Earthling - The Album

4.48 out of 5 (392 votes)

Songs (Time)

Lyrics for all songs written by Bowie. Music written by Bowie, Gabrels and Plati except for Seven Years In Tibet, Dead Man Walking and Law (Earthling On Fire) by Bowie and Gabrels, Telling Lies, music by Bowie, I'm Afraid Of Americans music by Bowie and Eno.

1. Little Wonder (6:02)
2. Looking For Satellites (5:21)
3. Battle For Britain (The Letter) (4:48)
4. Seven Years In Tibet (6:22)
5. Dead Man Walking (6:50)
6. Telling Lies (new version) (4:49)
7. The Last Thing You Should Do (4:57)
8. I'm Afraid Of Americans (new version) (5:00)
9. Law (Earthling On Fire) (4:48)

Release details

Released January 30 in France!

Released February 3 1997 in Europe

Catalogue number: BMG 74321 43077-2/4

Limited edition 12" vinyl released catalogue number: 74321 44944 1 and 74321 43077 1 (apparently at least two different versions exist of the 12" vinyl)

Producer

David Bowie & co-produced by Mark Plati and Reeves Gabrels

Musicians

David Bowie: vocals, guitar, alto sax, samples and keyboards

Reeves Gabrels: programming, synthesizers, real and sampled guitars, vocals

Mark Plati: programming, loops, samples, keyboards

Gail Ann Dorsey: bass, vocals

Zachary Alford: drum loops, acoustic drums, electronic percussion

Mike Garson: keyboards and piano

Studio

Looking Glass Studio, New York City

Hunters and Collectors

Hong Kong

Released August 1997 in Hong Kong, with bonus disc (Mandarin version of Seven Years In Tibet)

France

In France, at least at FNAC stores (the equivalent of Tower in the US), Earthling was offered with a bonus limited edition CD. The sleeve is covered by Union Jack flag colours scratched with a black ball point pen. (Information courtesy of Eric Castaing)

Japan

In Japan, the actual Earthling CD comes with an extra bonus track, namely Telling Lies (Adam F remix).

UK 12" vinyl

A limited edition 12" will be released Monday, 17 February. This is apparently very difficult to find according to my UK correspondents.

Reviews

This album "combines jungle, hip-hop and ambient dance beats with rock" according to Billboard Magazine.

Press

Teenage Wildlifers

Details Magazine. March issue Two more reviews from down-under, one from The Dominion, and one from The Sunday Star. Thanks Miriam. March 4 The New Zealand Herald reviews Earthling. Thanks Miriam. February 24 The February 16 Philadelphia Inquirer Arts and Entertainment section reviewed Bowie (now sadly missing online :-(). February 16 There are four UK reviews, from the Daily Telegraph, David Belcher, Kevin Courtney, and the UK Guardian. February 15 Check out Earthling at E! Online February 14 There's a collection of Canadian reviews February 14 Bonster sent me Spin's review February 14 Bonster also sent me Entertainment Weekly's review February 14 John Sellars sent me Melody Maker's review February 14 Addicted To Noise writes a glowing review February 14 Microsoft's Music Central reviews Earthling February 13 (probably just for one week) Backbeat has a fairly negative review (although they give it a 7) at their site. February 13 The Boston Phoenix has a new review of Earthling. February 7 The Times (of London) had a review in their January 31 edition. February 1 NME sucks crow and admits that Earthling "is not a bad record". See their otherwise typical schlock in their review of Earthling. January 30 Rolling Stone featured Earthling in their review of the day. Link no longer active.

Kristi sent me her "last-person-to-hear-Earthling" review of Earthling. (March 16, 1997) Marc Zienkiewicz sent me a link to his review of Earthling. (February 23, 1997) Geoffrey McNulty wrote a review of Earthling for his college newspaper, The Badger Herald. (February 13, 1997) The most comprehensive review to date by Dara O'Kearney. (January 16, 1997) pre-release Earthling review exclusive to Teenage Wildlife, written by Ton van der Horst. Another pre-release review written by Bonnie Powell. Colin McDonald's Earthling review (January 6, 1997). Erick Haight's Earthling review (January 13, 1997)

Trivia

• This is not the follow up to 1. Outside.
• Read the Virgin Records Earthling Press Release.
• On the ballroom tour, Bowie asked the audience whether the album should be called Earthling, or Earthlings (with an "s"). The audience chose Earthling, so therein lies the name.
• The release date in the US almost matched (February 10) the 25th anniversay of the debut of the character Ziggy Stardust (which took place in Tollworth, England in 1972). Thanks to Antoine Poncelet for correcting the original date of February 11.

Chart Performance

This document last updated Thursday, 05-Dec-2002 04:49:42 EST