Album release: 1.Outside

1.Outside, David Bowie’s first concept album since 1974’s similarly dystopian Diamond Dogs, was released on 25 September 1995. The album was a fin de siècle murder mystery subtitled ‘The Nathan Adler Diaries: A Hyper-cycle’.

The album received broadly positive reviews. It reached number eight in the UK albums chart, and 21 on the US Billboard 200.

Happy is not the word, I’m absolutely enraptured with it at the moment. I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever made. I can’t wait to do the followup. I think it’s a wonderful piece of work. It’s just the kind of music I need in my life…

What I am tending to do is like what a painter does who has key signifying motifs that he develops during his career and then they start coming back and he incorporates them into his work. He ends up with a layer of his own images that he’s created over time. That’s possibly what I might be doing.

The vinyl edition was titled Excerpts From 1.Outside. In addition to shorter edits of ‘Leon Takes Us Outside’ and ‘The Motel’, it omitted the songs ‘No Control’, ‘Wishful Beginnings’, ‘Thru’ These Architects Eyes’, and ‘Strangers When We Meet’, as well as the Algeria Touchshriek and second Nathan Adler segues.

Half the reason people listen so intently to Earthling is that it is exactly pretty much half the length of Outside. Outside was 76 minutes. And as soon as I released that I thought, ‘It’s much too fucking long. It’s gonna die.’ There’s too much on it. I really should have made it two CDs. I think you can overwhelm an audience. I think the attention span is quite short, although I used to like the fact that there was 20 minutes on each side of the album. What did happen was that any rubbish really stood out. (laughs) You had to be very careful about putting sort-of adequate pieces on or mediocre pieces. Because they really would show themselves when there was only 20 minutes a side. So it’s really quite a discipline to work at 40, 45 minutes. Because it all better be good, because it’ll really stand out if it isn’t. With 76 you could feasibly – of course, not in my case – but you could feasibly get away with inferior material (laughs)

In Japan the album included the bonus track ‘Get Real’, which had been recorded during the album sessions in Switzerland.

The single ‘The Hearts Filthy Lesson’ had been released prior to the album, on 11 September 1995. Two further singles from the album were released. ‘Strangers When We Meet’ came out on 20 November, while the Pet Shop Boys’ remix of ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ followed on 19 February 1996.