LISTEN TO IT #69: THE RETURN OF THE THIN WHITE DUKE (SLIGHT RETURN)

You all know by now that The Dame is back, much to the surprise of everyone who thought he was either dead, or retired from music, or both. 

The new song/video, “Where Are We Now?” got a lot of buzz, not least because no one saw it coming.

And now the full album, The Next Day – Bowie’s first studio album in ten years – is out. And I have a copy.

Let's start with the cover art, which is fascinatingly self-referential.



For people unfamiliar with Bowie’s Berlin period, it’s basically the cover of “Heroes” with a white label slapped over it with the new album title. Laziness? Genius? A masterstroke PR stunt to generate column inches? I’m personally going to go with “genius” here.

As for the album … I have to say, it’s rather good.

There are all kinds of ways to qualify that. It’s good if yr expectations weren’t all that high to start with. It’s good for a guy in his mid-60s. It’s good provided you liked his other recent "comeback" albums, Heathen and Reality. It’s good if you never realistically expected him to top his classic albums. It's good if you are over a certain age. (A lot of the younger kids seem baffled why anyone would like this, if YouTube comments are anything to go by. Which they aren't, really.)

But those aren't really necessary for me. It really is a good album. Yes, the quality varies here and there, but when it sparks, it starts fires. There are no innovations or surprises – some reviewers have been comparing it to Lodger as a reference point – but that’s another way of saying it sounds the way you’d expect a decent Bowie album to sound.

And even the songs that don’t seem to work as well at first have the potential to grow better with each listen. I confess, I wasn’t all that impressed with “Where Are We Now?” when it first came out. But it’s grown on me since first listen, and in the context of the album it’s actually one of the high points for me now.

If I have to add a caveat, it’s this: I liked Heathen and Reality when they both came out, but I don’t listen to them that much nowadays. Maybe the same will be true of The Next Day by this time next year. But that’s hard to believe right now – there are some really strong, captivating songs here.

In any case, I am SO digging this. It’s good to have David Bowie back, for however long he’s going to hang around this time.

Meanwhile, enjoy this new video. It’s got Tilda Swindon in it. And it’s NSFW.

Golden years,

This is dF

AIRPORT READS: THE GAME

I fly a lot.

Which is why one of my favorite author blurbs is the one for Douglas Adams, where it said he could usually be found in airport book stalls.

I can identify with that. I always bring a book on a flight, and pack a spare one in my luggage for the trip back. But sometimes I find myself in need of an emergency book – usually because the book I have takes a shorter time to read than I thought, or I had more time to read than I thought, or whatever.

The good news: airports always have books. Also – and I mention this because I typically travel to countries where English is a second or third language – most airports have English-language books.

The bad news: the selection is usually limited to the kinds of books I usually don’t read – mass-market fiction, Top 10 best-sellers, business advice, self-help books, romantic vampires, 50 Shades Of Whatever, etc.

So the challenge is to find a book I’d actually want to read, even if only because it’s either that or having no book at all. On the plus side, it’s a way to force me out of my comfort zone and try an author I normally wouldn’t try, or an author that I’ve kind sorta thought about trying, but have been putting off/avoiding. Sometimes the results are abysmal. But sometimes they’re quite rewarding.

Anyway.

The above scenario rarely ever happens. But I love browsing in bookstores anyhow, so I’ll usually stop in the airport bookshops while I’m waiting for my flight, whether I need a book or not. And I find myself playing a game:

Emergency Book Search!

The objective: try to identify at least one book I would actually buy if I needed one.

For example, I recently did this in the Barcelona airport, where the bookshops don’t have a very big English-language section, which makes it a bit challenging. Still, I managed to narrow it down to three:

1. Ross MacDonald, The Goodbye Look
2. Roberto Bolano, Antwerp
3. Cormac McCarthy, All The Pretty Horses

I’ve read McCarthy before, and wouldn’t mind reading him again. And I’ve never read MacDonald before, but I’ve seen his name on books since I was a kid, so I was curious.

Still, I think I would have gone with Bolano – partly because he’s semi-local to Barcelona (he’s from Chile, but he lived near Barcelona from 1977 until his death in 2003), and partly because I became aware of him via an intro he wrote for another book. He seems like someone who might be worth checking out.

I didn't buy the book, of course, because I didn't need one. And I also didn’t need the extra weight of another book in my carry-on. But if I had needed one, that’s the one I would have got.

And yes, I do this all the time.

NOTE: The Barcelona results were actually kind of atypical. I don’t usually get that many options, and they’re usually not that literary. In most airports, I’m more likely to end up with something like Terry Pratchett (and that’s assuming it’s a Discworld book I haven’t read yet).

Ready for boarding,

This is dF