Bowie’s new single ‘Where are We Now?’
Posted by dailypop on January 8, 2013
I’ve been a big fan of David Bowie’s music since I was a kid. Along with the Stones, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Who, Rush, Van Halen, Joy Division and the Police, his music was a mainstay of my upbringing (may parents were pretty cool that way).
I delved very deeply into his catalog when he made the press with Outside (a high concept album that appealed to a select few) and gained a greater appreciation for his massive body of work and its varied facets. I even got to work at Rykodisc and met with some of the people who worked on the reissues that introduced a whole new audience to his work while remastering each album in loving detail (even later, less stellar material such as Never Let Me Down).
Released just yesterday, the new video from Bowie arrives on the heels of his 66th birthday. The ‘Thin White Duke’ delivers a mournful lament that ponders existence as the camera roams through his former apartment. His face projected onto a Siamese twin stuffed doll, the singer painfully mouths the lyrics as they appear across the screen.
His first studio album in about ten years, The Next Day will be released on Columbia Records in March. The Next Day is produced by Tony Visconti, the same man behind T Rex’s Electric Warrior and the Bowie albums Man Who Sold the World, Young Americans, the Bowie/Eno trilogy Low/Heroes/Lodger and Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps).
As an added note, here’s an excellent tune that my brother brought to my attention from his previous album in 2003 Reality called Bring Me the Disco King.
Hal said
David Bowie is by-far my favourite rock pop artist and it’s such great news that he’s back! I was recently lamenting to myself (cos I’m weird like that
) that Bowie probably wouldn’t return because of his health so this is unexpected and doubly fantastic.
Unfortunately my hearing problem has been playing up so I won’t even be able to half-hear it with my hearing aid for a while. Argh! Still it sounds exactly the kind of record I want to hear from the great man.
I felt that Reality was a disappointing album and his worst since Tin Machine so it would have been sad if he’d bowed (Bowie’d?! Yeah, I know all good people pronounce it Boh-ee like me but anything for a pun!) out on that – in my view – low note. Aside from New Killer Star (a competent approximation cum update of his art rock sound) and Fall Dog Bombs the Moon (I don’t know what that song is about and the title appears to be a cut-up of previous Bowie song names but I like it nonetheless) Reality was ramshackle let-down. Funnily enough, despite the praise it has received, I dislike the spavined muffled wonky jazz of Bring Me the Head of the Disco King! It’s one of those so songs that feels pretentious, empty, and unconvincing to me, and I love Bowie’s work. Heathen on the other hand – tho’ not a masterpiece – was an entertaining and accomplished mature minor classic. I have high hopes for The Next Day. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, Jameson (even if we disagree about Disco King!).
dailypop said
Strangely the new song is very reminiscent of ‘Bring me The Disco King,’ so if you dislike that one you would probably not like this one. I did enjoy Heathen a lot. It’s another jumbled bag of tunes, but ‘Everyone Says Hi,’ and ‘Slip Away’ really stand out for me.
Hal said
Oops, I wrote Bring Me the Disco King then put in “the Head”, uhrm brainstorm! So you worked at Rykodisc? The Bowie reissues from the nineties were great; getting to hear Sweethead, Velvet Goldmine, John, I’m Only Dancing (sax version), and Dodo was a real pleasure.
dailypop said
Yes, having access to Bowie, Zappa, Elvis Costello and Bill Hicks was very cool.
Hal said
Bill Hicks! Great, great comedian and underappreciated in his homeland. You, sir, have taste. What did Rykodisc release of Costello’s? I’m a fan of his work up to and including Get Happy!! and spottily afterwards. Ah, you hipster, you!
dailypop said
Ryko also had Hannibal (Nick Drake, some Brian Eno and Richard Thompson) and Restless too. They released a large chunk of Costello’s catalog (his first 11 studio albums) in much the same way as they re-issued Bowie, with extra unreleased material, etc.
Hal said
You know, I think I actually *had* one or two of the Rykodisc reissues: Get Happy!! and Imperial Bedroom (?), yes those were really great packages. Alas, I had to sell them. They were excellent special editions though. Excellent company.
Yes, Slip Away and Everyone Says “Hi” were fine songs, really moving; Heathen *is* a great grab-bag of songs and approaches as you say. I mean, Cactus alongside Gemini Spaceship next to 5:15 Angels Have Gone (I think that was the title) and Slowburn? That’s eclectic.