I can see he was originally planning on this being a minimum 5-album project that was never seen out. It’s wild to think this is just sitting in his catalog with no real attention positive or negative.

I was listening to it while I was working (as with every other album on this list) so I really couldn’t pay devout attention to the narrative themes or characters, and that aspect was certainly lost on me. With only the music to go on, this was a slog and a half. Bowie was inspired by “outsider music” but I don’t really see that present here. It’s mostly slower songs and interludes that become mostly interchangeable with each other after time. It’s Bowie’s longest – by a considerable amount – and that length comes into play. It’s bloated and, simply, boring.

There’s a few interesting tracks, of course. “The Heart’s Filthy Lesson” is a particularly fun one, and the surprising “Hallo Spaceboy” sees Bowie tread into more of an industrial territory. This album preceded the doomed tour with Nine Inch Nails, but this song acts as the precursor. It’s the loudest and best song on the album, and the most left-field one. But both of those songs are on the album’s front half, and the back half is long.

This is another reactionary-against-pop album, with Bowie in full control of his ambitions. I can never fault him or the album for that. If this had been realized as a full universe, it could be a classic! But as an abandoned project, it exists as a weird artifact, an outsider album for even Bowie, and one that leaves me more dumbfounded than anything. On another listen, especially a closer one, I might learn to love it. But really, I found it monotonous. Bewildering, skippable work.

Grace: 4/10

Fav non-hit track: “Hallo Spaceboy”

EARTHLING (1997)

This one I know I’ve listened to at least some, because “I’m Afraid of Americans” has always been one of my favorite Bowie tracks and I was intrigued by the Nine Inch Nails pairing. But I really didn’t remember any of it! I super enjoyed it, it’s Bowie just exploring new territory because he wants to, again. But gone are the dreamier elements of his past few albums in favor of pseudo-industrial rock. It’s very metrical and often very heavy, probably the most abrasive music in Bowie’s catalog. But it’s not without melody, too.

It’s far from perfect, it really relies on the heavier, more booming songs – and they’re a little too and far between. The album’s more filler tracks don’t really hit with any sort of urgency or importance. They’re pleasant, but it’s clear the album is centered on a few songs and not a whole.

Thankfully, some of the best tracks are on the longer side – some of the longer ones in his catalog. The pounding opener “Little Wonder” hits six minutes, and the equally-good “Dead Man Walking” stretches past seven. And, unlike some of the other Bowie singles I love, “Americans” really sounds great in the context of the album. Absolute banger.

So: this is a great one, I feel it’s due for a reappropriation. I don’t think people are super keen on it, but there’s a lot of good stuff to dig through. Even some “lesser” songs like “Seven Years in Tibet” and “Battle For Britain (The Letter)” hit, at least as enjoyable songs. I liked it as much as I expected to!

Grade: 7.5/10

Favorite non-hit track: “Little Wonder”

HOURS… (1999)

I’ve mentioned this before, but Bowie has always been keenly aware of how an album cover can reflect its contents. Earthling see him downing a flashy suit from behind, with bright colors seemingly added in digitally. The cover to this album is…dreadful. His name is written in no specific font or size, and the image of one Bowie cradling another looks religious – the intention, but not in the correct way. It looks like the cover for a Christian rock album.

It’s pretty dull. After a few albums of “for me” experimentation, Bowie treads back into the light of radio-friendly music, this time in the form of adult contemporary rock. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the album, it just all feels similar. There are 10 tracks; one is an interlude, one is a banger, and eight of them are mostly interchangeable ballads. On their own, they sound fine, but as a collection, it just doesn’t add up to anything particularly inspiring.

The opener “Thursday’s Child” was the only song I knew going on, and it really is a fine and pleasant ballad. Seemingly the most popular track (on Spotify) is mid-album ballad “Seven,” which really is the best one in the collection. It’s one of the better Bowie ballads, at least of the back half. I urge folks to check that one out. My personal pick was, naturally, the sole banger: “The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell.” It’s a fun tune, a nice antidote to the first few downer songs.

Those three songs aren’t really enough to save the album. It’s a release searching for an identity. It’s kinda spacey, a bit, but not enough to feel like Bowie. It simply exists. It’s one I’ve been dreading, and it really just wasn’t much of a listen.

Grade: 5.5/10

Fav non-hit track: “The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell”

HEATHEN (2002)

On paper, this album is intertwined with Hours… due to the fact that they’re both art-pop albums that embrace vaguely religious themes. But this is one is far better, and delightfully so. I had higher hopes for this one, but I really was surprised – it’s one of his more underrated albums! I mean, the reviews were all pretty positive, but its an album that’s just not talked about much anymore.

In practice, the album really is similar to Hours… as well – mostly ballads with some fun stuff thrown in. But the ballads feel stronger somehow. I’m not sure if it is inspiration of production, but the songs just sound fuller. And in this case, the “fun stuff” is covers of songs by Neil Young and Pixies. There’s also some delightful bops like “Afraid” and “I Took A Trip On A Gemini Spaceship,” the latter of which is unsurprisingly Bowie’s spaciest song in years. Early album cuts “Slip Away” and “Slow Burn” are extremely satisfying ballads, with Bowie relying more and more and his simple vocal power.

I’m being totally gushy – it’s not a perfect album or anything. The back half is fun and playful, but it isn’t anything super memorable. Songs like “A Better Future” and “Everyone Says ‘Hi’” are very digestible little jams that justify their presence but don’t exactly stick around in your brain. Nothing wrong with that! It’s an improvement over most of the last decade’s worth of album back-halves. But still, it only makes an album that’s “pretty good!”

It’s a shame that I’m so close to the end, because if Bowie had kept up with a sound like this, we could’ve potentially had a nice late-career run. But, touring was growing on him, and he was moving increasingly reclusive. Heathen is a fun album, though, and should be cherished as a little late-career gift (until the two late-late-career gifts). Really folks, it’s worth it!

Grade: 7.5/10

Fav non-hit track: “Slip Away”

REALITY (2003)

And friends, this is the end. And we end in a very similar way that we started: with a decent, mostly unnoteworthy rock album. Reality is a fun, playful rock album similar to the ones Bowie was putting out before he really got into his groove. It’s fascinating to think this is how he ended his original run, a run that I always assumed ended a few years after this album’s release. Now, I wonder if this was a planned goodbye.

This album has some solid bangers and ballads, though it’s got some filler time too. Real talk: I accidentally let this album sit for a week, so I’m not remembering it as well as most of these post-mortem reviews. But still, the good tracks are fresh in my brain. It’s an up-and-down album, but considering how bad some of the nadir albums have been, it still feels refreshingly jubilant. Bowie has one of his better late-career vocal performances on the disarming “Looking For Water,” a downtrodden song that’s still pulsing and catchy. “Reality” is a great bruiser, and would fit in with his early classic rock hits. “Try Some, Buy Some” hinges on a corny rhyme, but it grows into a powerful ballad about Bowie’s own addiction issues – and running with the theme he used in “Space Oddity” and “Ashes to Ashes.” A lot of the other tracks are at least enjoyable, if not as memorable as these three standouts.

Unlike the 90’s run of Bowie albums, he’s not trying to reinvent the wheel here. It’s just a showcase for what he did best during his heyday. It’s a fittingly hit-and-miss finale for a hit-and-miss catalog. I’m skipping over The Next Day and Blackstar because I already know those albums extremely well, and I love them both. So for the purpose of this exercise, Reality is the end. Quite frankly, this whole Bowie project was not as rewarding as I had hoped it would be! But it served it’s purpose – I’ve finally contextualized the decades of Bowie songs I’ve loved into a (somewhat) cohesive catalog from a (not at all) cohesive musician. While there was a lot of sludge, I definitely love and appreciate Bowie more than I already did. This has been fun! Even with the putrid 80’s albums!

Grade: 7/10

Fav non-hit track: “Looking For Water”

My next long project is going to be Depeche Mode – I’ll be seeing them on Halloween – but up next is a short one from a band I know little about: The Replacements.