David Bowie - The Next Day

The little bit that I'm loving even though it's kind of obvious is the way the "Rock and Roll Suicide" song ends with the start of "Five Years." Kind of an easy move, but it works for me.

Trying to listen to the stream while doing something else but I feel like I haven't heard much of a tune up until 'where are we now', but then the next couple are great

get me Mr. Raggett response!

It's...nice? I'm feeling carefully neutral about it. The last album of his I really thoroughly loved/was struck by remains Earthling, with everything since being more reexploration/retrenching. I enjoyed the listen and will purchase the album, a couple of strong moments but I think this one would have to be a grower for me instead of some revelation.

Final track is good, sounds Labyrinthy

this is great! haven't been paying attention to the song titles either since I'm listening to the stream. But it's a strong album than Reality which was kind of flabby to me. Don't know if I like it as much as Heathen, which is among my very favorites of his. But it's good. I'm just glad his career isn't going to go out on some kind of Hours/Never let me Down/Tonight meh thing.

i like it - better than the last 3, i think. but then i loved 'hours' when it first came out and grew to dislike it. it's certainly some sort of grand marketing campaign.

Incredibly faint praise like "better than the last 3" assures me that I won't have missed anything by never listening to this album.

Better than "Tonight" and "Never Let Me Down" ... combined!

And the comment I quoted wasn't even so brave as to unequivocally state that it was - outright - no question about it... 'better than the last 3'!

The breathless schoolgirl enthusiasm of the Quietus write-up on this really doesn't tally at all with the general okayness found within the actual album.

I mean:

"Moreover, it closes with two mind-blowing, show-stopping, grandstanding epics: one as baroque as 'Rock And Roll Suicide' ONLY MORE SO"

Just...no.

then there are those of us who never thought much about "Rock and Roll Suicide."

i gaze in defeat at the stars at night

oh, ok. it's definitely better than the last 3. i'd actually listened to them all again this past week and was surprised at the enjoyment i got out of them. but this one has more good melodies and a lack of any tracks that are abominable.

the overt praise by reviewers is a little off-putting.

I like this a lot.

It's funny, like bowie just can't make an album of good david bowie songs?

but it's cool for a band like The XX to basically make the same album over & it's only their second record

listening to the stream atm -- there's something kind of nice about having Bowie just sound like himself? Like, it's nothing exciting, but the familiarity's not really a letdown for me so far. So far it's a rather nice Bowie hug :)

but yeah, I don't really understand the cartwheels & fireworks crazy ott reviews

I mean bowie being bowie is way better than like whatever 10 crappy modern indie bands are gonna ”buzz” and get great reviews this year

totally!

It's funny, like bowie just can't make an album of good david bowie songs?
It's shitty David Bowie songs, though.

I disagree

He should reunite Tin Machine.

Is this streaming somewhere other than iTunes?

^^^ let me qualify that a little: I mean a legal stream!

I kinda stump for Tin Machine

last song is some serious scott walker wannabe stuff. it's really good.

Yep on both counts

Listened to this for the first time today. First reaction: 14 songs in 54 minutes is too much. Should have been nine songs in 40. Also...it's been seven and a half hours since I heard the record, and I can't remember what a single song on it sounded like.

Yeah I agree with this. I listened to it last night and did enjoy some moments but can't really remember anything about it today. So baffled at all the amazing reviews it's been getting. It's probably better than Reality and about as good as Heathen.

still prefer Reality to Heathen, which had one too many ponderosities for me.

Meanwhile speaking of Alfred and Bowie opinions

http://www.spin.com/reviews/david-bowie-the-next-day-columbia-iso

Bowie's retirement is somewhat overrated imo

more overrated than Scary Monsters?

You rated it as highly as Station to Station!
Scary Monsters is overrated. But it has Bowie's 2nd-best ever A-side. And his best ever song "Ashes to Ashes" fuiud. Do people rate it any other way in saying it's the end of his classic period?
I like that Bowie, 66, is making records this late in life. I like that there's a photo in RS of Tony and David the nice young engineer at Magic Shop, I hope it gets him some cool gigs. I don't think "The Next Day" has any place in my life, "Heat" is a nice bit of Scott Walker pastiche but I've banned "Scott Walker pastiche". I'm glad I don't have to rate records for a living

Sounds boring

i wonder how this record would have sound like if someone else, lets say Eno, produced it.
cause it is boring partly because of the production imo.

Visconti may be a legend but he and Bowie are both old now. So I guess you have to expect a boring record. btw I did mean sounds boring from what you guys say I haven't heard it.
p.s. find a lot of songs hunky dory and mwstw boring and that was these two lol

Not sure that Eno is any better at producing non-boring records in 2013!

eno is a pretty boring producer these days, listen to that bowie/byrne album from a few years ago, or the paul simon record.

eno byrne I mean

exactly

It's kind of a vicious cycle - Eno makes boring records because boring musicians are attracted to the idea of working with Eno.

Producers who could have done something interesting with David Bowie:

Kevin Martin
Kurt Ballou
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez

Pretty sure Eno is bored of producing, tbh.

Lots of people could have done something awesome with Bowie. Geoff Barrow!

he could've written some tunes with Shriekback and Max Martin tbh

DJ Rashad and Bowie ftw.

The results were often risible, but I miss the days when old ppl tried to be modern.

Tom Jones Reloaded

Drum'n'Bass Bowie!
Grace Slick "All the Machines"!

I'm not saying it's a good idea... just that I miss it. hahaha
More fun than getting T-Bone Rubin on board, anyway!

I particularly enjoyed the Tom Jones video where this dog was hanging from an overhead wire and moving at high speed and you could see it from directly above intercut with pictures of Tom's face

That was a cover of ... Rise Robots Rise?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRgj3hJr7cA