Tin Machine is the debut studio album by the Anglo-American hard rock band Tin Machine, released on 22 May 1989 through EMI America Records. The band consisted of the English singer-songwriter David Bowie, the American guitarist Reeves Gabrels and brothers Tony Fox and Hunt Sales on bass and drums, respectively, while Englishman Kevin Armstrong acted as an additional guitarist. The project was spearheaded by Bowie, who felt disconnected in his career by 1987 and looked to reinvent himself. After meeting Gabrels through his Glass Spider Tour, the two agreed to work together and would collaborate frequently for the next decade. Bowie hired the Sales brothers, neither of whom he had worked with since the 1970s, after a meeting in Los Angeles, while English producer Tim Palmer was hired to co-produce.

The album was recorded in August 1988 at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland, and later at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, in the spring of 1989. The sessions were productive despite personality clashes among the members. The tracks were mostly recorded live in few takes, with Bowie improvising lyrics while standing at the microphone, resulting in a predominantly hard rock sound and lyrics discussing world issues and love. Tin Machine named themselves and the album after one of the tracks. Unlike Bowie's previous backing bands, Tin Machine acted as a democratic unit, which was reflected in promotional interviews.

Upon release, the album peaked at number three on the UK Albums Chart, although sales declined quickly. It was accompanied by three singles and a 13-minute long music video containing performances of the tracks. Like its supporting concert tour, Tin Machine received mixed reviews and continues to receive similar assessments from Bowie's biographers, who mainly criticise the lyrics and lack of melodies. Nevertheless, some reviewers noted that the band were exploring grunge and alternative rock styles before those styles became popular. Tin Machine began recording a follow-up album in late 1989 before Bowie embarked on the solo Sound+Vision Tour. Bowie later rerecorded "I Can't Read" during the sessions for his 1997 album Earthling.

More than anything else, I thought I should make as much money as I could, and then quit. I didn't think there was any alternative. I thought I was obviously just an empty vessel and would end up like everyone else, doing these stupid fucking shows, singing 'Rebel Rebel' until I fall over and bleed.

By the end of 1987, David Bowie was at an artistic low point. Although he had garnered massive commercial success throughout the 1980s starting with Let's Dance (1983), he later said that the success of the album caused him to hit a creative low point in his career which lasted the next few years. After his follow-up albums Tonight (1984) and Never Let Me Down (1987) were critically dismissed, Bowie began to re-evaluate where he was at in his career; he would later dismiss this period as his "Phil Collins years". The Glass Spider Tour had torn away at him, as he found it hard to maintain the stadium rockstar lifestyle. While he considered retiring from music, Bowie decided to completely rejuvenate himself.

One of the first things he did was part ways with his longtime collaborator Carlos Alomar, who had acted as Bowie's bandleader. The biographer David Buckley calls his departure the end of Bowie's tenure as a "pop star". Towards the end of 1987, Bowie conducted some sessions in Los Angeles, California, with members of Bryan Adams' backing band and producer Bruce Fairbairn. The only tracks that came out of the sessions were a demo of "Pretty Pink Rose", an early version of "Lucy Can't Dance" and a cover of Bob Dylan's 1965 hit "Like a Rolling Stone", the last of which was given to Bowie's former Spiders from Mars guitarist Mick Ronson, whose version appeared on his posthumous album Heaven and Hull (1994). According to the biographer Nicholas Pegg, Bowie's style during the sessions was close to what he would explore for his next big project.

Towards the end of the Glass Spider Tour in November 1987, the tour's American press officer Sarah Gabrels gave Bowie a demo tape containing recordings of her husband Reeves, whom Bowie had unknowingly met and befriended backstage during the American leg; he believed Gabrels was a painter. The demos showcased Gabrels' unique guitar sound, described by the biographer Marc Spitz as "improvisational and multi-note but simultaneously hard and bluesy". He recalled, "It happened really fast. David called me, I went over to Switzerland, and we had this music to do—in a weekend." The beginning of Bowie and Gabrels' collaboration sparked a new journey in Bowie's career. Although there would still be tours and media interviews, he aimed to scale down the expectations of the listening public in terms of his music. Gabrels stated, "He was at a crossroads. Either he became Rod Stewart and played Las Vegas, or he followed his heart." He told Bowie, "The only barrier between you doing what you want and you doing what you think you should do, is you."

One of the first projects Bowie and Gabrels collaborated on was a new version of Bowie's 1979 Lodger track "Look Back in Anger", which was created for a London theatre performance in July 1988. Afterwards, the two returned to Switzerland, where Bowie presented Gabrels with music that he was listening to at the time. These included hard rock acts such as Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Guy, avant-garde acts such as Sonic Youth, and one of Bowie's new favourites, the Pixies. From there, Bowie and Gabrels composed demos for a new project, which included "Bus Stop", "Baby Universal", "Pretty Pink Rose" and an early version of "Under the God".