The Next Day – David Bowie

Released: 2013

Label: ISO, Columbia

When I bought: 2013

David Bowie is one of my absolute favourite musicians of all time. I'll probably go more into that another time, but suffice to say I was delighted when in 2013 the first new Bowie album for 10 years appeared.

Ushered in by the sublime 'Where Are We Now?', The Next Day had no press campaign ahead of its launch. One day there wasn't a new Bowie record, then, the next day, there was.

The album kicks of with a drum whack and we're straight off into the title track. A short intro and there's the Dame, sounding as vibrant and mischievous as ever. The track bounces along before winding up and up into a chorus that demands to be shouted: "HERE I AM! NOT QUITE DYING!"

Ah it's exhilarating. And, as we know now, depressingly apt.

It's a hell of way to kick off your 25th studio album.

And so the record rumbles on, filled with urgency, nostalgia and life.

Many of the tracks on The Next Day would fit perfectly on other Bowie albums.

'Valentine's Day' is pure glam, and Bowie, with his wonderful shape-shifting voice, channels the thin, nasal delivery of Ziggy as he sings about a school shooting.

'(You Will) Set The World On Fire' is a huge song with a glam rock guitar intro, while 'You Feel So Lonely You Could Die' has echoes of a minor key version of 'Drive In Saturday'.

It's not just early 70s Bowie that gets a retread.

Album closer 'Heat' is abstract and sombre enough it could have been on side 2 of Low, 'How Does The Grass Grow?' has a very Berlin-era guitar solo, while 'Boss of Me' and 'Dancing Out In Space' feel like off-cuts from the Let's Dance or Tonight sessions.

Even Earthling Bowie gets a look in with the frenetic 'If You Can See Me'.

A glimpse of where Bowie would go next is seen on 'Dirty Boys', with its off beat drums and sleazy sax the characteristic of Black Star.

The album highlight though is 'Where Are We Now?'. Bowie was in his mid-60s when he recorded the track, and it shows in the most beautiful way.

Here we have someone who has lived many lives looking back on his time in Berlin, reflecting on the places he used to go, with neither excessive nostalgia or crippling regret - just a wondering. It could only be written by someone coming to the end of their particular story, flicking through the photographs in their mind trying to work out what each truly represents in the final analysis.

The album is not perfect. At 14 tracks it's too long, and some of the tracks do lose the attention of the listener.

But in the name of all things Major Tom, it's a more vibrant, interesting, fascinating, rich album than most musicians in their mid-60s are capable of releasing.

7/10

Comments

Pointless Nostalgic – Jamie Cullum

Year Released: 2002 Label: Candid Year Bought: Can't Remember Jamie Cullum burst into the nation's consciousness with a performance on Parkinson in April 2003, a showing that was soon followed by the huge-selling album 'Twentysomething'. It was 2002's 'Pointless Nostalgic' that put Cullum on Parky's radar, and shows the jazz singer and pianist beginning to hone the act that would make him such a breakthrough. There's a host of standards here – 'In The Wee Small Hours of The Morning'. 'It Ain't Necessarily So', 'I Can't Get Started' – alongside a couple of originals and a cover of Radiohead's 'High And Dry'. I remember that song being a big deal at the time for some reason. I think it was seen as rare merging of jazz and alt-rock. Cullum's version is not bad, and actually keeps it quite light and subdued without slipping into a dirge. Cullum was just 23 when this was recorded, and perhaps it's his yo...

Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand

Year Released: 2004 Label: Domino Year Bought: 2004 January 2004. I'd just quit uni. Was back at the family home in Bishop's Stortford. The place I'd been so desperate to get away from, and I was back and already bored. And then things got a bit less boring. I remember this so clearly. I was having a shower and the radio was on, and on came 'Take Me Out'. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. At first I thought it must be an old tune that had passed me by, but no, it was announced as a new song by a band called Franz Ferdinand. It sounded glorious. It sounded interesting. After the staleness of the post-Britpop years, and beigeness of Coldplay, Travis et al, there was actually a British band doing something interesting. I loved it, and when the album came out the next month, I gobbled it up with glee. Listening back now, and I still love it. The hushed opening of 'Jacqueline', the sleaze of 'The Dark of the Matinee', the homoeroticism of 'M...

Ringleader Of The Tormentors – Morrissey

Year Released: 2006 Label: Sanctuary Year Bought: 2006 Released in 2006, 'Ringleader of the Tormentors' in many ways represents the apex of the Morrissey resurgence that began two years earlier with 'You Are The Quarry'. Whereas that album peaked at number 2 in the album chart (although it did spawn 4 top ten singles), its successor gave Morrissey his first number 1 album since 1994's 'Vauxhall and I'. 'Ringleaders...' raised some eyebrows at the time as Morrissey sang explicitly about something he had previously made a virtue of not discussing. His sex life. "There are exploding kegs between my legs," he sings on 'Dear God Please Help Me' – a tune that swells and grows to a climax with strings written by Ennio Morricone. "Now I'm spreading your legs with mine in between," he later adds. Perhaps this new found desire of the flesh was due to this album being recorded in Italy, and references to the country season the ...

All The Records I've Ever Owned

Search This Blog