A weird one, this. David Bowie's 1981 soundtrack to 'Christiane F.', a German film about a teenage junkie, has never been released on CD until now. A glaring oversight, it seems, until you notice the tracklisting: the nine tunes all figure on the four studio albums and one live album Bowie recorded between 1976 and '79.
One for the most dogged completists, then. But hang on. 'Christiane F'. is oddly satisfying as an album in its own right, a useful primer to Bowie's 'Berlin' years, when his tendency towards alienation became more pronounced than ever and his fascination with the new German music of Kraftwerk and Neu! came to the fore.
Some of Bowie's very best music is compiled here. There are the obviously cinematic tracks - the steely proto-techno glide of 'V-2 Schneider', the dark ambience of 'Warszawa' and 'Sense Of Doubt' - alongside the jagged pop of 'Boys Keep Swinging'.
'Christiane F.' holds one fascinating rarity, too: a version of his finest song, 'Heroes', that lapses into impassioned German halfway through (extracted from the German edition of the 'Heroes' album). As the faintly ludicrous climax of Bowie's infatuation with the Deutsche scene, it completes an inessential but still compelling album.
