THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA (OST)

Originally presented as the soundtrack to a BBC television drama, one might have expected the Buddha of Suburbia to be a rather inessential entry in Bowie's discography, but I actually think its incorporation of early 1990s electronic dance influences into a chill art-pop context is rather neat.

At points reminiscent of an early take on trip-hop, the album is very much its best in its middle section - the title track is actually the song here I like least - and offers a more placid and peaceful exploration of this sort of territory than the subsequent Outside, which would take this sort of rock-electronic blend in a harsher direction by injecting a mainline dose of industrial. Here, it puts me in mind of a more capable and more focused take on Black Tie White Noise. The Bowie comeback process was clearly still a work in progress here, but The Buddha of Suburbia gave good reason to think that it was on more or less the right track.