Now Available: David Bowie, 1. Outside / ‘hours…’

Given how prolific the late David Bowie tended to be throughout the majority of his career, it’s no wonder that there are many individuals who readily refer to themselves as “a big Bowie fan” and yet haven’t actually heard all of the man’s albums. If this sounds like you, and if either 1995’s 1. Outside or 1999’s ‘hours…’ are among your personal blind spots within his discography, you’re in luck, because we’ve just reissued both of those albums on CD.

1. Outside Amazon | iTunes – Making fun of concept albums may be an entertaining pastime for rock critics, but a lot of them made an exception for this one, as it reunited Bowie with his old buddy Brian Eno. It’s a dark endeavor, to be sure, and not to everyone’s tastes, but it meshed surprisingly well with the music being released at the time, hence all three of the album’s singles – ‘The Hearts Filthy Lesson,” “Strangers When We Meet,” and “Hallo Spaceboy” – all making it into the UK Top 40.

‘hours…’ Amazon | iTunes– If you know your Bowie trivia, then you know that this was the first album by a major artist to be made available for download in advance of its physical release, having been released digitally two weeks prior to the CD version hitting stores. A total of four of the album’s 10 tracks were released as singles in various countries – “Thursday’s Child,” “The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell, “Survive,” and “Seven” – and all but “The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell” made it into the UK top 40. (We’re presuming that’s mostly because DJs couldn’t be bothered to recite a title that long, so no one knew what the song was called.)