The next day

The next day
Studio album by David Bowie
Publication (s)	February 28 to March 8, 2013 (as a free stream on iTunes) March 8, 2013 (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) March 11, 2013 (United Kingdom) March 12, 2013 (USA) November 4, 2013 ( The Next Day Extra )
Label (s)	Iso / Columbia Records
Format (s)	CD, MP3, LP, Blu-spec CD2
Genre (s)	skirt
Title (number)	14th
running time	53:14
production	David Bowie , Tony Visconti
Studio (s)	The Magic Shop, New York
chronology A Reality Tour (2010) The next day Blackstar (2016)
Single releases January 8, 2013 Where Are We Now? February 26, 2013 The Stars (Are Out Tonight) June. 17.2013 The next day 19th of August 2013 Valentine's Day / B-side: plan

The Next Day is the 24th studio album by David Bowie , released on March 8, 2013. It was the first album with new material in ten years.

It is also the musician's first album, which reached number 1 in the German album charts. It also made first place in the British charts, which the artist had last achieved 20 years earlier. In the US, The Next Day landed in 2nd place, the highest position on a Bowie album up to that point.

prehistory

On January 8, 2013, his 66th birthday, Bowie announced the release of his album, which he had worked on in New York for two years.

The first single, Where Are We Now , was released on iTunes on the same day. The second pre-release, The Stars (Are Out Tonight) , followed on February 26th . Up until the official release, the album could surprisingly be heard completely as a free stream on iTunes from February 28th. The album cover is a modified reuse of the cover of “Heroes” (1977). It shows the title of the work on a large, white square that largely covers the old cover with the singer's face. The old name “Heroes” has been crossed out.

description

As far as style is concerned, the media reception is largely unanimous: The American Billboard speaks of an “unambiguous rock album.” The German press notes that Bowie on The Next Day “is as rocky for a long time as it has been for a long time. "

The British New Musical Express writes: "Instead of reinventing Bowie, the album takes on his past and develops it further." "Echoes of almost all phases" of his musical career can be recognized: starting with the late 1960s and the psychedelic Hippie culture ( I'd Rather Be High ), a specific musical quote from Ziggy Stardust of the glam rock era ( You Feel So Lonely You Could Die ) about the anxiety-inducing "cocaine paranoia of the Thin White Duke " of the mid 1970s ( Love Is Lost ), the brutal lodgers and scary monsters ( The Next Day ) to the drum and bass of the mid 1990s ( If You Can See Me ).

Thematically, many of the songs deal with violence, war and crime ( The Next Day , Dirty Boys , Valentine's Day , If You Can See Me , I'd Rather Be High , How Does the Grass Grow ). Love Is Lost and Heat are dominated by fear and doubt .

Outside of the album's energetic atmosphere, Where Are We Now? is the only content-wise reference to Berlin .

The songs

The next day

The spirited, joyful title song is about a medieval ruler who is to be hanged and previously dragged through the streets past the angry mob . In the chorus , Bowie solemnly proclaims with a decidedly powerful voice, aggressively and screaming: "Here I am, not quite dying / [...] And the next day, and the next, and another day!" Content of the accompanying video (director: Floria Sigismondi , premiere: May 8, 2013): In front of the entrance to a clergy nightclub called The Decameron , a young man asks a prostitute for alms. A priest ( Gary Oldman ) knocks him to the ground. While the whore picks up the fallen banknotes next to the unconscious man, the cleric enters the bar with a woman carrying two torn eyeballs on a bowl. In the packed establishment he greets a bleeding at the back, self flagellating monk, a senior colleagues, kissing a cardinal 's hand and turns of at the bar drinking, lascivious clad, heavily made-up, black-haired Liebesdienerin ( Marion Cotillard ) to. Both dance in slow motion to the music of Bowie, who wears a gray-brown tunic with a belt and a neck cape and sings with a band on a small stage. Stigmata arise on the hands of Cotillard . The wounded woman falls down and kneels helplessly in front of the pool of blood. The heavily spurting blood meets a bare-breasted, platinum-blonde colleague who is dressed in a transparent, white bridal veil. Oldman then yells at Bowie with hatred: “You see this? This is your doing - you call yourself a prophet? " and Bibles are thrown at them. Those present begin to hit the singer himself with rods. In the end, Cotillard is transformed into a virgin figure with tears on his cheeks. Illuminated by divine light and elevated, Bowie stands next to her in an ornamental position in front of all the protagonists in the group picture; In the silence, he thanks in a loving tone that contrasts with the angry mood of the video ("Thank you, Gary. Thank you, Marion. Thank you everybody.") and disappears with a stroke of the bell.

The video was criticized by representatives of the Church. Archbishop Emeritus of Canterbury G. L. Carey called the clip “childish” and doubted “Bowie would have dared to shoot a similar video with Islamic images.” The American Catholic League commented: “David Bowie is back, hopefully not for long . [...] The video corresponds to the artist - it's a mess. "

The video is temporarily blocked on youtube, but then reactivated with age approval from 18 years .

Dirty boys

According to producer T. Visconti, the “sleazy”, “dark” song about a criminal gang and its baritone saxophone solo, “that sounds like striptease music from the 1950s” “would not be out of place on Young Americans (Bowie's 1975 album) be."

The Stars (Are Out Tonight)

The second single on the album is a lively, urgent rock song in which Bowie sings about the constant presence of the stars and the simultaneous longing of everyday people for them with recurring lines such as "The stars are never sleeping" and "I hope they live forever" .

In the accompanying clip (director: Floria Sigismondi ), Bowie and Tilda Swinton play an ordinary, middle-class couple from a suburb whose idyll is turned on its head with the appearance of two young glamor stars. The around six-minute music video starts with a credit and in the form of a feature film : the neat wife looks out the window and is shocked to see a rock band pass by. Her gaze meets that of the young, red-haired, androgynous- looking singer (portrayed by Norwegian model Iselin Steiro ) - a reminiscence of Bowie's time as The Thin White Duke . Bowie is looking at a magazine in a supermarket . The headline on the front page reads Celebrity Couple's Twisted Antics (German: "spoiled pranks of a celebrity couple "). Pictured are two glamor stars (portrayed by Andrej Pejic and Saskia De Brauw ). There is also a photo of the artist in his role in the film The Man Who Fell From Heaven . The singer states in a small talk that there is nothing exciting in the area, while his wife contradicts him with “we have a nice life”. The intro is musically accompanied by the instrumental plan (see deluxe edition of the album) and its long, hard electric guitar chords and slow drums .

After just under two minutes, the actual song begins: The television couple feels disturbed by the noise of the rehearsing band, which Bowie complains. The mirror-image side by side faces shown and hairstyles of the young singer (I. Steiro) and the 66-year-olds show great similarity. Later one of the magazine stars ( Andrej Pejic ) crouches in an erotic pose over the sleeping Bowie, puts long, artificial fingernails into his mouth and kisses him, whereupon he wakes up. His wife, doing gymnastics in front of the television, thinks she sees herself and her husband there, but she is shocked to discover that it is a reflection of the stars from the magazines who are now sitting behind her on the couch . In the fast average exchange followed bedroom scenes that sexual intercourse of the models, some topless , suggest and sexual advances of the once prudish married couple. Enchanted by the mannequins and transformed outwardly, Swinton threatens Bowie with kitchen cutters. The video ends with a role reversal - the two supermodels sitting on the sofa watching television, while the once stuffy couple with sequins - jackets behind them - and a fin .

Love is Lost

Bowie turns to a 22-year-old who is lovesick and sings about the fact that you can change a lot, such as emigrating or surrounding yourself with new people, but the fear that goes with that soul pain is as old as the world. Short, piercing and choppy electric guitar motifs over long-held synthesizer chords and a staccato bass line create a tense and threatening atmosphere. The lecturing, enumerating performance of the first two stanzas and a time-shifted background voice in the last two, alienated by means of a vocoder , create mechanical rigidity and support the emotional extreme situation discussed.

Where Are We Now?

The melancholy song is about the artist's memory of his time in West Berlin from 1976 to 1978 . In the simple, nostalgic text, Bowie mentions places such as Potsdamer Platz , the Dschungel Club on Nürnberger Strasse , which he was often a guest, the KaDeWe and the Bösebrücke .

In the accompanying video (producer: Tony Oursler ), which can be found on the musician's website on the same day, a studio-like room filled with numerous different objects is shown. It's Oursler's studio in Downtown, New York. At the beginning and in the last third a dog scurries through the picture. It's called Muffin and belongs to Bowie's assistant Coco Schwab. In the center of the scene sit two rag dolls, connected to one another like Siamese twins , on whose heads the faces of the singing Bowie and a woman are filmically projected . The woman is the artist Jacqueline Humphries, the wife of Oursler. Behind them is a screen with black and white film clips from Berlin , showing the Berlin Wall , the TV tower , the Reichstag , the Berlin Cathedral , March 18th Square , the Victory Column , Köthener Strasse with one side of the Meistersaal building , in which Bowie parts of his so-called Berlin trilogy and have the entrance of the house in Hauptstrasse 155 in the Schöneberg district , where the singer lived at the time, as their content. Corresponding street names are displayed in the video, whereby Potsdamer Platz was incorrectly turned into Potzdamer Platz . Towards the end of the clip, David Bowie is standing against the wall, wearing jeans and a t-shirt that says " m / s Song of Norway ". With a serious expression on his face he looks into the room. The camera wanders through the studio again to the couple, whose faces are now disappearing, while in the background first the Victory Column, then only the sky can be seen.

Valentine's Day

In the context of school massacres in the United States , the song offers a glimpse into the spirit of a boy running rampant .

The graceful, carefree performance of the first two thirds of the piece contrasts with the gruesome content as a whole and the last third especially, in which the playing children's voices are musically accompanied by high blue notes evoking sadness and concern . The simple video (directed by Marcus Klinko and Indrani, premiere: July 15, 2013) takes place in an industrial building. Bowie, dressed in a white shirt, pale green jeans and white sneakers and mostly filmed in close-up shots , sits on a bar stool and sings the song, accompanying himself with a red Steinberger headless guitar . Behind him, barren concrete columns and a water channel extend into the depths of the room.

If you can see me

The feverish rush of the fastest piece on the album is generated by means of drums at a very high tempo , polyrhythmics and a high-density text that does not reveal any main idea in terms of content, but rather presented in the form of a stream of consciousness largely like chanting and only by the together with bassist Gail Ann Dorsey pleadingly sung refrain "If you can see me / I can see you" is interrupted.

I'd Rather Be High

A young soldier who has returned from the war and rejects it plans to use drugs , smoke and indulge in sexual pleasures.

In contrast to the substantive military drum-like played drums is a concise, repeated at regular intervals, to a sitar reminiscent Guitar Lick and reaffirmed in manner of psychedelic rock and the hippie culture that was Make love, not theme of the song. A newly arranged short version of the song can be heard in the second part of the advertising line L'invitation au voyage by Louis Vuitton (director: Romain Gavras , premiere: November 7, 2013): the one-minute short film shows Bowie, accompanying himself on the harpsichord , and the supermodel Arizona Muze in the middle of a Venetian masked ball .

Boss of me

In the rock song composed together with G. Leonard and containing funk elements , the artist, accompanied by a baritone saxophone and two female background voices, is not astonished: “Who'd have ever dreamed / That a small town girl like you / Would be the boss of me? ».

How Does the Grass Grow?

The military training of British soldiers of the First World War served as inspiration : the title comes from a chant that you learned while you thrust your bayonet into the enemy dummy. The monotonously staccato performance of further sections alternates with a melodious refrain, borrowed from J. Lordan's instrumental composition "Apache" and accompanied by a differentiated drumming.

You Feel So Lonely You Could Die

The song is in 12/8 time. The half-minute drum intro #outro with a different meter is very similar to that in Five Years from the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972).

Heat

In the dark song Bowie sings as someone else's voice and ponders his identity in an elegiac tone, his father, whom he associates with a prison, and describes himself as a seer and a liar at the same time. The melancholy piece begins in the style of an ambient . Chords are struck on acoustic guitars at medium speed throughout the song to set the rhythm . Strong bass Bending , fragmentary phrases of the electric guitar and the onset of the last third, dissonant intervals playing violins in high positions deepen the enigmatic nature of the text.

Track list

All lyrics were written by D. Bowie. The music was composed by D. Bowie (except where indicated).

1. The Next Day - 3:51
2. Dirty Boys - 2:58
3. The Stars (Are Out Tonight) - 3:56
4. Love Is Lost - 3:57
5. Where Are We Now? - 4:08
6. Valentine's Day - 3:01 am
7. If You Can See Me - 3:15
8. I'd Rather Be High - 3:53
9. Boss of Me (D. Bowie, Gerry Leonard ) - 4:09
10. Dancing Out in Space - 3:24
11. How Does the Grass Grow? (D. Bowie, Jerry Lordan ) - 4:33
12. (You Will) Set the World On Fire - 3:30
13. You Feel So Lonely You Could Die - 4:41
14. Heat - 4:25

Deluxe Edition

The Deluxe Edition includes three more titles.

1. So She - 2:31
2. Plan - 2:34
3. I'll Take You There (D. Bowie, Gerry Leonard) - 2:44

Japanese edition

This appears in Blu-spec CD2 format and contains a total of 18 tracks with God Bless The Girl .

The Next Day Extra

The expanded version of the album was released on November 4, 2013. It consists of two CDs and a DVD: the first CD contains the 14 regular tracks, the second contains the songs from the Deluxe Edition ( So She , Plan and I'll Take You There ), God Bless The Girl from the Japanese edition and two remixes of four new songs ( Atomica , The Informer , Like a Rocket Man and Born in a UFO ); There are four videos on the DVD ( Where Are We Now , The Stars (Are Out Tonight) , The Next Day , Valentine's Day ).

1. Atomica - 4:05
2. Love Is Lost (Hello Steve Reich Mix by James Murphy ) (Bowie, Murphy) - 10:24
3. Plan - 2:02
4. The Informer - 4:31
5. I'd Rather Be High (Venetian Mix) - 3:49
6. Like a Rocket Man - 3:29
7. Born in a UFO - 3:02
8. I'll Take You There (Bowie, Leonard) - 2:41
9. God Bless the Girl - 4:11
10. So She - 2:31

occupation

• David Bowie (vocals, keyboards, acoustic guitar, string arrangement)
• Earl Slick (electric guitar)
• Gerry Leonard (electric guitar)
• David Torn (electric guitar)
• Gail Ann Dorsey (bass, backing vocal)
• Tony Visconti (bass, guitar, recorder, string arrangement)
• Tony Levin (bass)
• Sterling Campbell (drums)
• Zachary Alford (drums)
• Steve Elson (baritone saxophone, clarinet)
• Janice Pendarvis (backing vocal)
• Henry Hey (piano)
• Antoine Silverman, Maxim Moston, Hiroko Taguchi, Anja Wood (strings)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "The Next Day": New Bowie album is out . In: Der Spiegel , March 1, 2013
2. ↑ ^{a b c} davidbowie.com ( Memento of the original dated February 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ David Bowie: New edition of 'The Next Day' with four new songs
4. ↑ magicshopny.com
5. ↑ Where are we now? David Bowie breaks decade of silence with new single on his 66th birthday . In: The Independent , January 8, 2013
6. ↑ David Bowie releases details of second new single 'The Stars (Are Out Tonight)' . In: The Independent , February 18, 2013
7. ↑ wehateyourband.net ( Memento of the original from June 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
8. ↑ ^{a b} David Bowie to unveil 'Valentine's Day' video later today . In: Digital Spy , July 15, 2013
9. ↑ David Bowie at number one on the charts ( Memento from March 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) . In: Stern , January 8, 2013
10. ↑ musikmarkt.de ( Memento of the original from January 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
11. ↑ Bon Jovi beat David Bowie to Number One in US Album Chart . In: New Musical Express , March 20, 2013
12. ↑ Bowie surprises with a new song . In: Der Spiegel , January 8, 2013
13. ↑ Bowie producer Visconti: 'The Next Day' will be a rock album . In: Rolling Stone , January 9, 2013
14. ↑ Rock Album Review: "The Next Day" David Bowie . In: Billboard , March 6, 2013
15. ↑ ^{a b c} Rock Album Review: The Next Day David Bowie . In: Der Spiegel , March 1, 2013
16. ^ David Bowie - The Next Day: Rather than reinventing Bowie, it absorbs his past and moves it on, hungry for more . In: New Musical Express , March 4, 2013
17. ↑ ^{a b c d} David Bowie's 'The Next Day' Album: A Track-by-Track Preview . In: Rolling Stone January 15, 2013
18. ↑ David Bowie's 'The Next Day' video criticized by Catholic church . In: New Musical Express May 9, 2013
19. ↑ ^{a b} David Bowie annoys the Catholic Church with a new video . In: Musikexpress May 10, 2013
20. ↑ Age restriction for "The Next Day" Youtube blocks music video by David Bowie . In: Focus May 10, 2013
21. ↑ David Bowie with the first new song in ten years ( memento from June 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) . In: Stern , January 8, 2013
22. ^ Tony Oursler: David Bowie's latest work is astounding. There's a level of detail and variety in it with the highest level of production . In: The Independent , January 13, 2013
23. ↑ 5 facts about the Bowie video from 'Where Are We Now?' . In: Rolling Stone , January 11, 2013
24. ↑ ^{a b} network54.com
25. ↑ cdjapan.co.jp