Tom: Years of silence, and then – out of nowhere – BOOM. New album, new single, from one of the few British artists who can legitimately be called a legend without hyperbole. Surprise!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOyDTy9DtHQ
Tim: Um. Right. Okay. It has guitars, that’s good.
Tom: Heaven knows what that video’s about, but still: that’s not a bad track at all. Comebacks are meant to be lousy versions of the original, and this really isn’t.
Tim: That is true. It doesn’t really grab me, though – at least not in the way I thought it might, given the way people raved about it all day on Twitter. Which is a bit of a shame. But why on Earth’s he going on about Berlin all the time? Aren’t we about 23 years too late for that?
Tom: It’s slow and soulful Bowie, not upbeat and poppy Bowie, and… well, his style’s not changed. This could, with a touch less age in the voice – not a complaint, it’s aged wonderfully – be a single from any one of this earlier albums.
Tim: Hmm. You’re certainly right about that, I must agree.
Tom: I was about to worry that it went nowhere, that it never built – and then, bloody hell, that final chorus and instrumental outro. Bit of a shame about the fade-out ending, but then, that’s how it always used to be.