MUSIC: The Next Day - David Bowie

David Bowie was one of those musical legends I could never get in to. To me, much of his classic revered albums are musically fairly bland. I couldn’t listen to Hunky Dory or most of Ziggy Stardust, for example, and I’ve tried to listen to several other albums, but nothing really appealed to me enough. There are exceptions, though - Life On Mars is truly an amazing song worthy of its praise. The one Bowie album I do love is Outside from 1995, a truly spectacular electro-industrial masterpiece of modern songwriting. But for the most part, I never was a particular fan of David Bowie, although I do appreciate his importance and his talent.

Bowie is now in his mid sixties, and it is incredible that he is continuing his music career past retirement age with The Next Day, his first album in ten years. One thing I have noticed is that old musicians tend to be better than young musicians - while the former often has decades of experience in songwriting and the music industry, and has shaped their own style as trends evolve, young musicians find themselves sliding into a trend and becoming nobodies as soon as they hit the stage. Obviously this claim carries exceptions, but I’ve observed that for this reason, new material from old musicians is often incredibly unique, and as such difficult to associate with any particular genre. Nonetheless, I must admit I was pessimistic about this album, because the artist only has so much time before he runs out ideas, and with it being his twenty-fourth album, I feel my pessimism is justified.

Being quite late to the punch, I have never had a chance to explore Bowie’s previous twenty-three albums. The sheer quantity is enough to put newcomers off, let alone that the majority of it is fairly average. With that in mind, I’m going to review this album in and of itself, leaving context aside for the moment.

What’s most noticeable instantly about The Next Day is that it is, first and foremost, a pop album. It has rock elements, with hints of glam thrown in, but at its core it is a pop album. You would not be incorrect to call it pop-rock, either. The album begins with the title track, a pop song with a prominent even beat and a distinctive vocal focus. Not a lot else is particularly notable, any interesting motifs with the rest of the instruments are mere throwaways at best, and the song suffers for it. The guitar is strong, but played as secondary to the less interesting drum beat. So right of the bat, The Next Day fails to be particularly captivating. The first track is supposed to be a strong song to set the tone for the rest of the album, but Bowie has opted for a throwaway track to kick off the album, which to me seems like a weak choice.

This album appears to have a problem with having good ideas but not giving them enough time to flourish. Much of the album appears to embody a traditional pop-rock sound, instead of pursuing innovative ideas, and as a result often lacks atmosphere. The title track is a prime example, as is both Dancing Out of Space and Boss of Me. The former incorporates an intriguing siren-sounding effect which, if pursued, could result in a truly rich, profound and compelling work of art - but it abandons this good idea to keep up the catchy pop style. The latter also some interesting guitar ideas, but again, they are nothing more than throwaway techniques. Additionally, the guitar riff from Boss of Me is unsettlingly similar to Clapton’s Layla, which does it no favours.

Lyrically, The Next Day is actually very solid. Unfortunately, I enjoy reading the lyrics more than listening to them, because the lyrical insight offered in this album loses its impact when put to this kind of music. While the words themselves are very well written, the tone of the lyrics conflict with the tone of the music, and they don’t always make sense in context. The lyrics lack weight because the music lacks weight.

Despite all my criticism, and despite all its flaws, I still enjoyed The Next Day, and I think it has something to do with his voice. Bowie has a unique and captivating voice such that anything he sings sounds good, even if it isn’t, and at 66 he is still an astounding singer. The album definitely has its gems - namely Heat, Love is Lost, Where Are We Now?, and Dirty Boys, the latter of which is a strange, Tom Waits sounding track with dissonant guitar and a saxophone. For what its worth, The Next Day is actually pretty decent overall, and I’m left pleasantly surprised. Its main problem is a lack of consistency - it can’t decide on a decisive tone. At times it’s uplifting, upbeat pop-rock, and at others it takes a slow, dense, atmospheric and emotionally powerful approach; as a result, it comes across as inconsistent. Track two, Dirty Boys sounds similar to Tom Waits, while the next track The Stars (Are Out Tonight) reminds me of 90s-era The Cure. Variety is good on any album, but the songs themselves are not strong enough for it to work in its favour. I don’t have a problem with upbeat pop-rock if it’s done in a way which sounds and feels compelling, but in this case the pop songs on the album sound bland and uninspired, for the aforementioned reasons above. Too many songs fall into mediocre status, and The Next Day is, thereby, half-good and half-mediocre.

The next question which needs to be asked is this: does it need to exist? Looking at it objectively, I am not convinced it does. It’s solid, and interesting in some ways, but it adds little new ideas to either Bowie’s discography, or the music scene in general. In a way, it warrants the same gripe Nick Cave’s latest does, being that the entire extent of its purpose is to be “another David Bowie album”. Maybe Bowie has different ideas; examining the lyrics, in particular songs such as Where Are We Now, Heat, and the title track, as well as the cover artwork which is allegedly intended to symbolize “forgetting or obliterating the past”, makes me wonder if David Bowie has somewhat of a relationship of regret with his career. Which is strange; I would have thought anyone named David Bowie would think exactly the opposite. But maybe so, and perhaps this album is a very personal work from Bowie - perhaps he is dissatisfied with who he has become, wishes to shake off his old reputation, and become someone new with this album. In any case, The Next Day shows signs of being very personal for Bowie, and while it may not be particularly important to the music scene today, it could well be important for him as a person.

However, not much can be said about the value of idle speculation. What I can say is that The Next Day is a good album - not great, but not terrible either. It is possible we are entering an era of post-pop in the music scene, and if so, this album definitely belongs in it. I quite like the idea of moving away from pop as a culture, although it’s a bit soon to tell if and when it would happen, and I don’t see it being any time this soon. Nevertheless, I have to say my pessimism about The Next Day was unfounded, and, if nothing else, this album is certainly worth a listen.