The Next Day - David Bowie (2013)
I intentionally lined this one up to avoid talking about Black Star. Being the record he made knowing but not making public that he was terminally ill and that was released only days before his death would be an obvious focal point for this sort of “then and now” experiment I’m doing.
But my thinking was
- It just felt too on the nose.
- Even after sitting with it for years, I still don’t feel like I’ve unpacked it to any great degree. Black Star deserves better than to be part of my theme-listening schtick.
- Going back 30 years from Black Star would land me on Never Let Me Down, an album I really like because it was the first new Bowie album I encountered, but I might be the only one who would say anything nice about it.
So instead i picked Let’s Dance–a classic record full of well-loved songs that fits its era perfectly–and The Next Day, a record full of familiar and retrospective Bowie sounds that nonetheless shows how he never stopped pushing to create something new and interesting.
Bowie’s renewed interest in guitar rock in the second half of his career is here, as are the soaring bridges and choruses and plenty of funky bass work of the 80s and 90s. And there’s plenty of reference to the 70s glam rock version of Bowie.
While Black Star would cement what he was doing, you get a small sense of it here: a man who was establishing his legacy as well as just recording new music.
