loving the new bowie cd, the next day from it's opening bars of the familiar 'repitition' style guitars in 'the next day' to the wonderfully commercial 'boss of me' which a guardian reviewer panned for being to american in its content. the fact the guardian panned it on ideological grounds makes the album that much more better, for whatever integrity the guardian used to have it lost with me in the early eighties when it decided to hand over a whistleblower sarah tisdall to the government, yeah real integrity from the green socialist newspapers.
the album is rather brilliant, it's a slow burner with at least 30% being below what one expects from bowie. i really feel as if a trusted friend should have told him to leave out 4 tracks and keep the standard high and quantity less. but having said that the four tracks i would leave off are the ones that most people seem to be raving about.
there's some interesting themes, school massacres explored in the wonderfully upbeat pop of 'valentines day' the stupidity of war in 'i rather be high' which has a wonderful chorus and of course the ideas of mortality, memory and fame (the stars are out) which i think has a very good short film to accompany it.
the next day is a great comeback, very rich in lyric and production, very accessible for a new generation of fans and us old ones who always knew when bowie said 'retirement' he never meant permanent.
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