David Bowie Envies Brad Pitt on Comeback; Hendrix Revival
When singers stage a triumphant, surprise comeback, in future they will be said to have done a David Bowie.
His album The Next Day, streaming now on iTunes and made over three years, is a textbook example of rock recovery. The template: record in secrecy, refuse interviews, reference your career highlights, name check celebrities from Brigitte Bardot to Brad Pitt. Dont forget a little anger. Oh, and a few good songs would help.
Bowie had been written off after a decade of ill health and reclusive retirement. The chorus of the rattling title track runs here I am, not quite dying, my body left to rot on a hollow tree.
He is energized, revving up the guitars to a disco beat on Dancing Out in Space. (You Will) Set the World on Fire sounds like the angry union of early Kinks with Bowies own Rebel Rebel. Most tracks are way more upbeat than the dreamy 66th-birthday single Where Are We Now? with its melancholy Berlin memories.
The German capital is everywhere, even with the sleeves overprint of Heroes, made in the city in 1977. The blank image probably means something profound, even if it took just a minute to design and isnt the most effective piece of minimalism.
The video for The Stars (Are Out Tonight) portrays Bowie as a cardigan-wearing couch potato. Tilda Swinton plays his wife. The odd couple make for an odder film, just as you would expect from Bowie.
Live Forever
The two suburbanites ogle the celebrities in magazines and television shows until their lives and dreams are taken over. Bowie sings enviously of Brigitte, Jack and Kate and Brad watching from behind shades and tinted windows: We will never be rid of these stars, but I hope they live forever.
This hour of new music bears comparison with another Berlin collection, Lodger, and has echoes of Bowies later works Heathen and R! eality. Its not up there with Station to Station or Ziggy Stardust: then again those are two of the best rock LPs of the 1970s, if not of all time. Rating: ****.
Hendrix Returns
A new album by Jimi Hendrix sounds a little farfetched given that he died in 1970 and there have been more than 50 records of posthumous material.
People, Hell and Angels isnt quite all its promises: The recordings featured havent been heard, sure, though other takes of some of them have. The CD covers much the same territory as Crash Landing and First Rays of the New Rising Sun.
Hendrix, working outside the original Experience group, was finding his feet with bassist Billy Cox and drummer Buddy Miles who went on into the Band of Gypsys. Their interplay is obvious from the opener Earth Blues, a little scrappy as much of the material is.
Somewhere has Stephen Stills on bass and some exceptional guitar work. The workout would have fitted on Electric Ladyland and got to No. 1 in the Billboards Hot Singles Sales last month, 45 years after it was recorded. Rating: ***.
What the Stars Mean:***** Exceptional**** Excellent*** Good** Average* Poor(No stars) WorthlessBowies album is streaming now on iTunes. It is released by Columbia/ Iso Records on March 12 priced about $10 or $12 for a deluxe edition. The Hendrix CD come out from Sony Legacy tomorrow priced $10. Download prices vary across services.
(Mark Beech writes for Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
Muse highlights include Richard Vines on food, John Mariani on ! wine, Lance Esplund on art and Jeremy Gerard on U.S. theater.
To contact the writer on the story: Mark Beech in London at mbeech@bloomberg.net or http://twitter.com/home/Mark_Beech.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff at mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.
'The Next Day'
The cover of "The Next Day" by David Bowie. It features an over-printed shot of his previous release "Heroes." The CD, Bowie's first album of new material in a ! decade, i! s streaming on iTunes with a U.S. release date set for March 12.
The cover of "The Next Day" by David Bowie. It features an over-printed shot of his previous release "Heroes." The CD, Bowie's first album of new material in a decade, is streaming on iTunes with a U.S. release date set for March 12. Source: Columbia via Bloomberg
'People, Hell and Angels'
Legacy Recordings via Bloomberg
"People, Hell and Angels," a new album by Jimi Hendrix. The CD has previously unreleased recordings culled from sessions between early 1968 and late 1969, which saw the guitarist assuming the producer role and experimenting with different musicians outside of the original Jimi Hendrix Experience trio.
"People, Hell and Angels," a new album by Jimi Hendrix. The CD has previously unreleased recordings culled from sessions between early 1968 and late 1969, which saw the guitarist assuming the producer role and experimenting with different musicians outside of the original Jimi Hendrix Experience trio. Source: Legacy Recordings via Bloomberg
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