I'll be the first to admit that I'm probably not the best person to review this. My first experience of Bowie came when my Dad asked me to scour the interwebs in search of the Spiders on Mars' album (the actual band, not Ziggy Stardust...) and my friends raving about Life on Mars (the TV show) and having the song of the same name played repeatedly for driving.
Naturally; I was suckered into the hype of David Bowie's first album in a decade. How years of trawling through his back catalogue showcased some of the best albums I'd ever heard. How the media was left stunned that his comeback wasn't on their radar and how the album would see Bowie reinvent himself again as a veteran rock and roller as opposed to the otherworldly persona's seen from his early days up until...2003?
It's a guaranteed number one and might possibly be the best selling album of the year but, at the end of it all, if you move past the hype, the ongoing adulation from other publications; is The Next Day, not only a good album but the comeback that Bowie needed?
It starts off the title track which sounds like your stereotypical rock number out of the seventies. Bowie's vocals have finally caught up to his age and sound more edged, more husky but it's unmistakably Bowie.
The album fluctuates between different styles and never really has a musical theme other than sounding quite old. The Stars (Are Out Tonight) is a funky number with a catchy chorus and music that sounds like something that, with a bit more tempo, could easily sit with Franz Ferdinand or Scissor Sisters' back catalogue.
The stereotypically titled I'd Rather Be High features backing vocals that nearly reach the highs of a sixties McCartney with clear, crisp acoustics and a thumping beat but it's quite mundane and quite repetitive. You Feel So Lonely You Could Die features the inclusion of backing strings to create something akin to an eighties ballad, but it's been done better elsewhere.
In fact, undeniably the biggest criticism the album has, is that the album is more a retread with the sound of his 2003 comeback Heathen, only to lesser success. Whilst Heathen was the first record where Bowie's immortality looked fragile, The Next Day feels like a much longer rehash, at fourteen tracks (or seventeen if you got the deluxe edition (or eighteen if you went for the Japanese version)), it trudges along with tracks that flip between future iconic to just plain dull.
Although the production values should be applauded at how clear and crisp the music sounds; it doesn't excuse the fact that The Next Day is an album that takes effort to listen to and only sounds interesting on an individual basis, as opposed to an actual album.
Lyrics too aren't really much of an eye-opener either; with the general theme sees Bowie or his protagonists at their most vulnerable. The Next Day opens with the notion that he's not ready to be carried away from a violent mob, where Love Is Lost focuses on the someone on the brink of success, but dreading the repercussions that come with it.
Whilst it sounds interesting on paper; again, much like the music, it's been done elsewhere and better. On the plus-side; Where Are We Now; not only the slowest song on the album, delivers a dignified sadness regarding wasted time at the end of one's life. It's repetitive but it's one of the better tracks of the album. Whilst Bowie has previously toyed with vague or obtuse lyrics of sexuality and drug addiction, it's mostly pushed aside for the music.
All in all; The Next Day is a good comeback but with the longevity of Bowie's career, it's not his best. Although it has some great production values and some decent songs; at it's worst, it's your stereotypical middle-of-the-road and average at best record. If you're a diehard Bowie fan, you've probably got the Deluxe Version, have had it on repeat and can't fault it.
But for the fairweather fan who, not only acknowledges the importance of his earlier albums but how fantastic the output was; The Next Day is nothing more than a good rock album that takes many cues from past sub-genres, but never expands upon them.
Something that the Bowie of old made a career on (he was more the chameleon of music as opposed to trend setter), but instead, his old albums saw him add his midas touch to equate moments of sheer brilliance, but The Next Day instead offers a rather generic and long trudge which, if the final Bowie release, is a rather disappointing finalé to one of music's brightest and iconic stars.
7/10
H
@Retcon_Nation
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