Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

called Art Crime or Art Murder has become the next
big thing (wasn’t it the next big thing in 1974 when
Divine declared as much in Female Trouble?).
Nathan Adler, a kind of Philip Marlowe meets
Harrison Ford’s Deckard in Blade Runner, is some
kind of culturally plugged-in detective pursuing a
missing child (Baby Grace) who is feared to be a
victim of the phenomenon. For all its highfalutin
backstory, Outside succeeds largely because the
music itself is so exciting. Like The Buddha (and
unlike Black Tie), nothing here feels like a sketch
(which is truly impressive given its spontaneous
origins).
“Leon Takes Us Outside” is a preamble much like
Diamond Dogs’s “Future Legend,” setting the mood.
“It’s happening now,” Bowie sings with new
confidence on the title track, a middle-aged legend
exciting himself. “The Heart’s Filthy Lesson,” the lead
single, is NIN-style funk with Garson’s distinctive
piano running through the track (Reznor, who
remixed the song into a minor alt-rock hit, would
collect on the favor by pinching Garson for his
equally ambitious double album The Fragile in
1999). “A Small Plot of Land” is a flat spread of
electronic jazz, segueing into “Hallo Spaceboy,”
Bowie’s most convincing rocker in two decades
(since “Rebel Rebel”). Its lyrics hearken back to the
halcyon days of glitter as well (“Do you like girls or
boys?”). “The Voyeur of Utter Destruction” asks the
question, what if the outro of “The Bewlay Brothers”
was expanded into a four-and-a-half-minute song?