23 - The Next Day
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nue5ydhm24OUz9Cn3Z0vFTBTeOq0Q-WP4
Then 10 years later, like he was breaking double-secret probation for the occasion of his 66th birthday, Bowie made another album. He cheekily called it The Next Day, and if you've keyed in on my tendency to get ahead of myself, the first single asked Where Are We Now?
Unlike everyone else, i giggle and clap at whiting out the cover of Heroes. It's meant to "subvert" that iconic album as "an obliteration of the past," and obviously i couldn't be happier, i hate that album.
And for 2013, it's trash rock. The world is garbage (you all know that's exactly how i felt 'cause we moved to Iowa in 2012 while he was writing it). There's a little bit of subtext, in that Bowie is implying it's garbage because he wasn't making albums, but that's clearly the joke.
I remember when the video for The Stars came out and it was awesome. We had celebrities again, but they were trash. This whole album has that "Bowie's version is better vibe." We are all real people, don't worship the worst of the fakers for a cheap thrill. The humor has a darker side, though. It's the real sadness of mortality. The past is dead, and i will be too. I don't know when, but i'll keep going until there's no more day and night for me.
The thing we've learned from all of this is that Bowie knows what he's doing, and though he still has so many things to say, he is waiting to die for real this time. We couldn't know that, he'd always been saying it so it just felt like normal split personality Bowie.
There was a group of critics who call it mediocre, and to that i would say yes there is a context in which this album is mediocre. If you listen to it as just an album from 2013, then it's meh; not that spectacular, merely good enough against the background garbage that is his subject matter to garner some obvious hyperbole. If, however, you listen to it like i just did, as the i can't take it anymore outburst of a retired superstar, then it's pretty great. If you've got the entire discography in your head, it's pretty obvious that the world at that moment was acting like something David Bowie has an opinion about. If you listen to it at face value, it's pretty freakin' sad and you know that he's going to wait until he knows he's dying to make the next one. You're not psychic though, so feel what you feel. Any kind of rock in 2013 was worth trying to like from my point of view. Like i've said before, once the context finally clicks you realize it's high quality across the board.
24 - Blackstar
Then 10 years later, like he was breaking double-secret probation for the occasion of his 66th birthday, Bowie made another album. He cheekily called it The Next Day, and if you've keyed in on my tendency to get ahead of myself, the first single asked Where Are We Now?
Unlike everyone else, i giggle and clap at whiting out the cover of Heroes. It's meant to "subvert" that iconic album as "an obliteration of the past," and obviously i couldn't be happier, i hate that album.
And for 2013, it's trash rock. The world is garbage (you all know that's exactly how i felt 'cause we moved to Iowa in 2012 while he was writing it). There's a little bit of subtext, in that Bowie is implying it's garbage because he wasn't making albums, but that's clearly the joke.
I remember when the video for The Stars came out and it was awesome. We had celebrities again, but they were trash. This whole album has that "Bowie's version is better vibe." We are all real people, don't worship the worst of the fakers for a cheap thrill. The humor has a darker side, though. It's the real sadness of mortality. The past is dead, and i will be too. I don't know when, but i'll keep going until there's no more day and night for me.
The thing we've learned from all of this is that Bowie knows what he's doing, and though he still has so many things to say, he is waiting to die for real this time. We couldn't know that, he'd always been saying it so it just felt like normal split personality Bowie.
There was a group of critics who call it mediocre, and to that i would say yes there is a context in which this album is mediocre. If you listen to it as just an album from 2013, then it's meh; not that spectacular, merely good enough against the background garbage that is his subject matter to garner some obvious hyperbole. If, however, you listen to it like i just did, as the i can't take it anymore outburst of a retired superstar, then it's pretty great. If you've got the entire discography in your head, it's pretty obvious that the world at that moment was acting like something David Bowie has an opinion about. If you listen to it at face value, it's pretty freakin' sad and you know that he's going to wait until he knows he's dying to make the next one. You're not psychic though, so feel what you feel. Any kind of rock in 2013 was worth trying to like from my point of view. Like i've said before, once the context finally clicks you realize it's high quality across the board.
24 - Blackstar
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