David Bowie - The Next Day (2013) and a quick look back

This is exciting. Aside from David Bowie being awesome and really wanting to hear more of his music, I'll take this opportunity to revisit the two albums of his I've reviewed previously. I'll start with Station To Station.

First of all I can't figure out which of the images above is the original album cover. Most of The Internet seems to favor the one on the right, but Wikipedia tells me it's the one on the left.

I'm surprised how dismissive I was of Station To Station when I first heard it, particularly of the song "Stay." A few months after I wrote my initial review I played this album again on a lark. Instantly every song on the album got stuck in my head. The biggest hook of the album are the awesome grooves. The title track starts with a 5-bar repeating pattern that at first feels herky-jerky, but once you lock into the groove it's brilliant how smooth it feels. The grooves are primarily serviced by essentially perfect bass guitar play and sound provided by George Murray. And to correct what I said about "Stay" in my first go around, I fuckin' love that song. I really don't care how long the outro is anymore, I wish it could go on forever sometimes.

So Station To Station belongs among the best albums I've heard during my project. I must have been in a bad mood when I listened to it the first time. I really can't believe I only gave it 3 stars and said it was good but not amazing. I should probably bump that up to 4 stars. And in contrast, I offer this second look at the other David Bowie album I've heard, Aladdin Sane.

After falling in love with Station To Station and listening to it a few thousand times in the course of a week, I wanted more David Bowie in my regular rotation. So I went back to Aladdin Sane since in my first review I liked it quite a bit, and gave it higher praise than Station To Station. Unfortunately my new expectations were not met. Aladdin Sane was released a few years before Station To Station, so the latter has the benefit of Bowie having developed his voice and writing abilities in a more soulful direction. Still I'm disappointed by the less mature more rock-oriented vocals. Aladdin Sane was more baroque and theatrical than Station To Station and I wonder if Bowie's later voice would have been better suited to the material.

In any case, I still like Alladin Sane, and it wouldn't be fair to knock it down a peg from my initial listen just because Station To Station was better. This is supposed to be about snap judgments after all. I know I just gave Station To Station an extra star, but sometimes good artistry takes time to grow on a person. I also know that people can be fooled easily by poor artistry, but Aladdin Sane is not poor artistry on that level.

So with all that, I get to the subject of today's review, David Bowie's latest album release The Next Day. And to be honest, I'm concerned. There's a big gap in my knowledge of David Bowie after the 70's. I really thought he was done releasing albums until a couple years ago when The Next Day was released. Apparently most other music critics also thought he was retired.

Now, this is a David Bowie album so I lean towards it being at least good. But I am concerned a bit about bias. For one, was this album's critical reception boosted a little by everyone who was excited by David Bowie just making more music because he's David Bowie? I'm fairly confident my judgement won't be so tainted. Although I am likely to lean the other way- I feel most modern popular music sucks compared to the classics from the 60s and 70s, so maybe I'll wind up judging The Next Day more harshly. I suppose the only way to find out is to listen.

But first, how lazy is this cover design? It's just the cover photo from 1977's Heroes with a white square on top of it. I read the wiki page to try and figure out what the fuck the designers were thinking and still have no idea.

I'm not feeling this so far. The title track almost felt like a one-note generic rocker with very little melody. "Dirty Boys" doesn't have much life to it, and I'm annoyed by the washed-out effects applied to Bowie's vocals. "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)" has useless parentheses in its title, but is otherwise an acceptable generic rocker. "Love is Lost" feels too plodding but has some neat instrumental effects. I'm disappointed that Bowie's vocals are relatively flat so far. Might have something to do with him being in his mid-60s.

"Where Are We Now?" is a lovely soulful ballad, though it makes me a bit sad. Bowie on this song particularly sounds like an old David Bowie, which he is, but when legends fade as a fan it's often difficult to face it. "Valentine's Day" follows and feels more like a classic Bowie soft rocker. Then there's the creepy "If You Can See Me." It's a weird number with a rumbling riff and beat that kinda goes all over the place. The vocals are pretty out there as well. The song almost holds together, but is ruined by the digital processing, which gives everything a sharp feeling. I bet this song would have sounded awesome if it were written and recorded forty years ago and no one could mess it up with dumb digital effects.

I figured I might be better served just letting the album play and letting my brain absorb the music, rather than working hard to find ways to criticize it. And of course a few songs just kinda washed over like OK-but-not-great music is supposed to. But something came up during "How Does The Grass Grow" that was so awful I couldn't help myself, I needed to stop and think about it. As part of the chorus Bowie sings a segment from "Apache", and instrumental I fell in love with thanks to The Incredible Bongo Band. Of course it's an instrumental, so there's no lyrics for Bowie to sing. So he sings the melody as a series of yah's, as in, "Yaaaaah yah yah yaaaaaah yah yah yayaya yaaaaah!" Ugh, very poor choice, and the first time I'm ever thought I really needed to vent about how awful a David Bowie song sounded. It probably wouldn't have offended me so much if the surrounding music were great, but it's pretty meh.

"Heat" closes out the album on a high note. It's a dark and brooding drone that builds slowly. Bowie's slightly wavering vocals work well with the unsettling nature of the arrangement. Other than "Heat" I'm not sure how good I feel about this album. I didn't really like the tinny sound which stands in contrast to the very deep sound of Station To Station. I know I can't expect David Bowie to sing like he did 40 years ago, but it shouldn't be beyond the best artists to make their albums sound as good as they used to. Also most of these songs didn't have much power and energy to them despite being rock music.

I just don't know. David Bowie is still great, but I'm not sure this album needed to exist. That's not to say Bowie should stop producing music. I just don't think anyone really needed to hear The Next Day before they died. So I guess I sorta called it. Everyone was so excited that Bowie released another album they didn't care that it was just OK. It had to be great to justify its existence. It's happened before and I'm sure it will happen again.

I might just be a little sour, but I have to go with my snap judgement and call this a 2-star album. This is probably the guiltiest I've ever felt after a low rating.