This is a super long and stressful week for us college students. So I am only going to do one review this week. Just because I am busy doesn't mean you don't deserve good a great review. One album review OK, how about a big one? A huge decade in the making album review. This week we are going to do David Bowie's The Next Day!
David Robert Jones was born in Brixton, London on January 8th 1947. Bowie attended Stockwell infants school until he was six years old, acquiring a reputation as a gifted child. In 1953 the family moved to Bromley where he attended Burnt Ash Junior School. He was told he was way above average in singing and dancing even that young. He took up piano, ukulele, and bass at 9 years old. In 1962 he formed his first band the Konrads. After that he moved on from band to band for a while and changed his name to David Bowie in the mid 1960s after 19th century American frontiersman Jim Bowie. In 1967 he released his first solo album David Bowie. In 1969 he released Space Oddity to huge critical success. Bowie met Angela Barnett in April 1969 and they married within a year. He followed it with two heavier full band albums. After this he changed into the weird styles we know today as The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars era, a weird era that legitimized him as a rock star.
He moved from there with two more records into the Thin White Duke era, marked by funk, soul, and a wild future in a post apocalyptic city. This marked huge cocaine addictions and three new albums. Bowie moved to Berlin in 1976, this became the Berlin era. This era was marked by even more cocaine and a trilogy of minimalistic albums. Following that he released Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) in 1980, and the mega hit "Under Pressure" with Queen soon followed. In 1989 he had a short lived band Tin Machine that didn't do very well. In 1992 he Married his current wife Iman and moved into the Electronic Bowie stage. This was marked by electronic and hip hop explorations on new dance albums. The Final Bowie Stage is Neoclassicism Bowie, moving away from electronic to more minimalism. With Heathen, Reality, and The Next Day, this leaves us to now.
David Bowie-Space Oddity
Phew, a lot of history I know, but it is David freaking Bowie after all. David Bowie has been called a lot things and been through a lot phases as well. I think it's important to analyze the weirdness that is David Bowie. He has been married twice both times to women and has two kids Duncan Jones and Alexandria Zahara. With that said he declared himself gay in his Ziggy Stardust era, then bi sexual and then straight again. There was a time during his white duke era that he did so much cocaine that he would produce severe physical debilitation, paranoia and emotional problems. It got so bad that there was a point were his sanity had become twisted from cocaine, after overdosing several times that year. He lived with Iggy Pop for a while while living in Germany and helped him write his first album The Idiot, while being roommates. They worked together a lot more and remain friends to this day. David has acted in a number of movies including The Man Who Fell to Earth and Labyrinth. He has been offered A knighthood in 2003 but he turned it down, because he didn't see the point in it. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. He won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement award in 2006. One of the most famous stories about David Bowie is that he was once intimate with Mick Jagger, this was only a famous rumor of course.
David Bowie and Mick Jagger-Dancing in the Street
He actually announced this album on his 66th birthday, a present for us on his birthday what a guy. This album is awesome for so many other reasons. Like the fact that most of us thought he had retired from music for good, or the rumor that he was dying of cancer. This isn't just an album after a lack of albums for a decade, its a return to form. He doesn't have anything left to prove. He could have sailed off into the sunset, but he didn't because he is a true artist. This album takes him back to his Berlin era and more specifically looking back on the album Heroes. It's not like his 90s work, this is new he is making a statement. With that in mind you need to go into this album knowing that it isn't going to be a casual listening session, not by a long shot. It's multi layered, thick with meaning, and deep emotionally. You really have to dive into this one to get it, but when you do you will arrive at a truly beautiful album from a true master. He takes trips back to his previous efforts throughout the album, like a retrospective look back on his life.
The opening track "The Next Day" is a pretty solid rock song about medieval history and conspiracies. A very robust and epic start to the album. "Dirty Boys" is a rocking dirty jazzy song with a very intense grimy sax solo in it. "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)" is the easiest listen on the album and one of the best on it as well. "Love is Lost" is an organ infused jam on the grim thought of life and loss. "Where Are We Now?" is the lead single and a very different song for David. It's looking back on his own past for once. A ballad about watching the Berlin wall fall. "Valentine's Day" is a tragic ballad written to a high school shooter. "If You Can See Me" rocks especially hard and shows off some serous vocals from David. "I'd Rather Be High" is a song about a soldier coming home. "Boss of Me" and "Dancing Out in Space" follow a very similar pattern deep emotional layered songs. "How Does the Grass Grow" is a very war chant kind of a song. "(You Will) Set The World On Fire" rocks like he is trying to actually set the world on fire. "You Feel So Lonely You Could Die" feels like a step back to the Ziggy Stardust days. "Heat" is exactly how you would expect David Bowie to end an album. Like an episode of Lost, leaving way more questions than you started with.
David Bowie-Where are We Now?
This is a cryptic puzzle of an album that opens in mystery and closes the same way. It is a deep, beautiful, emotional album chalked full of really good songs. Here's hoping it's not another ten years until we see another David Bowie album. Don't leave us David we missed you.
Recommended Songs: Where Are We Now?, The Stars (Are Out Tonight), Love Is Lost, You Feel So Lonely You Could Die.
Wow what a great bolg entry! You never disappoint sweetheart.
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