New music review: The Next Day, David Bowie (ISO/ Columbia ...

Photo courtesy of Sony Music Canada

When David Bowie?s pal John Lennon ended his reclusive five-year hiatus from the music business in 1980, it was with joyful celebrations of domesticity.

Here?s what Bowie comes back with, after 10 years out of the public eye: ?I can see you as a corpse/ Hanging from a beam,? and ?Here am I/ Not quite dying/ My body left to rot on a hollow tree.?

The Next Day is Bowie?s first studio album since Reality in 2003 (Forgettable? Quick, with no Web searching: which George Harrison song did he cover on that one?). As some of the lyrics on this often-thrilling comeback disc suggest, it?s not the warm, nostalgic reaffirmation portended by its first single, the leisurely ballad Where Are We Now?

Not only are the words and images often challenging and sometimes unsettling, the music is mostly dense, dissonant and difficult ? which is all to the good. If the overall sound evokes any specific Bowie period, it might be the febrile era covering Low, ?Heroes?, Lodger and Scary Monsters. And this disc is certainly Bowie?s best work since those years.

Longtime producer Tony Visconti has loaded the album with claustrophobic, buried-treasure detail that occasionally has the listener gasping for air. The layers can be penetrated only through repeated listens, with quality headphones a most useful tool. The chords in the menacing Love Is Lost, for example, are so dirty that they are more a presence than actual notes, while the greasy cabaret baritone sax in Dirty Boys is strictly subterranean. The compelling, but impenetrable rhythm of If You Can See Me dares you to find the groove. And then there?s the ominous closer Heat, which is reminiscent of the pre-Tilt Scott Walker who shocked listeners with the likes of The Electrician.

But as interesting as the chances taken might be, the disc shows even greater dimension by including stately and accessible tracks like the psychedelic I?d Rather Be HIgh, the downright catchy Dancing Out In Space and Valentine?s Day, which almost belies its grim setting ? a murderous university rampage ? ?with a sweet melody that would sound at home on a Jeff Lynne album. You Feel So Lonely You Could Die is reminiscent of Rock n? Roll Suicide (the Ziggy Stardust connection is underlined when the drum intro of Five Years is evoked near the end).

And how about that unnerving packaging, which is simply the front and back covers of the 35-year-old Bowie classic ?Heroes?, with the original title crossed out and a white square obscuring both sides, filled by the new title and song listing?

The defacing could be a bold, forward-thinking statement or it might be a nod to the past. Most likely, it illustrates that time is elastic for great artists. The Next Day could have been made in 1978, in the same way that ??Heroes? would sound contemporary in 2013. Lke a sizeable chunk of Bowie?s oeuvre, The Next Day stands outside of time.

Rating: ****

Podworthy: I?d Rather Be High

The Next Day will be available March 12. Check out the video for The Stars (Are Out Tonight):

And click here to listen to the entire album free on iTunes.

Bernard Perusse

Twitter: @bernieperusse

Source: http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/2013/03/10/new-music-review-the-next-day-david-bowie-iso-columbia/

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