Month: November 2014

 

“Better make it today”

 

A brief reminder that this week sees further screenings of Hamish Hamilton’s David Bowie is documentary.

If you’re in any of the countries in the list below right now, check here for local screenings and to book tickets.

 

Austria

Canada

Denmark

Finland

Netherlands

Norway

Russia

Sweden

 

Stay tuned for news of more upcoming screenings.

 

“For here am I sitting in a tin can, Far above the world”

 

Chris says it best here.

 

“And the clock waits so patiently on your song”

 

A mere two weeks to go for the release of Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime) via Parlophone on November 17th in the UK. (Excepting regional variations)

If you’ve not heard the track for some mad reason or other, the file is still available to listen to here on DavidBowie.com.

If you don’t want to spoil the surprise till the track is released, you can get a flavour of just how good both the NME and The Telegraph think it is.

We’ll leave you with excerpts from both reviews with links to the full things too.

 

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David Bowie Releases Seven-Minute Jazz Odyssey – And It’s Brilliant

Dan Stubbs for NME

 

‘Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)’, is the first track Bowie has recorded since releasing the career-reviving ‘The Next Day’ in 2013. And in a typically Bowie-like u-turn, it’s a jazz track. Not just a bit jazzy ‘ it’s proper jazz, recorded with Grammy winning composer Maria Scheider and her 17-piece big band. It’s also a murder ballad, sung from a first person perspective with pointed but enigmatic lyrics that shift in focus throughout.

It’s Nick Cave meets Scott Walker meets Herbie Hancock and it’s quite brilliant.

 

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David Bowie’s jazz song shows his genius for self-reinvention 

Ivan Hewett for The Telegraph

 

So where does Bowie’s new song Sue (Or In a Season of Crime) stand with respect to these platinum-selling peddlers of easy listening nostalgia? Miles away, of course. Bowie has spent much of his life evading genre boudaries, and this song is the latest example of his genius for self-reinvention. Yes, there’s the sound of a big band in the background, but it’s a deeply strange sound, without a trace of nostalgia (it’s conjured by the orchestra of Maria Schneider, surely the most inventive jazz composer alive right now). And as for the voice, it’s as uncanny as ever, but freighted with decades of experience. The song seems familiar and deeply strange at once, with an extraordinary blend of nostalgia and irony. If jazz is the “sound of surprise”, then Bowie has certainly found it.

 

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