OT - First new music by Bowie in 10 years

[TheEqualizer]

Official video of new single
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... OyDTy9DtHQ

From Rolling Stone:

David Bowie Returns With First New Music in 10 Years
Singer celebrates 66th birthday with surprise single

David Bowie celebrated his 66th birthday this morning with a surprise for everyone else: he broke a long musical silence with the new single "Where Are We Now?" from a forthcoming album, The Next Day, which is due in March. Recorded in New York with longtime collaborator Tony Visconti producing, the unexpected album is Bowie's first collection of new material since 2003.

The Next Day, Bowie's 30th studio recording, follows 46 years after his self-titled 1967 debut. It's the latest chapter in an iconic career that has veered from the glam of Ziggy Stardust to a stylized Eighties pop sound to the wide-ranging musical sensibilities of albums like Heathen in 2002 and Reality in 2003. Bowie has also produced landmark LPs by Lou Reed and Iggy Pop.

Bowie also released a video for "Where Are We Now?" Shot by Tony Oursler, the clip revisits Berlin, the site of no small measure of rock & roll decadence for Bowie in the Seventies, and watches as the singer revisits places he knew then, including an auto repair shop downstairs from his old apartment.

The Next Day is available for pre-order in standard and deluxe editions through iTunes.

[TheEqualizer]

From The Guardian:

A couple of months ago, BBC4 repeated David Bowie's Top of the Pops performance of Heroes from October 1977. It's an appearance understandably eclipsed in history by his performance of Starman five years before, where he camply slung his arm around Mick Ronson's shoulder and pointed directly down the camera lens as he sang "I had to phone someone, so I picked on you", as if issuing a personal invitation to every gay kid and teenage misfit who was watching. This time around, he just stood there and sang, but the appearance is still remarkable, simply for the fact that he turned up at all. It was the dawn of the video era, which meant that the really big stars – Elton John or Rod Stewart – no longer needed to schlep along to the BBC to mime when they had a new single out. But there he was, the defining artist of the era, mucking in alongside Smokie and Tina Charles. Perhaps he thought that Heroes needed an extra push: with its edge-of-hysteria vocal, lyrics in German and screaming guitar by Robert Fripp, it didn't sound much like anything else in the charts. From the moment he told Melody Maker's Michael Watts he was gay – one of the great audacious moves in rock history from a man whose previous two albums had failed to even make the charts – Bowie has always shown a brilliant understanding of how to promote records.

Judging by its page on iTunes, the cover of his 24th album The Next Day is the same as that of Heroes, with a large grey square covering most of the iconic photo of Bowie in a pose inspired by the paintings of Erich Heckel. The lyrics of his first single in a decade, Where Are We Now?, similarly hark back to the era and the city in which Heroes was made, depicting him "walking the dead", wandering around a variety of Berlin streets, musing on the passing of time and the way inspiration strikes without warning: "as long as there's fire … the moment you know, you know." The video seems to be filmed in his old Berlin apartment, which has apparently been turned into an artist's studio. Even with his head stuck on top of the body of a soft toy, he looks in remarkably good nick for someone who was so widely rumoured to be terminally ill a few years back that the Flaming Lips wrote a song about it, called Is David Bowie Dying?: indeed, he looks in remarkably good nick for a man in his late 60 who spent most his life smoking three packs of Marlboro a day.

On the evidence of Where Are We Now?, the music on The Next Day has almost nothing in common with the stuff he and its producer Tony Visconti recorded 36 years ago. It's a beautiful, elegiac ballad, Bowie's voice sounds gorgeously fragile – not the fragility of someone nearing 70 who's lost their vocal power to the ravages of age, but the fragility of someone who wants to communicate an aching wistfulness. No one who hears it is going to be baffled or horrified or struck by the thrilling sense that pop music has been pushed into new, uncharted regions. Perhaps Bowie's finished with that kind of thing, having done more of it between 1970 and 1980 than almost any other artist, save the Beatles.

Where Are We Now? wouldn't have sounded out of place on 2002's Heathen or 2003's Reality. Indeed, if it had been the lead single off Bowie's new album in 2004, it would have passed virtually without comment. The reason it's created such a fuss is partly because most people thought Bowie's retirement looked pretty final. He never said as much, but it felt right: while his peers pragmatically chose to work the public's thirst for nostalgia, playing the big hits on high-grossing tours and tacitly acknowledging that their best work was behind them, Bowie – an artist who'd never evinced much interest in looking back – slipped into a dignified silence. Like the guy singing Heroes on Top of the Pops, it seems remarkable that he turned up at all.

Of course, the main reason it's created such a fuss is simply because no one knew. It's incredible that, in an era of gossip websites and messageboard rumours, one of the biggest stars in the world, presumed retired, can spend two years making a new album without the merest whisper of it reaching the public. But somehow he did it. The first speculation that something was afoot came literally hours before the single appeared: no blurry cameraphone shots of him leaving a recording studio, no MP3s of demos leaked on to filesharing sites, no slip-up by someone involved in its making on Twitter. It's the opposite of how you're expected to do things: at the very least, a major artist releasing a new album is supposed to drop hints, create an online buzz of expectation, stoke the rumour mill, ensure the biggest audience possible is primed and waiting. Bowie has done none of that: whatever The Next Day sounds like, he's turned it into the biggest release of 2013 by the simple expedient of doing absolutely nothing other than make an album. Furthermore, he's managed to maintain the myth and mystique that was always central to his stardom and his art in a world where rock and pop music has almost no myth or mystique left, an age of 360-degree connectivity, where pop stars are supposed to be perpetually available to their fans via social networking. But as we've already established, David Bowie has always shown a brilliant understanding of how to promote records.

[giovanni]

I don't like it that much....sigh

[moonstone]

[quote="giovanni"]I don't like it that much....sigh[/quote]

I know what you mean Gio but I'm thinking that he still has a voice like velvet.

I'm not that taken with this single and the video is quite strange but I'm going to buy the album when it comes out anyway. Such a beautiful voice.

[moonstone]

Sorry Eq

I forgot to say thank you for the thread and all the information. It was an intertesting read. I'd only read a short piece in the paper about it yesterday.

[Soundragon]

Okay... I'm glad he hasn't tried to change his voice, but my gosh... that song is not that good at all.

[TheEqualizer]

I'm in general agreement with the comments above. I'm hoping the song grows on me, but the outlook doesn't seem great. You'd think he'd be doing something different after 10 years of non-activity rather than picking up right where he left off (which is not a good thing in this case). BUT, I'm glad his voice still sounds great and will certainly still buy the CD when it comes out.

Like the album cover:

[Police Boy]

The single is definitely growing on me. Still not sure about the cover art though. There's an article in Pitchfork (see below) from Tony Visconti where he says the single is not typical of the rest of the album:

To the surprise of just about everyone, David Bowie will release a new album, The Next Day, in March. Now, the record's producer Tony Visconti has shared some details about the sound of the album, as well as the recording process, with BBC News.

According to Visconti, The Next Day is "quite a rock album" with a mix of "classic Bowie" and "innovative Bowie," written over the past two years. He told the BBC he was surprised to see the downcast "Where Are We Now?" as the first single:

It's maybe the only track on the album that goes this much inward for him. It's quite a rock album, the rest of the songs. I thought to myself: 'Why is David coming out with this very slow, albeit beautiful, ballad? Why is he doing this? He should be coming out with a bang.' But he is a master of his own life. I think this was a very wise move, to link up the past with the future, and I think the next thing you hear from him is going to be quite different.

Visconti said that during the making of the album, Bowie was "smiling all the time, happy to be back in the studio." He said Bowie is "a very healthy man, I can assure you," countering rumors that Bowie's time away from the spotlight was due to health reasons.

[Jack Pozzi]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6YdcqFcOl4

[TheEqualizer]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20953094

From NME:

Tony Visconti has said that the new David Bowie album is "a rock album", saying he was surprised to hear the reflective and melancholic track 'Where Are We Now?' released first.

Following the surprise return of Bowie to the music scene with a brand new album announced for March release yesterday (Jan , producer Visconti spoke to BBC News about the album he has worked on and revealed what fans can expect to hear from the release.

Speaking about new single 'Where Are We Now?', Visconti said: "I think it's a very reflective track for David. He certainly is looking back on his Berlin period and it evokes this feeling… it's very melancholy, I think. It's the only track on the album that goes this much inward for him. It's quite a rock album, the rest of the songs, so I thought to myself why is David coming out with this very slow, albeit beautiful, ballad why is he doing this? He should come out with a bang. But he is a master of his own life. I think this was a very smart move, linking the past with the future, and I think the next thing you hear from him is going to be quite different.

Adding: "I've been listening to this on headphones walking through the streets of New York for the past two years, and I have not tired of a single song. I think the material on this album is extremely strong and beautiful, and if people are looking for classic Bowie they'll find it on this album, if they're looking for innovative Bowie, new directions, they're going to find that on this album too."

Speaking to BBC via Skype in New York, Visconti also spoke about the rumours surrounding Bowie's health, assuring fans that he is fit and healthy. "David is extremely healthy, he's rosy-cheeked, he smiles a lot," Visconti said. "During the recording he was smiling, he was so happy to be back in the studio. From the old days I recall that he was the loudest singer I've ever worked with. When he starts singing I'd have to back off, and go into another room and just leave him in front of a microphone, he still has that power in that chest and in his voice. We all know he had a health scare in 2003, 2004, but he's a very healthy man I can assure you, I've been saying this for the past few years. I couldn't explain why I know that, but I worked with a very healthy and happy David Bowie in the studio."

[giovanni]

Of course, even if I don't like the single....BOWIE IS BOWIE... I started listening to his records since I was born, as they keept on playing in my house!
It's great to have him back again.

[policefan]

It's great to have him back again.

That's what I was thinking.

: )

[TheEqualizer]

From Rollingstone:

David Bowie's 'The Next' Day' Album: A Track-by-Track Preview
Longtime producer Tony Visconti says Bowie may do a single concert to celebrate new LP
By ANDY GREENE

January 15, 2013 7:00 AM ET
Tony Visconti has been producing David Bowie's albums since Space Oddity in 1969. They've worked together on many of Bowie's greatest triumphs, including Heroes, Young Americans and Scary Monsters. After a long break, they joined forces again in the early 2000s for Heathen and Reality. Two years ago, he started working with Bowie on his long-awaited new album, The Next Day.

Rolling Stone spoke to Visconti about the pair's secret sessions, how medieval English history inspired some of the songs and why it's unlikely that Bowie will tour – though a single show remains possible. As the producer noted, his other longtime collaborator, Morrissey, has the opposite plan. . . but he'll get to that.

Was there ever a point over the past few years where you thought that Bowie would never record again?
I was a little scared after he had his heart condition. He had a little scare himself. I didn't speak to him for a year after that. He was just recovering and just not talking to anybody. But I was one of the first people he emailed afterwards and we were steadily in contact since then. But he never really brought up music until two years ago. So he never said to me he retired, and every time I saw him in person, he looked in really good health.

On Daily Beast: David Bowie's Eclectic Style Evolution

All these rumors started going around about his health. Every time I had lunch with him, or coffee with him, I'm looking at him and my dear old friend was looking really good. But music didn't interest him until two years ago; that's when he made the call. He said, "How would you like to make some demos?" And I was a little shocked, quite honestly; it was just so casual. It was just the next topic in the discussion.

How did the process begin?
I was working on another project in London, and he didn't know that. He said, "Well, when are you going to get back?" I said, "In a few days." The next morning after I returned, I was in the studio with him playing bass. We had Sterling Campbell on drums, Gerry Leonard on guitar and David on keyboards. We were in this little studio down in the East Village doing demos for a week. I was pinching myself. I couldn't believe it was really happening. From nothing, right into this demo situation.

Did he have fleshed-out songs at this point?
Yes, he wrote them at home. He had an eight- or 16-track digital recorder. They were quite fleshed out. He had nice bass line ideas and drum patterns. We quickly took down the names of the chords and we scribbled it out on paper. Gerry Leonard and I read from the chord sheet. The room was about eight-by-eight, which included a drum kit. We were on top of each other, gasping for air after an hour or two.

What sparked all this? He had been gone for so many years at this point
He just said, "I feel like writing again." I don't know long prior to that he began writing. He just came up with about eight songs.

How many days did you spend demoing in that East Village studio?
We spent five days, and we didn't record anything until the last day. We just kept writing down notes. On the fifth day, it was hard to try to remember what we did on the first day. But we got them down and this guy at the studio had a basic Pro Tools rig, and we got them down. This is November 2010. Then he disappeared for four months and said, "I'm gonna start writing now." So he wrote more songs and then he fleshed those out even more. He came up with lyrics and melodies, which he didn't have at first. But that's typical of every record I started to work with him. Scary Monsters, every album started out with maybe one finished song and 10 ideas, so this is typical.

What happened next?
In April of 2011 we went into a downtown New York studio. We only worked for two-week periods. We would take as long as two months off after each period, and he would go and write some more stuff. I would listen to it and get some ideas, sketch out some overdub things, and we'd be in constant communication during those periods. So this is about 18 months ago. If you added up all the weeks in the studio, we probably actually spent three-and-a-half months.

You've said that the first single, "Where Are We Now," isn't like any other song on the album. Do the other songs look back on his life like that one?
Not really; that's the only one. It's really the only one of its kind. Everything else on the album is kind of observations. He's writing in the third person. Some of them belong to his life, but some of them are things like social commentary. He was reading a lot of medieval English history books, and he came up with one medieval English history song. That's the title track, "The Next Day." It's about somebody who was a tyrant, very insignificant; I didn't even know who he was talking about. But if you read the lyrics, it's quite a horrific story.

You've said there are five rockers on the album.
Yeah. "The Next Day" rocks out. Same with "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)" – that rocks out, too.

Are the non-rockers more mellow? What's their vibe?
They're more funky, mid-tempo songs. Very evocative. "Dirty Boys," the second song on the album, is very sleazy.

Sleazy in what sense?
It's dark and it's sexy. There's a fantastic sax solo. You know, David plays baritone sax, but he invited his friend Steve Elson to do the baritone on this album. I think Steve was in the Saturday Night Live band. He's a little guy, and he's got a huge baritone sax, and he plays this dirty solo in it that sounds like stripper music from the 1950s. Old bump-and-grind stripper music . . . It wouldn't be out of place on Young Americans.

Tell me about "Dancing Out in Space."
That's a very uptempo one. It's got a Motown beat to it, but the rest of it is completely psychedelic. It's got very floaty vibe. There's a guy called David Torn who plays guitar, who we use; he comes with huge amounts of equipment that he creates these aural landscapes. He uses them in a rock context with all that ambient sound, and he's bending his tremolo arm and all that. It's just crazy, completely crazy sound on that track.

How about "Boss of Me?"
That is one of the slower, funky ones. It's really solid. There's a little Young Americans in there. But that's really not proper . . . It's a new kind of direction for him, melodically. Doesn't sound like typical Bowie, that track. But it's a very good track.

OK. Tell me about "Heat."
Well that's the closer of the album and it's very dramatic. And I'm not quite sure what he's singing about on it, but it's a classic Bowie ballad. He's singing in his handsomest voice, a very deep, very sonorous voice. And I can't give too much away about it because honestly, I don't know exactly what it's about, if it's about being in a real prison or being imprisoned in your mind. Again, it's certainly not about him; he's singing as the voice of somebody.

Tell me about "I'd Rather Be High."
There's a few songs about world wars, about soldiers. One is "How Does the Grass Grow" and it's about the way that soldiers are trained to kill other soldiers, how they have to do it so heartlessly. "How Does the Grass Grow" is part of a chant that they're taught as they plunge their bayonets into a dummy. "I'd Rather Be High" is about a soldier who's come out of the war and he's just burnt out, and rather than becoming a human being again, I think he laments, "I'd rather be high/I don't want to know/I'm trying to erase these thoughts from my mind."

Who exactly is the band on the album?
We had two drummers. The main drummer was Zachary Alford, and Sterling Campbell played on several tracks, too. It's unfortunate. Sterling was at the demo sessions in the beginning but then he didn't know when the album was gonna start, and he already committed to a tour with the B-52s. We called Zach in to substitute for him, and Zack played amazing drums on the album. But Sterling is in there as well on songs like "Valentine's Day" and "(You Will) Set the World on Fire," which is another steamer, another big rock song on the album.

Bass was predominantly Gail Ann Dorsey, and she played phenomenally well on the album, and she also did some backup vocals with David. The other bass player who played on about four or five tracks was Tony Levin. The guitars are Gerry Leonard who played on Heathen and Reality, and he's David's music director. David Torn on the other ambient guitar. And then we got Earl Slick to play some fantastic guitar solos and heavy guitar on some tracks. I played bass on the album for two songs, and that's about it. David played his own keyboards; he played also some acoustic guitar, some electric guitar as well.

How hard was it to keep this a secret?
It was very easy to keep it a secret because we're very loyal to him. I've known him 45 years, and everybody knew him for more than 10 years in the band. We just love the guy. He said, "Keep it a secret, and don't tell anybody. Not even your best friend." I said, "Can I tell my girlfriend?" He says, "Yes, you can tell your girlfriend, but she can't tell anybody." So everybody had to explain why they were leaving for work in the morning, you know where they were going and who they were recording with.

The real trick was just not telling even your best friend. Bowie fans are just unpredictable – if they hear news like this, the cover would have been blown years ago. Now one person did leak it, but nobody believed him . . .

Who?
Robert Fripp! He was asked to play on it, he didn't want to do it and then he wrote on his blog that he was asked. And nobody kinda believed him. It was a little flurry for a few days, but everyone said, "How could that be true? We haven't heard it from anyone else?"

The big question: Do you think Bowie will tour?
He says that he will only play if he feels like it, but no tour. Like, if wanted to do the odd show in New York or, I don't know, London, he would if he felt like it. And he made that very clear to the label that he wasn't going to tour or do any kind of ridiculously long album promotion. It was his idea to just drop it at midnight on his birthday and just let things avalanche.

Do you really think it's possible he'd do just one show?
It's possible, if he feels like it. I don't know. I spoke to him two days ago and he said, "I'm really adamant I'm not gonna do a tour." And he said, "If I might, I might do one show." But who knows when.

The album cover is sort of intriguing . . .
I only just got that. I wasn't sure that was the cover.

It's real.
I thought some fan made a joke cover.

I though that too, but it's real.
[Laughs]

Thoughts on that?
I think it's great! It gives him a nice space to sign his autograph in the middle of it.

Do you think that you and Morrissey will ever work together again?
Hopefully we will. I'm going to see him Friday night in Brooklyn. We email a lot. We talk a lot. He's very reluctant to have a deal with anybody. 'Cause nowadays, the problem is, when a label signs you – right now, he has no label – so if I sign a new label deal, he has to sign a 360 deal. They want a piece of everything. If you write a book, if you write a song, if you're in a movie, they want part of your fee for all these things. So that's the deal that the big labels are offering now and that's because sales are so low and they have to make up their money some way. He's totally against that. He's old-school. Actually I don't blame him.

He could pull a Radiohead and post it online for a fee.
I know. He's also old school about paying for it himself. Traditionally, the label's gotta pay for him. I understand that, and there's an old saying in show business that you never invest your own money in a show. It kinda follows onto recording to some extent, but that attitude has changed.

He could also sign to an indie label that wouldn't make him sign a 360. . . But beyond that, he has enough fans that he'd make a killing charging $10 for an album online?
Yeah, he'll make his money back, yeah. He's playing his new songs onstage, they're being recorded on cell phones every night of the week and they're wonderful songs.

[Police Boy]

Thanks EQ. The more info that comes out, the more excited I get!

[ltwoman]

Thanks,EQ, for always getting the entire story out here.