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AllMusic
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Robert Christgau
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Pitchfork	8.0/10
Entertainment Weekly	A
Trouser Press	generally favourable

Earthling (stylised as EART HL I NG) is the twentieth studio album by English recording artist David Bowie. It was originally released in February 1997, on the label Virgin Records, later reissued on BMG Rights Management. The album showcases an electronica-influenced sound partly inspired by the industrial and drum and bass culture of the 1990s. This was the first album Bowie self-produced since his 1974 album Diamond Dogs. Shortly after the release of this album, Bowie received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

David Bowie returned to the studio five days after finishing up his tour for his previous album, 1. Outside (1995). Bowie said "I really thought it would be great if we could do a photo, almost a sonic photograph of what we were like at that time. So, Reeves [Gabrels] and I started writing immediately after we finished on the road." Despite going into the studio with no material ready, the album took only 2 1/2 weeks to record (typical for a Bowie album). Bowie compared this album with his 1980 album Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), saying "I think there's quite a link between Scary Monsters and this album, to a certain extent. Certainly, the same intensity of aggression." Bowie described the album as an effort "to produce some really dynamic, aggressive-sounding material."

On the production of the drum and bass sound of the album, Bowie said, "Unlike most drum and bass things, we didn't just take parts from other people's records and sample them. On the snare drum stuff, Zac [Alford] went away and did his own loops and worked out all kinds of strange timings and rhythms. Then we speeded those up to your regular 160 beats per minute. That's very much how we treat the album. We kept all sampling in-house and created our own soundscape in a way."

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