David Bowie - The Next Day

Lots of little bits reminding me of previous Bowie albums (some of the better ones). Incl Bowies 80s, and maybe some gen. 80s, but not Phil Collins 80s, thankfully (sports bars guitars rule okay, if these are they). Satisfying fan-bait. Still would like more rhythmic variety, flexibility and succintness at times ("Let's Geeze" or whatevs), but the dour "I'd Rather Be High" or whatever it's called has settled into my mental replay pretty tenaciously. Thanks for descriptions of iTunes bonus tracks, will prob get CD. Those allergic to Spotify via Fecebook can still hear the 17 track version of this album, and most of his others, maybe incl.some not on Spotify:
http://www.myspace.com/davidbowie/music/albums

This is the guy from Tim's Machines right? Weird, that it's taken so long for him to go solo...

If anything "Boss Of Me" and "I'd Rather Be High" are the two tracks on this that kill the momentum for a bit. Overall I'm loving the odd bird that is this album.

You folks comparing this to Tin Machine, Bang Bang, Never Let Me Down and the like are really lowering the bar here. I like Heathen and Reality, and loved the tour behind it, but comparisons to those albums are also pretty modest in praise, tbh.

In the opposite direction, I honestly think SFJ overrates current interest in Bowie, let alone a "fascination" with this record or (I had to look it up) cathexis. Bowie is a Big Star, and as such will always by default be "anticipated." But what does it take for Bowie to go to number one in the UK? 20K sold? 40K? First number one record in 20 years or whatever says less about Bowie and more about the music industry today.

xp "I'd Rather" is not nec. one of the better ones, but its persistent replay in my headbox is more evidence of the album's viabilty, even though it can be sloggier than I'd like (don't think age is an excuse; Tempest is mostly engaging musically, even though some of the lyrics don't work; also Willie Nelson's albums in recent years--staying on the road seems to help both artists (also L. Cohen). Bowie's show could be shithot, before he had that heart attack and went into seclusion, which may have affected this set. It's not timid, but no leaps for him, thank you.

Take out the middle four (If You Can See Me, I'd Rather Be High, Boss Of Me, Dancing Out In Space) and this would be much tighter. Even though I like I'd Rather Be High and Boss of Me they do slow things down and would work better as bonus tracks or whatever. Put a couple of the bonus tracks (So She and Plan) in the middle instead and we'd really be talking. Of course I can do this myself on the iPod but it's not the same.

"Boss of Me" is embarrassing

^ all the saxes redeem it for me.

Love "Valentine's Day" a lot. Hits all the right Bowie nostalgia buttons ( the nasal delivery, the chorus).

Great piece from Douglas Wolk here on Bowie and his many collaborations

http://www.mtvhive.com/2013/03/13/david-bowie-friends/

reminds me how much I like "Pretty Pink Rose."

Reminds me how much I like "Watch That Man"

Wasn't familiar with Dana Gillespie's Andy Warhol - it's cool.

i actually like tin machine for real i am not joking

why can't he just knock out a 'Let's Dance' or something?

He did on "Black Tie White Noise", which may have been his best album since "Let's Dance" but which was still not very good, and every album he has released after it has been better IMO.

Here's an article for the tech nerds out there. Good read!
http://www.sonicscoop.com/2013/03/11/engineering-david-bowies-the-next-day-inside-the-magic-shop-sessions-with-mario-j-mcnulty/

'...hours was just pish

i actually like tin machine for real i am not joking

There's two of us around these parts.

"http://www.myspace.com/davidbowie/music/albums";

this is the first time I've seen someone actually use myspace in quite a while

There's two of us around these parts.

+ 1

especially tin machine 2

'...hours was just pish

This is not even true! It starts off slowly and the production's a bit Natalie Imbruglia, but it still has loads of great songs e.g. "If I'm Dreaming My Life", which - performed and produced in the appropriate style* - would have stood out as a good one on any of his albums.

*I appreciate that these words are doing a lot of work here.

Agree that it is production to some extent but I often question his choice of musicians.

Anyway looking forward to next album, 'White Smoke, White Pope'

well, considering that Bowie and Reeves Gabrels played most of the instruments on ...hours and produced it themselves, they get the blame for how flat those songs are.

Well Gabriels was in Tin Machine

Have the Sales Bros done anything since Tin machine? They're awesome.

Gabrels was the best thing about Tin Machine iirc. Sons of Soupy were good on the rhythm tracks and lousy when they got their turn at the mic

'hours' has easily the worst production on any Bowie album. I wonder if I like it even less than Tonight and the Tin Machine albums. I put it on every few months to see if I've missed anything but it never really comes. 'Thursday's Child' is always good though.

liking this album far more than i thought i would

hours is a hard listen. I think the problem is just too much gabrels. he's fine in more limited doses, and I even like all his tin machine work, but he had too much of a hand in everything else on hours and just stinks it up.

Listened to Never Let Me Down Again today and a lot of it is fun. Glass Spider is camply exciting. Hours is the better album, but in terms of production depends whether you prefer garishly ugly to mild and dull.

Also watched the video for the (terrible) NLMDA single Day In Day Out. A 40-year-old Bowie on roller skates watching the hooker get raped is something to see I guess.

I've never minded the stoopidity of "Beat of Your Drum" ("Disco brat...follow the pack!").

Time will crawl

Liked that one at the time

About Beat of Your Drum, according to Pushing Ahead of the Dame, Bowie said, "It’s a Lolita Number! Reflection on young girls... Christ, she’s only 14 years old, but jail’s worth it!"

I watched the Glass Spider live video last night while drunk, it was massively entertaining.

the Bowie blog was fair to the Glass Spider, which is embarrassing but not more so than Bowie often is.

Time Will Crawl, Never Let Me Down, Day in Day Out are ok, the rest of it is bah. Bang BAng was ok for another Iggy cover, just not as good as the original. But shining star and stuff is PAINFUL.

It's always important to remember the amount of hype that record got. He was getting compared to Lennon a lot as well (for his vocal timbre on the record I think), I distinctly remember "this is the best bowie album since Scary Monsters" getting thrown around on release. WTF.

Well, check this interview out. He's enthused!

http://www.teenagewildlife.com/Appearances/Press/1987/0800/musician.html

MUSICIAN: What do you play on this album?

BOWIE: I do a lot of keyboard things, like synthesizer parts, some rhythm guitar and I play lead on a couple of tracks: "New York's In Love" and "'87 And Cry".

MUSICIAN: On those songs you wanted to have a go at it yourself?

BOWIE: I'd done it on the demo. Peter laid down a couple of solos in the middle, and it wasn't quite what I wanted. So I thought, maybe I should put down what I did and see if it works the way it did in the demo. No disregard for Peter's playing; it just wasn't the kind of guitar I wanted. Peter's too controlled. Mine is a lot of effects and ambiance, just trying to get an atmosphere rather than play. I don't know about "playing".

MUSICIAN: Was it difficult assembling the band on Never Let Me Down?

BOWIE: Physically, no, because Erdal and I put down such a lot of work before anything really started. I'd prepared everything pretty well on the demo at my house. I'd done all the head arrangements, I knew exactly how I wanted it to sound, so Erdal and I spent the first two weeks putting down everything as a backbone. Then Carlos came in, then Peter. It was really that simple. I had a very fixed idea of how it should be. The longest time was just putting my vocals down.

Tonight the Zeroes were waiting for you

Hagiography but a friend who worked as an assistant in the Montreux studio at the time swears up and down that NLMD was ruined in the mixing process and that there's a great album in there. I don't care? but I can believe it

ok let's stop talking about that shitty album. new one is better

Even if I want to believe "Shining Star" and "New York's in Love" are good songs, there's still the matter of Bowie singing them.

so, is now the right time to ask if anyone has a ripped copy of bowies version of 'love missile f1-11' that was featured on the dvd single of 'new killer star' ?

It's on the iTunes version of the New Killer Star single (in my part of the world - NL)

1) This album is a lot better than I expected.

2) This album is also exhausting, which doesn't exactly negate number one but makes listening in longer than short bursts tough.

so, is now the right time to ask if anyone has a ripped copy of bowies version of 'love missile f1-11' that was featured on the dvd single of 'new killer star'

...wait, what?

http://youtu.be/B6fudSHb0js

Apparently so, from a 2003 DVD single.

(The 2003 is superfluous there, did that phase last longer than the one year?)