CD Review: David Bowie – The Next Day
Columbia
All Access Review: B+
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| David Bowie - The Next Day 2013 |
Nobody knows what The
Next Day will bring, especially for the unpredictable David Bowie. His
future uncertain, having turned 65 in January, Bowie has been adamant that his
days of touring are behind him. And having reached retirement age, it begs the
question: Is this Bowie’s last hurrah? From the title of his latest LP, it
appears even Bowie has no idea. There is, after all, an incredible amount of
ambiguity in those three little words.
Does it mean he plans on doing more recording and that he’s
going back to work … well, The Next Day?
Or, does it mean he’s moving on to another chapter in his life, one that
doesn’t involve music at all? It could be he’s confronting his own mortality
and wondering just how many “next days” he has left. Then again, maybe it’s
simply a more artful and humanistic expression of that old Yiddish proverb
that, when translated, says, “Man plans and God laughs.”
As far as the planning for The Next Day goes, Bowie and his co-conspirators had to chuckle at
how successful they were in keeping word of this new record under wraps. The
Conclave of Cardinals was conducted with less secrecy. When news arrived that a
fresh Bowie record was imminent, it was met with expressions of shock and
surprise. That it could possibly contain his most inspired work in ages was
even more stunning, considering the parade of lackluster and unnecessarily difficult
albums he’d released since Let’s Dance or Scary Monsters, the LP that seems to
have provided the template of experimental accessibility for The Next Day.
Coming 10 years after 2003’s Reality – the successor to 2002’s Heathen – The Next Day
finds Bowie as open and revealing about himself as he’s ever been, and that, in
and of itself, is noteworthy for a man whose multiple personalities and masquerades – from that of the Thin White Duke to
Ziggy Stardust – have played out on very public stages over the years. It should come as no surprise then that, amid
the treatises on loneliness, regret and wrenching heartache, questions of
identity should arise in the alien soundscape “Heat,” with its quiet, martial drums,
mournful strings and melancholic acoustic guitar strum marching gently under
wraiths of lightly corrosive feedback. Here, Bowie’s weary, confessional
expression of confusion and despair mesmerizes, just as it does in the elegant,
smoky torch song “Where Are We Now?” Gorgeously rendered with dark, lush piano
and watery pools of electric guitar, it’s a number that’s wide awake at 3 a.m.
contemplating the erosion of time and life’s little mysteries. Sleep is
overrated anyway.
Darker and even more stylish, with seductive, irresistibly melodic contours and a streaming pace pushed along by smooth, taut bass, “The
Stars (Are out Tonight)” shimmers like a glassy city harbor in the clear moonlight.
And Bowie’s increasingly urgent vocals and voyeuristic, unsettling poetry heighten the drama and paranoia of an
absolutely intoxicating song that could rank among his best, even if it does bear an uncanny resemblance to “China Girl.” Even Iggy Pop, however, would forgive the likeness. Like Scary Monsters, though, the classy, well-manicured The Next Day spikes its arty pop-rock punch
bowl with the slightest traces of intriguing discord, the off-kilter vocalizing
in “How Does the Grass Grow?” being one example and the slashing guitar playing
off the melodic buoyancy of the title track being another. In “If You Can See
Me” the track’s compelling stop-start funk movements and dizzying array of beats
– straight out of Radiohead’s playbook – dive right into a rushing sonic flood,
as Bowie’s delivery shifts from robotic malfunction and threatening aspect to an all-too-human pleading for
salvation and recognition.
Rather clunky and clumsily executed, “Dirty Boys” and the
dull, thudding “Love is Lost” are minor missteps, as is “Boss of Me,” with its
sleazy saxophones and alarmingly low energy levels. The interminable sameness of “Dancing Out in
Space” is hard to get though, as well. Nevertheless, even these flawed pieces have qualities that make them compelling. Essentially, The Next Day is a tour of some of the most interesting and exquisitely detailed aural architecture Bowie has designed in recent years, and
when the serrated edge, swirling beauty and propulsive drive of “(You Will) Set
the World on Fire” breaks through the door Bowie is redeemed. Bowie is fighting
against the dying of the light, and he’s winning, despite any doubts he may
have.
– Peter Lindblad
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