Let’s claim 2013 as the year of Bowie. It’s safe to say the master is back, everyone else can go home. After a ten year hiatus Bowie decided the best thing to do for his birthday was to release new music, an album called The Next Day, for his fans, how generous of him. It would be an understatement to say that this is an extremely hyped album and it would also be an understatement to say that people were probably hesitant to see what he would release.
The first single, “Where Are We Now” was a slow tempo, retrospective track. While a beautiful song it made some go “hmm” and wonder what direction this new album would take and no one fakes better than Bowie because there are some straight up hard rock songs on this album along with some more intimate or mellow songs. Bowie is after all 66 years old, he’s been making music for longer than some of our parents have been born. On top of that he’s reinvented himself so many times that it would make Lady Gaga’s head spin.
It’s easy for an artist to copy themselves and fall on their past and never escape the weight of it; The Rolling Stones have fallen into that trap. Bowie looked back at his past and embraced it and learned from it and then decided to cull from it and create a modern day “best of my era’s” album. This isn’t an album of re-recorded greatest hits tracks, instead it’s an album full of brand new material that borrows from his best eras in the best way possible. If there was anyone that could borrow from themselves and make it fresh again it would be David Bowie. It’s also really easy for a fan to fall into hero worship and that could easily be the case here but it’s the honest truth to say that this is an amazing album. It’s fresh, which is ironic considering it’s a 66 year old musician who is sampling his best material to create something new. Modern radio is filled with the descendants of Bowie; Gaga, Ke$ha and Adam Lambert to name a few and while rock radio is fairly forgettable these days Bowie reminds us of how well pop music and rock and roll can mesh. None of the aforementioned artists can pull it all off the way that he can, the man has worked with Freddie Mercury, Mick Jagger and Bing Crosby, he’s a legend for a reason.
His voice is still identifiably Bowie, it’s a little older and maybe a little wiser but he still has that same control over the listener, the same command that he had when Ziggy Stardust pranced around on stage. In fact the first track, the title track, “The Next Day” sounds like it could’ve been a left over from the Ziggy Stardust era. The track “Valentine’s Day” embraces that “Rebel Rebel” phase while the following song, “If You Can See Me” pushes him into a little more electronica phase. This is a snappy album, it moves along at a quick pace even with fourteen tracks that leaves it at nearly 54 minutes long. At the half way mark of the album it feels as if only a couple of songs have passed not seven.
The last few tracks on the album slow it down a bit but it’s worth it, by this point he’s been rocking quite a bit and finally takes a step back. The songs fall into the Low and Heroes era. The instrumentation is so Bowie, right down to the acoustic guitar and the way it sounds. This album runs the gamut, it has every kind of tempo and Bowie genre you’d want to hear. His voice is amazing and perfect in all its age and flaws. It’s evident he spent a lot of time on this to make it a worthy comeback album and in that he more than succeeded. If you haven’t grown up with Bowie, this is a great introduction to a legendary artist without having to resort to a greatest hits album.
This album could’ve been Bowie’s Chinese Democracy but instead he came back after ten years with an album that will hold its own weight in the extensive discography of his. It’s a rock album in only a way that David Bowie can make. The album was recorded over a two year period and all started during a one week demo session where producer Tony Visconti said Bowie took the music home and they “didn’t hear from him for four months.” The two years were well spent as every song on the album is carefully crafted. This could end up in the running as one of the best albums of the year and it’s only February. Right now it’s streaming, for free, on iTunes (Bowie seems to have a love for the digital realm) and will be available in stores and on iTunes and wherever else you buy music on March 12.