The Buddha of Suburbia is the nineteenth studio album by the English musician David Bowie, originally released on 8November 1993 through Arista Records in the United Kingdom and Europe. The project originated following an interview between Bowie and the novelist Hanif Kureishi during a press tour for Black Tie White Noise (1993), where Bowie agreed to compose music for an upcoming adaptation of Kureishi's novel The Buddha of Suburbia (1990). After making basic tracks, Bowie decided to turn the project into a full album. Working with the musician Erdal Kızılçay, recording took place at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland, and was completed in six days; Mike Garson contributed piano overdubs.
The album's music primarily consists of numerous motifs created using various instruments and contain references to his late-1970s works. Commentators recognised rock, pop, ambient, jazz and experimental themes throughout. The music itself bears little resemblance to the music of the BBC serial; only the title track featured in the programme. Aside from three instrumentals, the lyrics are non-linear, which Bowie utilised as a way to reduce narrative form.
Initially marketed as a soundtrack album, The Buddha of Suburbia flopped and received little promotion from Bowie himself, despite receiving positive reviews from British critics. It was not released in the United States until October 1995 through Virgin Records with updated artwork. It fell back into obscurity until a worldwide reissue through EMI in 2007, although it still remains one of Bowie's least-known works. Nevertheless, reviewers have praised The Buddha of Suburbia as a forgotten gem in his catalogue. Bowie himself named it his favourite album in 2003. A remastered version was released in 2021 as part of the box set Brilliant Adventure (1992–2001).
Conception and recording
thumb|upright=0.7|left|alt=An older man with gray hair and glasses|The Buddha of Suburbia began as a soundtrack for an [[The Buddha of Suburbia (TV serial)|adaptation of the 1990 novel of the same name, written by Hanif Kureishi (pictured in 2008).]]
While promoting his then-upcoming album Black Tie White Noise in February 1993, David Bowie spoke with the British novelist Hanif Kureishi for Interview magazine. Kureishi sought permission to use some of Bowie's older material for an upcoming adaptation of his 1990 novel The Buddha of Suburbia. The novel, about a teenage boy named Karim attempting to be an actor in the 1970s, featured a character named Charlie who becomes embroiled with the rock star life. The biographer Nicholas Pegg describes Charlie as an amalgamation of Bowie, Sid Vicious and Billy Idol. Feeling the novel "reminded [him] of his own youth", Bowie agreed to compose the music and months later, Kureishi and the serial's director Roger Michell ventured to Switzerland to investigate Bowie's progress. According to Pegg, Bowie had completed close to 40 pieces by the early summer of 1993. Kureishi suggested revisions, after which Bowie decided to turn the project into a new album—what Chris O'Leary calls a "quasi-soundtrack". Speaking with the journalist Dylan Jones, Kureishi stated: "[Bowie] said he wanted to write some songs for it because he wanted to make some money out of it."
The album was recorded and mixed at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland, and co-produced by Bowie and David Richards, who previously co-produced Never Let Me Down (1987). According to Bowie, it took only six days to write and record, but fifteen days to mix because of some "technical breakdowns". with the catalogue number 74321170042. Arista Records (in association with BMG International) marketed it as a soundtrack album instead of a David Bowie album. The original album sleeve, featuring a still from the BBC serial's stage production of The Jungle Book overlaying a map of Beckenham, lacked Bowie's face and made his name almost unnoticeable. Bowie also did nothing to promote the album, aside from attending one photo session with Kureishi and filming a music video for the title track. With little promotion, the album flopped, charting at a mere 87 on the UK Albums Chart. It was further overshadowed by EMI's The Singles Collection, released a week after Buddha and which reached the UK top ten. The title track was released as a single, with "Dead Against It" as the B-side, on 22 November and reached number 35 on the UK Singles Chart.
The album remained unavailable in the United States until 24October 1995, although this reissue was also met with little fanfare.
Critical reception
Despite receiving positive reviews from British critics on release, with Q magazine saying that "Bowie's music walks a knife-edge once again", The Buddha of Suburbia remains one of Bowie's least-known works. He later stated: "The album itself only got one review, a good one as it happens, and is virtually non-existent as far as my catalogue goes – it was designated a soundtrack and got zilch in the way of marketing money. A real shame." Ten years after its release, he named Buddha his favourite album.
Latter-day reviews have praised Buddha as Bowie's "lost great album", Some reviewers labelled it—at the time—his best work since Scary Monsters (1980). Michael Keefe of PopMatters argued it was Bowie's most enjoyable record of the ten years' worth of material that preceded it. Others recognised Buddha as foreshadowing Bowie's subsequent 1990s and 2000s works. Regarding its obscurity, Pegg states that it "remains one of the choicest treasures awaiting discovery among Bowie's less familiar work", one that displays him "at his most bravely experimental". In 2024, Uncut ranked the album at number 459 in their list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of the 1990s", calling it a "lost gem" that mingled the "glorious" title track and an early version of "Strangers When We Meet" with "instrumentals containing echoes from the '70s."
Buddha has also attracted mixed reviews, critics feeling it does not represent one of Bowie's major works.
Track listing
All songs are written by David Bowie.
- David Bowie vocals, keyboards, synths, guitar, alto and baritone saxophones, keyboard percussion
- Erdal Kızılçay keyboards, trumpet, bass, guitar, drums, percussion
- 3D Echo (Rob Clydesdale, Gary Taylor, Isaac Daniel Prevost) drums, bass, guitar on "Bleed Like a Craze, Dad"
- Mike Garson piano on "Bleed Like a Craze, Dad" and "South Horizon"
- Lenny Kravitz guitar on "Buddha of Suburbia" (rock mix)
Production
- David Bowie producer
- David Richards programmer, engineer, mixer, producer
- Mike Ruggieri piano recording
- Dominik Taqua assistant engineering
- John Jefford, BBC photography
- David and Anne Hardy (Wybo Haas) design