Artist: DAVID BOWIE
Album: THE NEXT DAY (DIGI)

Year: 2013
Media type: CD

The first single released from David Bowie's first album in 10 years, "Where Are We Now?", is an anomaly. It is gentler, slower and lighter than the other 13 songs on "The Next Day," this musical chameleon's return to rock 'n' roll.

Bowie and producer Tony Visconti, who helped shaped his sound in the 1970s as well as produce seven T. Rex records, have struck gold in creating a work that is modern and well-connected to the artist's fabled sonic-past.

No matter where Bowie takes the music -- and there are some moments where it seems headed to some off-putting territory -- he finds a melodic hook to swing on. It's an ability he used on "Low," "Heroes" and "Lodger" and that experimental trilogy from the mid- to late 1970s is as much a reference point as the earlier costumed years of "Ziggy Stardust" and "Aladdin Sane." This alchemy is almost magical.

A deluxe edition adds three tracks to the collection and they, too, bear little resemblance to the palette of the main album, which stands as a strong cohesive work on its own, with Bowie in fine voice and his army of old friends -- the guitarists Gerry Leonard, Earl Slick and David Torn, drummers Zachary Alford and Sterling Campbell, and bassists Gail Ann Dorsey and Tony Levin -- behind him.

All lyrics written by David Bowie, all music composed by Bowie, except where noted.

TRACKLIST:
No. Title Length 

1. "The Next Day"   3:27
2. "Dirty Boys"   2:58
3. "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)"   3:56
4. "Love Is Lost"   3:57
5. "Where Are We Now?"   4:08
6. "Valentine's Day"   3:01
7. "If You Can See Me"   3:15
8. "I'd Rather Be High"   3:53
9. "Boss of Me" (Bowie, Gerry Leonard) 4:09
10. "Dancing Out in Space"   3:24
11. "How Does the Grass Grow?" (Bowie, Jerry Lordan) 4:33
12. "(You Will) Set the World On Fire"   3:30
13. "You Feel So Lonely You Could Die"   4:41
14. "Heat"   4:25

Total length: 53:17