David Bowie - The Next Day

Woohoo!

And Happy 66th to the man himself.

Press release hoohah:

--

Where is David Bowie?

New Single and Pre-Order of First New Album in 10 Years Exclusively Launching on the iTunes Store Today

New York, NY--January 8, 2013--In the early morning hours of Tuesday the 8th January, Iso/Columbia Records released a new single by David Bowie titled 'Where Are We Now?' exclusively launching in the iTunes Store in 119 countries. David Bowie's first new album in ten years and his 30th studio recording, THE NEXT DAY is also available as a pre-order on iTunes with a wide release scheduled for March. January the 8th is of course David Bowie's birthday, a timely moment for such a treasure to appear as if out of nowhere.

Throwing shadows and avoiding the industry treadmill is very David Bowie despite his extraordinary track record that includes album sales in excess of 130 million not to mention his massive contributions in the area of art, fashion, style, sexual exploration and social commentary. It goes without saying that he has sold out stadiums and broken ticket records throughout the world during this most influential of careers.

In recent years radio silence has been broken only by endless speculation, rumor and wishful thinking ....a new record...who would have ever thought it, who'd have ever dreamed it! After all David is the kind of artist who writes and performs what he wants when he wants...when he has something to say as opposed to something to sell. Today he definitely has something to say.

Produced by long term collaborator Tony Visconti, 'Where Are We Now?' was written by Bowie, and was recorded in New York. The single is accompanied by a haunting video directed by Tony Oursler which harks back to David's time in Berlin. He is seen looking in on footage of the auto repair shop beneath the apartment he lived in along with stark images of the city at the time and a lyric constantly raising the question Where Are We Now?

"The moment you know, you know you know" resonates from the new single's lyric. Now we all know...David Bowie has been in the recording studio...just when we least expected it!!

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The Next Day tracklisting

Standard Version:

01. The Next Day 3:51
02. Dirty Boys 2:58
03. The Stars (Are Out Tonight) 3:56
04. Love Is Lost 3:57
05. Where Are We Now? 4:08
06. Valentine's Day 3:01
07. If You Can See Me 3:16
08. I'd Rather Be High 3:53
09. Boss Of Me 4:09
10. Dancing Out In Space 3:24
11. How Does The Grass Grow 4:33
12. (You Will) Set The World On Fire 3:30
13. You Feel So Lonely You Could Die 4:41
14. Heat 4:25

Total (Approximately) 53:14

Deluxe Version

01. The Next Day 3:51
02. Dirty Boys 2:58
03. The Stars (Are Out Tonight) 3:56
04. Love Is Lost 3:57
05. Where Are We Now? 4:08
06. Valentine's Day 3:01
07. If You Can See Me 3:16
08. I'd Rather Be High 3:53
09. Boss Of Me 4:09
10. Dancing Out In Space 3:24
11. How Does The Grass Grow 4:33
12. (You Will) Set The World On Fire 3:30
13. You Feel So Lonely You Could Die 4:41
14. Heat 4:25

Bonus tracks:
15. So She 2:31
16. I'll Take You There 2:44
17. Plan 2:34

Total (Approximately): 61: 03

The Wembley Arena show I saw him do on the Reality tour is still one of the best I've ever seen. I'd be very surprised to see much touring for this though.

!

Genuinely really unexpected. The single's just okay, but man I can't even be mad, it's Bowie making music again. Is it too much to ask that dude tours again?

interesting cover on the itunes preorder page http://i.imgur.com/GwXCD.png

And of course, at least seventeen more entries for the Bowiesongs blog to expect.

great single imo. well great song, maybe not right for a single.

Am I alone in hearing this as a perfect opportunity to duet for Robert Wyatt?

AWESOME

There's a bunch of titles there that'd make decent jumping off places for an ILX coverproject, just sayin'

This makes two of my musical heroes who have returned from ten-year absences from the music scene- Cohen and Bowie.

Both cases have thrilled me.

I love the songs that old, serious men write.

Realized that the details of my first statement above aren't totally accurate. Oh well.

mixed feelings about this. it sounds like it took about 10 minutes to write, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I hope he tours, but I hope it's not another best-of-the-whole career rock'n'roll tour like Reality was. Something quieter and befitting his age. I don't want to see him do "Rebel Rebel." Even though I love that song.

'...not to mention his massive contributions in the area of art, fashion, style, sexual exploration and social commentary. '

c'mon, he invented sexual tourism!

Christ, the Dschungel club on Nurnburgerstrasse, near KaDeWe... instant nostalgia for my year in Berlin. The place was a bit up itself, though.

Is this his 'When We Was Fab'?

^^Good call - he should have got Iggy and Brian to appear in the video.

It's a bit overwrought and at the same time doesn't really say anything. Don't get me wrong, I really wanted to like this. If it had been anyone but Bowie I wouldn't have patiently sat through all of it. But it comes out shortly after a new Scott Walker album, and Walker does this kind of lyric and singing a lot better, and also, crucially, with a sense of humour.

Did he just wait until the day after Suede put out their big comeback single or is that a coincidence? Anyway way to steal their thunder.

You can sing Fantastic Voyage over this.

xp kind of backfired, because the Suede track is way better.

Yeah that's true. Pretty sure he put out Black Tie White Noise the week after their debut too and Suede won that round too.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/64/PorkysII.jpg

it sounds a bit like that song from Drive

wait, was it from Drive. it sounds like an unspecified song that I think was in Drive. stay tuned.

STAY RETIRED

the whole sound and look of the video gives this an 'outside' era feel (the twisted face effect in the video).

its not an immediate hit-you-in-the-face song, but as an album track, i think its rather lovely.

on another point of interest, can you imagine the secrecy clauses that folks have had to sign in order to be involved - i mean, in the last 12 months there has been a lot of pressure/interest re new material, and not a word has leaked out from anyone involved in this.

in this day and age, i think that's mighty impressive.

^^^ My other half talks to Bowie's management all the time and she and none of her work colleagues knew nothing.

ugh dbl neg, sorry

Good call on When We Was Fab! Amazing spot.

Will listen in a few minutes but I'm disappointed he didn't stay retired -- what a brilliant move it was.

Here's the joke (or at least until I actually hear the song): today's his 65th birthday.

yeah, i think i said on another thread that i quite liked the idea of him just disappearing off into the sunset never to be heard from again.

66th birthday.

I am so glad there's not supposed to be interviews/tour happening, just a record.

66th birthday. It's a crazy week for b'days... Sandy Denny (she'd also have been 66), Scott Walker, Bernard Sumner, Michael Stipe, Beth Gibbons, Robin Guthrie, Mark Hollis... (I only know this because it's also a crazy week for friends' birthdays, so you tend to look this stuff up).

xp

And of course, at least seventeen more entries for the Bowiesongs blog to expect.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, January 8, 2013 5:39 AM (6 hours ago)

It would be great if the rest of Bowie's career was just dedicated to messing with that guy. "There, finished! I've written a blog entry for every single Bowie song ever... dammmit he's just released a new album!!!"

there was also that Paolo Hewitt coffeetable book which came out a few weeks ago, covers all his albums in an entry-level kind of way and concludes with a slightly gloomy "well we've not heard shit from him for years, guess that's that then"

66th birthday. It's a crazy week for b'days... Sandy Denny (she'd also have been 66), Scott Walker, Bernard Sumner, Michael Stipe, Beth Gibbons, Robin Guthrie, Mark Hollis... (I only know this because it's also a crazy week for friends' birthdays, so you tend to look this stuff up).

Today would've been Elvis's 78th birthday as well.

I'm kinda surprised that he's still associated with the major label, or affiliate or whatever it is, that he hooked up with in the early 2000s…I would have thought until earlier this morning that one reason for his sabbatical is that he wanted to sit a contract out…

I interviewed him as he was finishing Reality: I was terrified, but he couldn't have been more friendly. Thought he would be sporting an avant garde japanese suit, but was wearing a rugby shirt and khakis…

The new single is currently number two on the UK itunes chart inbetween Will.i.am and Taylor Swift, have to say I'm pretty shocked by that.

Bit of a dreary song, sorry David.

song is boring, but it's no surprise

I don't like the song very much, but I'm very happy it has come out because there had been a lot of rumors around that he was very ill. Hopefully the song/album disproves that.

Please say there will be a vinyl release of this.

all together now..

I've liked the lead singles from his albums for a good long while so I don't put a lot of stock in how much I like this - which is "a good bit"; I wish it had no "as long as there's me/as long as there's you" climax, the meandering vibe is stronger. Is this a song about when he was making Heroes/Low/Lodger or about the fall of the Berlin wall? I think get bent is otm, it sounds quickly written, and I think that's good - old men working on music seem to dither until there's nothing interesting left, I don't think the digital age has done any favors for aging musicians in this regard. he's singing well to my ears but there's also lots of treatment on the voice, no idea what besides compression but it's a little offputting to me.

I dream of this being a really interesting record.

You're right, 66th--speaking of old people losing their memory, who went and changed the calendar on me?

he's singing well to my ears

Definitely still in good (and highly distinctive) voice.

It's really the first disc that I find most interesting, as it's so strong and also so unfamiliar if you haven't been paying attention. (I'd given cursory listens to the albums it pulls from, but never *loved* any of them). The other two discs just strike me as a grab bag...definitely feels like the most thought went into the first.

agree, tho' 1st disc shortchanges Reality (a pretty strong record) in favor of Hours (a really not v. strong one). the opening 1-2-3 is a great sequence.

on "Where Are We Now": https://bowiesongs.wordpress.com/2015/06/24/where-are-we-now/

Reading that has reminded me I haven't listened to The Next Day for a long, long while... I'll have to give it another listen and see how it's held up. Looking at the tracklisting now, I can recall near enough every song on it, so that's a good start!

I love this album.

Finally listened to this over the last week. It's quite good, isn't it? Has struck me more than Heathen, the other recent(ish) Bowie I've picked up since he died. Surprised at the lack of talk about the title track, which was my immediate favourite.

otm

As already written in another thread: For me, the title track is putting everything from hours to Reality to shame in terms of sheer vitality, force and also fun. His voice is so strong, remarkable lyrics and generally it sounds like an unreleased b-side from Lodger, like an excellent mix of Repetition and Red Sails.

I gave it another go before and after he died and it still sounds tentative and a couple of times actually embarrassing.

Is there any collection / writing about Bowie b-sides anywhere? I assume PAOTD covers them but are they all listed together anywhere or something?

Revisiting this again - 'Heat' is so fucking good.

Weird to think this album is five years old now. THAT time passed strangely quickly.

Yeah, agreed - one last, quick burst of creativity and then he was gone foe good.

*for

There was this little record called BLACKSTAR that came before he was "gone for good", you cretin.

Yeah, and I include Blackstar in as part of that one last, quick burst of creativity. It's a record that I like a lot, as the thread about the record will show. You dumb little fucking cunt.

Well this revive is all going swimmingly.

The Next Day is a special case. I've wondered if Bowie at the time might have already thought it could have been his swan song? In any case Blackstar more or less obliterated it in its force. Which takes away some of The Next Day's appeal and shine, because it's probably underrated and really good.

As for The Next Day, I still like the record a lot, although definitely not as much as Blackstar. Last time I listened to the record I really enjoyed it, particularly 'If You Can See Me', which always felt like it had a Scary Monsters vibe about it. It'd be great to hear what everyone thinks about the record now, preferably without Le Bateau Ivre turning up and acting like an utter weapon. I know Alfred in particular was cold on it.

(xxpost)

reality, the next day and blackstar is an extremely good run

I'm not convinced that The Next Day was ever designed to be a swan song, rather the next chapter of Bowie's career, although the last song on The Next Day sounds like it would have made a perfect career closer. If Bowie hadn't fallen ill, I believe we would have had more music from him by now, but at the same time we may not have had Blackstar in the form that it was released.

This record still is not very good, an enthusiastic retread of modes and instrumental choices he had even by then discarded.

Reality is underrated, IMO... I probably like that and Heathen more than The Next Day, and Outside over all of 'em. In fact, if it wasn't for hours... I'd say Bowie's work from 1995 onwards was quite strong... not 1971-1980 strong, but a very good run of LP's in their own right.

That's about right.

oh heathen, i forgot about that record. It was not bad iirc

Heathen is my favorite late-period Bowie next to Blackstar, for sure.

I get what Ned's saying, though... five years before The Next Day was released, I think pretty much most people considered Bowie retired and had come to terms with the fact that there may have not been any more new music from him. Five years after The Next Day and here we are knowing that there won't be anymore new music from him. The comeback feels like it lasted in the time it takes to blink your eyes, yet in Blackstar we're left with one of his best albums.

He revisited Low live in full during the Heathen era, if I remember correctly.

He did

https://vimeo.com/171621712

10 years old this week. I wrote about it for BA, mostly reprinting my original review from 2013, with a few new thoughts:

Ten years ago, on March 8, 2013, David Bowie released his next-to-last studio album, his first in 10 years. Bowie had always been an artist beloved of critics because he spoke their language, and flattered them. He was (apparently; I never spoke to him) a great interview subject — he knew a lot about art and pop, and could combine the two in beguiling ways. But to beguile means to deceive, and the illusion often faded quickly. Bowie knew this, and would frequently disavow previous work when selling the new stuff. On The Next Day, though, he made the links to his past explicit, almost as if he needed to remind people who he was (or had once been). The cover was literally the cover of 1977’s “Heroes”, with that title crossed out and a white square with the new album’s title slapped across it.

(Personally, I think Phil Collins pulled a much better version of this trick when he reissued his albums Face Value, No Jacket Required, and …But Seriously in 2016 or so, with new cover art that duplicated the originals, but now featured the old-man version of himself. A shot of old-man Bowie re-creating the “Heroes” pose would have been cooler than this.)

Some of the lyrics on The Next Day were about Berlin, too, and/or about subjects he had tackled in the old days, which allowed reviewers to flex their knowledge of his late ’70s albums (admittedly, his best work). And naturally, some writers took the bait. Rolling Stone called it “a triumphant album…the comeback Bowie fans feared would never happen” while explicitly citing Low, “Heroes”, Lodger, and Scary Monsters. The Guardian, meanwhile, did a deep dive into the lyrics and the sounds, attempting to spot as many references and bits of arcana as possible, like one of those conspiracy theorists’ yarn-and-Post-It-note charts that take over entire rooms, but ultimately came to the conclusion that “for all the pointers it offers in that direction, The Next Day isn’t the equal of Bowie’s ’70s work.”

Unperson I enjoyed reading your review yesterday & it prompted me to give this one another listen, which I also enjoyed. No smart things to say about it, but I'll probably listen again today/this week.

Thanks!

I never liked the cover of The Next Day, exactly, but it's hard to think of another cover from a "legacy artist" from the last couple of decades that's so bracing, so much of a slap across of the face to nostalgia. "It's not that anymore, now it's this".

I no longer think, per my original SPIN review, the album shouldn't have been recorded, but at the same time it's not a Bowie album I think much about.

I never liked the cover of The Next Day, exactly, but it's hard to think of another cover from a "legacy artist" from the last couple of decades that's so bracing, so much of a slap across of the face to nostalgia. "It's not that anymore, now it's this".

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41jSMXYTU+L.jpg

Yeah, but Neil Young is just lazy.

The Next Day has got no more or less reason to exist than Reality, with a few more good songs on it than the earlier record.

Nah, Reality's the better album. Nothing embarrasses me like "Boss of Me" or "Valentine's Day."

Now I want to listen to Heathen again.

I will say this about "Valentine's Day," John Cale did a pretty good version of it at one of those various Bowie tribute concerts.

I like Valentine's Day.

Looks like the bonus tracks aren't streaming?

Shame.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0uw06jPCqY

Yeah, I like "Valentine's Day" too. I kind of like the video too - Bowie's still a good pantomime.

I also like Valentine’s Day. Feel you could comfortably snip tracks 8-12 and have a much much better album though.

Would be on the short side but still an album (I think somewhere between 33 or 34 minutes)

Definitely too long and uneven, but I think the album is OK, albeit nothing special. Blackstar is special and I could hear that even in the few days I had listening to it before his death changed its meaning.

I think the problem with The Next Day is that he'd been so long out of the game that he was probably worried whether he could pull it off, and so he consciously made a 'Bowie album', in the neoclassical rock mode of Heathen and Reality. It's of a piece with those two (although not as good as Heathen), whereas Blackstar is a new direction right at the end.

It's definitely another album that tries to reconsolidate his strengths rather than breaking new ground, but I thought it was better than Heathen and Reality. Those previous two weren't bad albums, but they weren't all that consistent either and I remember thinking they were overhyped. (Jim DeRogatis, who was always a bit skeptical of Bowie, gushed on the radio over Reality, saying "I never thought I'd recommend a Bowie album again.") I was very skeptical and dismissed the lead-up to The Next Day as more marketing hype, but to my surprise I enjoyed it quite a bit and I didn't think anything was terrible on it either - it was the first Bowie album since you-know-what where I didn't have to skip anything, I was fine letting the lesser parts play through. I thought that was the best I could ever hope for from Bowie, but Blackstar proved me wrong, and the weekend before he died, I played the shit out of it. It really sent my hopes though the roof, like we'd be getting more great albums going forward.

I thought it was better than Heathen and Reality. Those previous two weren't bad albums, but they weren't all that consistent either and I remember thinking they were overhyped

The Next Day for me

I think it's fascinating that it ends with "Heat" which really does point the way to "Blackstar".