EARTHLING

Bowie spent the 1990s dipping his toes into a range of then-current musical genres, rarely embracing them wholeheartedly but instead using them to provide a new flavour to his usual art rock approach. Earthling perhaps took this further - even Outside, which was steeped in industrial rock of the Nine Inch Nails school, still had one foot in classic rock, whereas this time around Bowie's exploration of then-current drum and bass dance music saw him diving into the deep end.

The industrial touches of Outside haven't completely gone away - check some of the guitar work on The Last Thing You Should Do, for instance - but Bowie seems to be having a bit more fun here, perhaps because Outside had this ambitious concept album and grim horror story associated with it whilst on Earthling he's just trying to produce some danceable, enjoyable music. As with Outside, Bowie seems to have a sincere admiration for the genre he's exploring here, but he seems a bit less self-conscious about the whole deal, and the end result is an album which is likely to be enjoyable if you have much patience at all for what he's doing here.

The real problem with the album is that what Bowie is doing here is quite far away from the musical genres he's more typically associated with - and from that perspective, it might leave you cold if you want more glam rock or art rock. But if you are willing to accept and explore Earthling on its own terms, I think it might actually be his best studio album of the 1990s. Certainly, I'm kicking myself for overlooking it for as long as I did.