David Bowie - The Next Day

Discography Diaries #4: David Bowie
Album #23: The Next Day
Genre: Art Rock
Date: 13/08/2020
Time: 5:30 PM

It's almost time to conclude this chapter of the discography diaries, we only have two more left in David Bowie's lengthy discography and we first must talk about his 23rd album, The Next Day. Around the time David Bowie released this album he'd been on a ten year hiatus, the longest one he ever took in his career, he returned with The Next Day and my hopes going into it were high honestly, I would like Bowie to add another great album to his catalogue and I feel like he accomplished that with this album.

Sound wise The Next Day is essentially David Bowie going back to his more beloved art rock sound from the 70's and I feel like he managed to do it well while adding a lot of mature songwriting. The production on this album sounds great as expected with Bowie, it perfectly recaptured a lot of the previous sounds that he used in the 70's, it may pander a little for nostalgia sake and some tracks may sound a bit dated but Bowie makes up for it in my opinion, especially with a lot of his performances and a lot of his songwriting on here. Lyrically Bowie is looking back on his lengthy career, his personal life and he ponders over his inevitable death which to me is unintentionally foreshadowing Blackstar and he manages to keep it interesting with how well written and poetic it is, I feel like his aged vocals are adding to these themes as well, it's like when an elderly relative is telling his stories. The album isn't perfect to me though, it dips a bit in quality after the 6th track, some of the production is dated and it comes off a bit pandering as I mentioned and some of the hooks weren't all that great either, other than that there were some amazing songs on this record that I will definitely return too at some stage.

It's safe to say Bowie has added another great album to his catalogue and I'm excited to listen to Blackstar and conclude this dive

Best Tracks: Dirty Boys, The Stars (Are Out Tonight), Love is Lost, Where are We Now?, Valentine's Day and Heat

Worst Track: I'd Rather Be High