The fifth in a series of box sets that break down
David Bowie's discography into cohesively thematic eras,
Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001) covers the most years of any of the sets to date: nearly a full decade, almost twice as long as the period chronicled on 2018's
Loving the Alien (1983-1988). Eagle-eyed observers will note that there's a gap of four years separating the material on
Loving the Alien and
Brilliant Adventure: that would be when
Bowie led
Tin Machine, the noisy guitar outfit whose discography operates under a different contract than his solo work. That means
Brilliant Adventure picks up with
Black Tie White Noise, an artful blue-eyed soul excursion from 1993, then runs through
The Buddha of Suburbia -- an excellent, adventurous album that flew under the radar in 1993 -- the 1995
Brian Eno reunion
1. Outside, 1997's
Earthling, and 1999's
Hours, adding an expanded version of the BBC concert from 2000 originally released as part of 2000's Bowie at the Beeb, a three-disc collection of remixes, edits, and B-sides called ReCall 5 and Toy, an unreleased album from 2001. Heavily bootlegged over the years, Toy features
Bowie revisiting a bunch of songs he wrote in the '60s, most written and recorded prior to "Space Oddity." Hearing
Bowie apply
Hours aesthetics to swinging, mod-ish material is odd but mildly appealing; it's a slight record but it's nice to have it as part of the official discography. The rest of the box follows a familiar and comforting pattern, confirming that the '90s were a bit of a creative resurgence for
Bowie. The pair of 1993 albums are complementary in their strengths, the period affectations of
1. Outside wind up giving the album complexity that
Bowie further explores on
Earthling. Given that stretch, it's little wonder that he sounds a bit spent on
Hours, but the BBC Live show is quite good and it's fun to sort through the grab-bag of ReCall. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine