New David Bowie single 'Where Are We Now?' & album in March

[gnoriac]

Painfully bland, I'm very disappointed.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

It's got a certain shimmering and wistful power to it, that grows with each listen.

Much like my ear hair.

 

[QueenOfGoths]

It's got a certain shimmering and wistful power to it, that grows with each listen.

Agree with this, and I really like the sound of his voice, you can hear it has aged but it still has such beauty and emotion

 

[snadge]

It's got a certain shimmering and wistful power to it, that grows with each listen.

I agree, a very powerful song.

 

[teqniq]

I like both the tune and the vid, look forward to the album.

 

[Favelado]

It's laugh out loud bad. Pitchfork gave it a fawning review today. I think it's brilliant that you can make something as weak as this and still get praise because you're a legend.

Fair play to him.

 

[Hollis]

Hmm.. Quite liked 'Heathen' - good album for 2 am in the morning.

Lets face it though it all really ended around 1980.

 

[editor]

With all the rumours of Bowie suffering a serious health condition and lyrics talking of “a man lost in time” and “just walking the dead” I hope this fragile-sounding tune isn't some sort of swansong for the great man.

I like the NME's review. I think I've found myself playing it about 8 times already.

The songwriting of 'Where Are We Now?' hits you on the first listen. And then you realise you've pressed repeat 20 times. It's perfectly structured: arpeggiated, vibrato chords; a sultry, sleepy rhythm; a mournful, wistful chorus, all brought down to earth with Bowie's piano keys. The chorus - "Where are we now? Where are we now?" - is an earworm I'm perfectly happy to carry around all day. Romance, power, depth, gravitas and bittersweet nostalgia. It's pure Bowie. You'll see this on greatest hits compilations in a couple of years.

http://www.nme.com/reviews/david-bowie/13961

 

[editor]

It's laugh out loud bad. Pitchfork gave it a fawning review today. I think it's brilliant that you can make something as weak as this and still get praise because you're a legend.

Lots of 'legends' get poor reviews.

 

[Favelado]

Lots of 'legends' get poor reviews.

They certainly do but I think in this case its Bowie's cultural kudos that's important. Pitchfork, for example, would find it hard to knock him as he's such a reference point for what they imagine themselves to be.

I like Bowie and I'd like to like the track. I genuinely think it's bad to the point of funny though. If the album is brilliant I'll come back and admit it, no problems.

 

[Balbi]

With all the rumours of Bowie suffering a serious health condition and lyrics talking of “a man lost in time” and “just walking the dead” I hope this fragile-sounding tune isn't some sort of swansong for the great man.

Walking the dead's a reference to Potsdammer Platz, which was not a working station until after the walls came down, and the dead zone between the Berlin walls. Bowie's gone all retrospective, and this song's got a load of pointers to his time working on the three Berlin albums. Tschungel club on Nurmberger, the grainy footage of seventies/modern Berlin - it's all a painting of an old man's recall of a different time.

 

[gosub]

http://www.gigwise.com/news/78701/album-designer-explains-bizarre-new-david-bowie-album-sleeve probably spent more time on justifying the sleeveart than he did designing it

 

[Favelado]

Does anyone know who the woman is in the video?

It made me think of Loving the Alien, and Absolute Beginners too.

And following last year's rumours of Bowie being unwell, the video made me think of Johnny Cash's Hurt video.

I like it. Has anyone said elegiac yet?

I'm glad you did because it gives me an excuse..

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

I think it is an ok song but the tone and lyrics bring back a feeling of last album that Lee Hazlewood did when he knew he did not have much time to finish it and it would be his last. Mind you this Bowie song sounds like he feels a bit sorry for himself (and why shouldn't he be) whereas Hazlewoods last stuff in general was a sad but reflective celebration of sorts.
Is Bowie on the way out?

 

[killer b]

there have been rumours of him being very poorly for a few years, but nothing confirmed afiak

 

[butchersapron]

I fucking love Bowie, but that's a hideous song, with a mish-mash of good lyrics and bad. Like coldplay covering berlin bowie. The old i'm sitting right down at the piano and write you all a song thing.

 

[Reno]

I like the track though it's more of an album track than an obvious single. I love the wacky arty video. It all looks good, because I haven't liked that much by Bowie since Scary Monsters.

 

[Balbi]

Visconti says the track's probably the most ballady and slow on the album. I think Bowie's just playing on his current reputation and the rumours that have developed in the last decade.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I was saving for a deposit on my own place. That money is now set aside for tour dates.

They were discussing this on the news yesterday and someone came to the conclusion that if he wasn't going to show up and sing Heroes for the Olympic Opening Ceremony, the chances of a tour are not good

 

[SpookyFrank]

http://www.gigwise.com/news/78701/album-designer-explains-bizarre-new-david-bowie-album-sleeve probably spent more time on justifying the sleeveart than he did designing it

Both the sleeve and the artist's long-winded excuse for designing it are shit.

e2a: He's even called his own work 'radical', the cunt.

 

[Balbi]

They were discussing this on the news yesterday and someone came to the conclusion that if he wasn't going to show up and sing Heroes for the Olympic Opening Ceremony, the chances of a tour are not good

Then I will save up until I can buy my own

 

[youngian]

He sounds more like an 86 year old than 66. A bit like Clive Dunn but not so catchy.

Isn't he reminiscing about the (cold) war years as well?

Those Stasi don't like it up 'em.

 

[twistedAM]

Painfully bland, I'm very disappointed.

Yeah he should have had a word with Scott Walker.

 

[editor]

H8Rz gonna h8. I still like it.

 

[SpookyFrank]

I like the song. Nice tune, nice production, nice vocal. Less sonically oppressive than the Heathen stuff.

 

[Favelado]

What tune? You could make a melody like that up in a lift ride to the top of a not-very-tall building.

 

[catinthehat]

I might be reading more into it and over thinking but I agree with Balbis point earlier - Bowie was born just after WW2 during a period of a degree of hope, welfare state and all that. Then the slump and boom of capitalism, the rise of hope again with the smashing of the Berlin Wall - and an area as Balbi pointed Bowie was familiar with - places and streets of Berlin. Then again descent into chaos and slump. Alongside his own personal slumps and booms. I think he is making a point about the micro and the macro and in the teatime of his life he is focused on the micro. Its like he has chucked the Road to Serfdom and Shock Doctrine in the bin and gone 'ah fek it, I cant be arsed with all that - look it might be sunny later'. I can imagine listening to this wandering the chilly streets of Berlin it might come into its own. Particularly if you are a bit of a codger.

 

[editor]

What tune? You could make a melody like that up in a lift ride to the top of a not-very-tall building.

Off you go then.

 

[Stanley Edwards]

I'm missing something. I love Bowie's work, but this looks and sounds like a well crafted call for cash and nothing more.

 

[Favelado]

Off you go then.

I did it on the way back from the shop. To be honest, mine was much better. You like The Clash though, so melody's obviously not something you're into anyway.