Jan. 10, 2013 - Issue #899: The games we play
“Where Are We Now?”
David Bowie {recordings_bands_mg} “Where Are We Now?” {/recordings_bands_mg}
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We were living in a post-David Bowie world, it seemed. The gap between 2003's Reality and this week's out-of-the-blue single release and album announcement—coming on the Thin White Duke's 66th birthday—was the longest span of silence in Bowie's four-decade career. His sunset years looked to be spent removed from the limelight. To come back now—hopefully—means he's found something vital to say.And with that in mind, Bowie's choice of return single is curious in just how beaten-down it is: "Where Are We Now?" finds the guy in sad-sack old-man mode, weary and reflecting in Berlin: "A man lost in time, near KaDeWe / Just walking the dead / Where are we now? / The moment you know."
Lyrically, It's full of images of a man revisiting the ghosts of his best, past years. The instrumentation is a slowburn, letting a repetitive build grow larger and heavier as it goes on, constructed out of weary guitar strums, a march of drums and a warm, barely-there synth hum. It fittingly recalls the Berlin years (the accompanying video, partly filmed in the apartment where he used to live in the German capital only confirms that it's on his mind), as filtered through Reality's more reflective, elder-statesman worldview.
"Where Are We Now?" isn't typical single material. It feels like a deeper, more introspective moment on the album to come, meant to give depth and balance to the songs around it rather than stand on its own (On the The Next Day's announced tracklist, it falls five songs in). And that it's what he's leading with suggests less of a straightforward pop record, and something a little more attuned to one of music's most experimental mainstreamers revisiting what he sees as his finest years. Or, maybe not, but honestly? It's just nice to hear him again. vueweekly.com comments: powered by Disqus
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