Maps of Music

The Next Day (2013)

Where the lyrics of The Next Day take you, and where it was really made.

The Next Day was recorded in secret under non-disclosure agreements, and even Bowie's label did not know about the sessions until October 2012.

Key places

Where the album was recorded (2011)

Recording site Magic Shop — Bowie chose Crosby Street's Magic Shop, located near his home, for the album. Recording began here on 2 May 2011 with Bowie and Visconti as co-producers. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Vocal sessions (2013)

Recording site Human Worldwide Studios — Bowie recorded vocals here from September 2011 to January 2012, and most of the backing vocals and other overdubs were added at this studio. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• The Next Day: twenty-fifth studio album by David Bowie
• Released March 2013 through ISO Records in association with Columbia Records
• First studio release in ten years
• Co-produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti
• Primarily an art rock album that references earlier glam and funk releases
• Cover: adapted version of Bowie's 1977 album "Heroes" by designer Jonathan Barnbrook

Background

• Bowie underwent angioplasty for a blocked heart artery in late June 2004, which ended his final live concert tour
• He withdrew from public view; his final live public performance came in November 2006
• He sought out Tony Visconti in November 2010, leading to demo sessions
• Demos were recorded at 6/8 Studios in Manhattan's East Village with guitarist Gerry Leonard and drummer Sterling Campbell
• Rumours of poor health grew after he declined repeated invitations to perform at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London

Recording

• Recorded in New York City between May 2011 and October 2012, sporadically
• Recording began on 2 May 2011 at Crosby Street's Magic Shop, near Bowie's home
• Bowie recorded vocals at Human Worldwide Studios from September 2011 to January 2012
• Session musicians included Gerry Leonard, Earl Slick, Gail Ann Dorsey, Steve Elson, Sterling Campbell and Zachary Alford
• All personnel involved signed non-disclosure agreements

Cover

• Designed by Jonathan Barnbrook
• A white square with the album title in black covers Bowie's face
• A line is drawn across the original "Heroes" title

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Early life

• Born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947 in Brixton, London.
• Studied art, music and design; took up saxophone in 1961.
• Adopted the stage name David Bowie in 1966 to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees.

Career

• Breakthrough with "Space Oddity" in 1969, reaching the UK top five.
• Glam rock success in 1972 with the Ziggy Stardust persona and album.
• Berlin Trilogy (Low, "Heroes", Lodger) with Brian Eno and Tony Visconti in the late 1970s.
• Greatest commercial success with Let's Dance in 1983.
• Fronted the hard rock band Tin Machine from 1988 to 1992 before resuming a solo career.
• Final studio album Blackstar was released two days before his death in 2016.

Legacy

• Sold over 100 million records worldwide.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
• Widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Critics praised The Next Day as Bowie's best work in decades
• Several publications ranked it among the best albums of 2013
• Reviewers highlighted the vocal and musical performances and made positive comparisons to earlier works
• Some felt the album lacked innovation and was overlong
• Metacritic gave a metascore of 81 based on 44 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim"
• Andy Gill of The Independent praised it as the best comeback in rock history
• Mark Fisher of The Wire described it as mediocre and undeserving of its wide acclaim
• Alfred Soto of Spin said the ideas collided into "colorless abstractions"

Reappraisal

• Nicholas Pegg, in The Complete David Bowie, praised the performances but found the album overlong and slow in its middle section
• Chris O'Leary said the album works as a fluctuating set of tracks whose sequence and length depend on the listener's mood and patience in the streaming era
• Ultimate Classic Rock (2016) ranked it number 13 out of 26 Bowie studio albums
• Consequence of Sound (2018) ranked it number 11 out of 28 in a list that included Tin Machine

Records

• UK Albums Chart: debuted at number one with 94,048 copies in its first week
• Bowie's ninth UK number-one album and his first since Black Tie White Noise (1993)
• UK chart fell to number two in week two (35,671) and number three in week three (23,157)
• US Billboard 200: debuted at number two with 85,000 first-week copies, his best US chart placement to date
• Sold 208,000 copies in the US as of December 2015
• Topped the charts in Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland
• Reached number two in Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Italy and Spain
• Nominated for Best Rock Album at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards in 2014

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The title was originally going to be Love Is Lost, according to Barnbrook's account of the design process.
• The cover design went through many versions, including a Radio City Music Hall image from 1974 and rejected covers of Aladdin Sane and Pin Ups.
• Robert Fripp posted a blog about a dream of working with Bowie; he later denied being approached to play on the album.
• Alan Edwards, Bowie's UK PR manager, learned of the single only four days before its release.
• Of 29 songs recorded for the album, 22 were released in 2013, and the remaining seven were discarded by 2015.
• Barnbrook provided several discarded designs for the 2013 David Bowie Is exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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