Paraphrasing one of my favorite David Bowie quotes, while onstage playing to an endless sea of people at the height of his “Let’s Dance” era, he lamented to himself, wondering how many of his fans in the audience actually owned any albums by The Velvet Underground. Bowie had embraced and subsequently discarded many personas over his long career, but the mega platinum pop star serving up style over substance proved to be the suit with the most awkward fit.The man who gave us among countless earlier triumphs, the pristine Berlin trilogy of “Low”, “Heroes” and “Lodger” has returned after a 10 year absence from the scene with a new record, titled “The Next Day”. Most of the tracks within recall at least sonically, the drive and thrust of that late 70’s through early 80’s period. But there are also moments where Bowie’s double tracked vocals, such as on the enormously punchy “Valentine’s Day” have you swearing we were listening to classic Bowie from a much earlier time.
Indeed, Bowie attempts to cover a lot of ground. “Dancing Out In Space” sounds like a 21st century stab at “Modern Love” and completely misses the mark. Preceded by “Boss Of Me” and “I’d Rather Be High”, which calls to mind at least thematically, the soldier in “Running Gun Blues”, these three songs make up the only weak moments within what is otherwise Bowie’s strongest collection of tunes in decades.
On the plus side there is the stunning “Love Is Lost”, which combines Bowie at his lyrical best with a pulsing beat and some extremely clever melodic changes which come along just at the point where you think you’ve heard the whole thing. Another winner is “You Will Set The World On Fire”, which expertly pairs up tension and release, then back to tension again. It’s the balls out rocker we all hoped he still had in him, complete with guitar hero rock solo.
In fact the first six songs taken collectively are so strong you start to think that Bowie has delivered something that would rival his greatest achievements. But things get a little uneven in the middle before the last four tunes rally the set to a fine conclusion.
So in the end we don’t exactly have a perfect Bowie record, but we do have a highly enjoyable one. Certainly not a throwaway like “Tonight” and not an overtly commercial endeavor such as “Let’s Dance” either. At this point in his life you get the feeling that David Bowie set out to deliver the best David Bowie record he is capable of producing. His efforts are more than appreciated here and frankly, it’s good to have him back, because we really need him.