The fifth in a series of box sets that break down David Bowie's discography into cohesively thematic eras, Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001) covers the most years of any of the sets to date: nearly a full decade, almost twice as long as the period chronicled on 2018's Loving the Alien (1983-1988). Eagle-eyed observers will note that there's a gap of four years separating the material on Loving the Alien and Brilliant Adventure: that would be when Bowie led Tin Machine, the noisy guitar outfit whose discography operates under ...
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The fifth in a series of box sets that break down David Bowie's discography into cohesively thematic eras, Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001) covers the most years of any of the sets to date: nearly a full decade, almost twice as long as the period chronicled on 2018's Loving the Alien (1983-1988). Eagle-eyed observers will note that there's a gap of four years separating the material on Loving the Alien and Brilliant Adventure: that would be when Bowie led Tin Machine, the noisy guitar outfit whose discography operates under a different contract than his solo work. That means Brilliant Adventure picks up with Black Tie White Noise, an artful blue-eyed soul excursion from 1993, then runs through The Buddha of Suburbia -- an excellent, adventurous album that flew under the radar in 1993 -- the 1995 Brian Eno reunion 1. Outside, 1997's Earthling, and 1999's Hours, adding an expanded version of the BBC concert from 2000 originally released as part of 2000's Bowie at the Beeb, a three-disc collection of remixes, edits, and B-sides called ReCall 5 and Toy, an unreleased album from 2001. Heavily bootlegged over the years, Toy features Bowie revisiting a bunch of songs he wrote in the '60s, most written and recorded prior to "Space Oddity." Hearing Bowie apply Hours aesthetics to swinging, mod-ish material is odd but mildly appealing; it's a slight record but it's nice to have it as part of the official discography. The rest of the box follows a familiar and comforting pattern, confirming that the '90s were a bit of a creative resurgence for Bowie. The pair of 1993 albums are complementary in their strengths, the period affectations of 1. Outside wind up giving the album complexity that Bowie further explores on Earthling. Given that stretch, it's little wonder that he sounds a bit spent on Hours, but the BBC Live show is quite good and it's fun to sort through the grab-bag of ReCall. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
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