Hours … By David Bowie

This album has a more traditional pop sensibility than the previous two, but definitely one of the more unusual origins. The video game director David Cage had been working on an incredibly ambitious game called Omikron : The Nomad Soul and invited Bowie to contribute music for the soundtrack. Eventually, Bowie (as well as Reeves Gabrels, Gail Ann Dorsey and Iman) also ended up acting in the game via motion capture.

The songs were mainly introspective and emotional, dealing with mortality and spirituality (re-incarnation into different bodies is a theme of the game), and harking back to the style of Hunky Dory in places, especially on the track Seven. Bowie denied that it was autobiographical, but you have to wonder, especially as the cover shows an apparently dying older Bowie being cradled by his younger self.

In an another internet first, Bowie ran an online competition for his fans to contribute lyrics and backing vocals to one track and then made the whole album available on BowieNet before it was available in the the shops, seriously upsetting major retailers at the time.

https://album.link/i/1053991355