My Month of Bowie, day 18: 'Black Tie White Noise' (1993)

In 1993, David Bowie released his first solo album in six years.

The album: Black Tie White Noise (Savage, 1993)

Guess who's back, back again?

My thoughts: After a couple of critical duds in a row, namely Tonight (1984) and Never Let Me Down (1987), David Bowie evidently thought it was time for a change. Had he gotten soft in middle age? Lost his edge? Lost his way? Audiences and critics were wondering if the Thin White Duke still had anything left to say to us, so many years after that first communique from Major Tom.

Before he'd been marketed (successfully) as a solo artist, David Bowie was a member of numerous, short-lived rock groups: The Kon-Rads, The King Bees, The Mannish Boys, etc., etc. Maybe getting back to his roots would do the trick. So his next major endeavor was forming a noisy new four-piece ensemble, Tin Machine, and recording two albums with them, as well as touring. I'm somewhat curious about this material, but I'm skipping it for now. After all, this series is called My Month of Bowie, and if I included absolutely everything in the man's discography, it would take significantly longer than a month. Hell, David's live albums alone number in the double digits, including at least one he made with Tin Machine!

The point is, David needed some time to recharge his batteries. Tin Machine allowed him to do that. In 1993, six long years after Never Let Me Down, he felt it was time to come back with a new solo album on a new label. And he even reunited with Nile Rodgers, the producer of Let's Dance (1983), i.e. the last Bowie album people had actually enjoyed. I keep seeing the 1980s described as a period of "low creativity" for Bowie. I don't find that to be true. He was still creating things, but his ideas were getting buried in cheesy '80s production. It happened to plenty of artists back then.

So does Black Tie White Noise right the ship? Yes and no. In the main, I suppose it's more pleasing to the ears than Tonight and Never Let Me Down, but I still sense a lack of purpose on much of this LP, especially the back half. Black Tie sounds extremely optional to me, while Bowie's very best music sounded mandatory. It just so happened that I listened to this album the same day I saw Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (2025). There's a scene in that film in which David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) proudly declares that he won a "Holdie" award for recording the best on-hold music. Well, I think a few of the tracks on Black Tie White Noise would have put David Bowie in contention for a "Holdie" of his very own.

What's there to talk about here? Black Tie is Bowie's first solo album of the grunge era, but you'd hardly guess it. Instead of digging Soundgarden and Nirvana, it sounds like Bowie had been listening to a lot of Lisa Stansfield before recording his eighteenth album. Remember that Stansfield made her name with a Barry White-style song called "All Around the World." She took Barry's signature soulful sound of the '70s and updated it with new jack swing production elements. It's conceivable to me that David Bowie heard that song and thought, "Yes, that's what I'd like for my album." You can especially hear this on the title track of Black Tie White Noise, featuring the silky smooth vocals of R&B loverman Al B. Sure.

Look, there's nothing exceptionally wrong with Black Tie White Noise. It's just that there's nothing exceptionally right with it either. It's an hour of competent pop. If George Michael had put out this exact same album in 1993, no one would have batted an eye. To me, a new Bowie album should be an occasion for copious eye-batting. But it's all so goddamned tasteful and well-mannered. In retrospect, Bowie was giving us some clues with the album's title. "Black tie" is what a wealthy man would wear to a formal event, and "white noise" is that pleasant drone people use to fall asleep. Put those together and you have this album.

P.S. I had a rare technical problem in putting together this review. When I originally went looking for this album, I inadvertently found a disc of Black Tie outtakes and remixes and somehow thought that was the actual record! So I listened to it and thought, "This was Bowie's comeback album?!" I didn't see how that could be possible. So I dug a little deeper and found the real LP. Whoops! (By the way, unless you're a completist superfan, don't bother with the extras for this album. They're not worth much.) This setback may have soured me somewhat on the album, so keep that in mind as you read my review.

Next: The Buddha of Suburbia (1993)