David Bowie The Buddha of Suburbia 2LP

Originally released on November 8, 1993, The Buddha of Suburbia is David Bowie's 19th studio album. After meeting with Hanif Kureishi, author of the 1990 novel of the same name, Bowie decided to score a British television adaptation of Kureishi's novel.

The soundtrack album was poorly promoted and fell into obscurity, until it was reissued in 2007. It is one of Bowie's least known works, yet it is also one of his most innovative and captivating.

The Buddha of Suburbia is an often engaging collection of songs and instrumental passages that recalls many previous Bowie albums, including such disparate efforts as The Man Who Sold the World, Aladdin Sane, and Low.

Things start getting interesting with 1993's The Buddha of Suburbia. The most overlooked album in Bowie's oeuvre, it began life as a soundtrack to BBC2's film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Hanif Kureishi. Bowie took this remit and ran with it - ultimately only the title track made it into the film - working with longtime multi-instrumentalist collaborator Erdal Kizilçay on a suite of fascinatingly offbeat songs: the quasi-industrial 'Bleed Like a Craze, Dad' with its punning reference to the English gangsters the Krays; the gorgeous ambient piece 'The Mysteries'; the achingly romantic 'Strangers When We Meet' (re-recorded for Bowie's subsequent release 1. Outside) with its beautiful 'heel head over' wordplay; the driving, bittersweet 'Dead Against It.' Its instrumentals and experiments serve as a sonic bridge back to the Bowie of Low and 'Heroes' while also pointing the way to the albums to come.