Written by Anthony Drake

David Bowie has released yet another album– “The Next Day.”

The cover art for this 24^th studio album might look familiar to some as Bowie made some edits to the album art from “Heroes” that came out in 1977.

This album has a total of 14 tracks, and is about 54 minutes in length.

“The Next Day” starts off with the title track “The Next Day.” This song was a little catchy, but the lyrics were a bit lackluster.

The album continues with the track “Dirty Boys.” This track has some funky sax playing that has a bit of swing to it. Bowie’s vocals on this track reminded me of Jim Morrison, The Door’s lead singer—making it really enjoyable.

Most of the songs in this album seemed like filler. They were lacking in both lyrical content and instrumentation. It seems like Bowie was on a mission to get another album out as soon as possible without putting much thought into it.

With that said, there were a few tracks that seemed to stand out above the rest for this album. The first song to really get my attention, besides “Dirty Boys,” was track 10 “Dancing Out in Space.” When this track came on, I started to really get into the rhythm and vocals. It was catchy and the instrumentation was very well done. After hearing this track, I started to gain a little faith for this album, but the tracks leading up to the end became more and more poorly written.

I have to give Bowie some credit for going out and recording new material for his fans. “The Next Day” just didn’t live up to the hype for me. Bowie’s lyrics were uninspiring. He even seemed to have a hard time keeping up with the rhythm as he sang on the track “The Stars.”

To sum it up, this album sounds exactly like the album cover looks. It was recycled material and thrown together–despite the 10 years David Bowie had to work on it.

I give The Next Day a 5.5/10.

What did you think if you listened to the album, and which album should I review next?

ajdrakejr@valdosta.edu