After a decade-long musical silence, the English musician David Bowie is back to wake you up with a blast of electric guitars by unveiling a new video for his new introspective ballad, "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)," the second track from the legend's comeback twenty-fourth studio album, "The Next Day," due on March 12. The Thin White Duke's fascination with fame, constellations and himself collide in this brand new clip that is a cross between "American Horror Story" and a study in gender with more of an suburban nightmare than the quintessential dreamscape, and it is fun to watch.
The song starts with a slow, heavy backbeat and guttural guitar that dissolve into a propulsive bassline topped with shards of guitar and atmospheric synthesizers, for an effect reminiscent of vintage Bowie. It's a swinging, urgent rocker with an edgy little lead guitar motif and the kind of swaggering one-note declamatory vocal Bowie has been pulling off since the days of Ziggy Stardust. The track's driving forward momentum is counterbalanced by the melodic sweetness of Bowie's own "ooh ooh" backing vocals, a sheen of swimming strings and a Motown-style bridge.
"The Stars (Are Out Tonight)" is Bowie once more playing with the word star as an object of fame and something that lives and burns forever. "Stars are never sleeping," he sings on this new song. "They'll burn you with their radiant smiles, trap you with their beautiful eyes." Though we think of Bowie having many sounds, there is still a classic Bowie that pops up so often. A Bowie filled with an uplifting swagger. Admittedly that's not that weird compared to what Bowie's done in the past, but it's certainly a lot more warped than the somewhat straight-up rocker that the single is.
It's very 1980s, and conjures an entropic underworld inhabited by tortured souls and omnipotent beings. The softly-lit and quietly menacing clip, directed by Floria Sigismondi is about capturing "a twenty first century moment in its convergence of age, gender and the normal/celebrity divide," and is certainly a striking piece of work - dealing with androgyny and musing on the meaning of fame, and illuminating the meaning of the lyrics. In a flip of reality, Bowie and English actress Tilda Swinton play a happily suburban couple whose normal lives are turned upside down with the arrival of a "celebrity" creepy couple who have some twisted tricks up their sleeves and abuse their tranquility both physical and emotional in exactly the way you would hope, only makes it better.
The song starts with a slow, heavy backbeat and guttural guitar that dissolve into a propulsive bassline topped with shards of guitar and atmospheric synthesizers, for an effect reminiscent of vintage Bowie. It's a swinging, urgent rocker with an edgy little lead guitar motif and the kind of swaggering one-note declamatory vocal Bowie has been pulling off since the days of Ziggy Stardust. The track's driving forward momentum is counterbalanced by the melodic sweetness of Bowie's own "ooh ooh" backing vocals, a sheen of swimming strings and a Motown-style bridge.
"The Stars (Are Out Tonight)" is Bowie once more playing with the word star as an object of fame and something that lives and burns forever. "Stars are never sleeping," he sings on this new song. "They'll burn you with their radiant smiles, trap you with their beautiful eyes." Though we think of Bowie having many sounds, there is still a classic Bowie that pops up so often. A Bowie filled with an uplifting swagger. Admittedly that's not that weird compared to what Bowie's done in the past, but it's certainly a lot more warped than the somewhat straight-up rocker that the single is.
It's very 1980s, and conjures an entropic underworld inhabited by tortured souls and omnipotent beings. The softly-lit and quietly menacing clip, directed by Floria Sigismondi is about capturing "a twenty first century moment in its convergence of age, gender and the normal/celebrity divide," and is certainly a striking piece of work - dealing with androgyny and musing on the meaning of fame, and illuminating the meaning of the lyrics. In a flip of reality, Bowie and English actress Tilda Swinton play a happily suburban couple whose normal lives are turned upside down with the arrival of a "celebrity" creepy couple who have some twisted tricks up their sleeves and abuse their tranquility both physical and emotional in exactly the way you would hope, only makes it better.
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