FILTER REISSUES
Playground Twist
An 11-CD/18-LP box covers Bowie’s five ’90s albums : among the extras the unissued Toy. By Jon Savage.
David Bowie
★★★★
Brilliant Adventure [1992-2011]
PARLOPHONE/ISO. CD/LP
IN WHICH David Bowie sloughs off Tin Machine and his late-’80s despond, while facing the onset of middle age and reversing into the future.
Covering the years during which he was contracted to Victory/Savage (1990-1993) and BMG/Virgin (1995-1999), Brilliant Adventure comprises the five albums Bowie released in the 1990s plus a June 2000 live concert recorded for the BBC, 3-CDs of contemporary singles/mixes and outtakes, and a complete disc of the cancelled Toy album (a further Toy:Box is scheduled for January).
In January 1992, Bowie turned 45: in late April, he married Iman Abdulmajid. He canned Tin Machine and went back to work on a solo album with Nile Rodgers. Released in March 1993, Black Tie White Noise took over a year to record and, at times, it sounds it. Mixing celebrations of his wedding with covers (Cream’s I Feel Free and The Walker Brothers’ Nite Flights) and ambitious new material (Pallas Athena), it’s a partially successful attempt to integrate Bowie’s past with his present which hit the market head on, reaching UK Number 1 in spring 1993.