“But still The Next Day seems the same”
While we’re on the subject of TND cover appropriation, you can see from our illustration that there have been many since the artwork was first revealed almost a year ago, on David’s 66th birthday, January 8th, 2013.
Barnbrook’s design definitely divided people, but nobody could deny the campaign itself was a masterstroke that will be remembered and referenced for a long time to come.
First off the blocks was the brilliant Nicholas Currie’s Momus who not only ran with the sleeve idea by obscuring his own Tender Pervert album, but was the first to cover a song from The Next Day when he released his version of Where Are We Now? on the same day as the Bowie version! Check it out here.
He also pre-covered The Stars (Are Out Tonight) before anybody (including Currie himself) had even heard the song. The only point of reference for Momus being the title and a life of Bowie worship.
The TND cover spoof idea quickly caught on via BuzzFeed’s Make Your Own David Bowie Album Cover, the first Velvet Underground album being the example illustrated here.
In October Belfast band, Girls Names, released their 12″ EP, The Next Life, also pictured here.
A year later you can find cover versions of every song on The Next Day on YouTube and the notion of dropping an album on the public unannounced has also been borrowed by the likes of My Bloody Valentine right through to Beyoncé most recently.
There have been other nods to The Next Day sleeve, right up to a piece in The Independent Magazine in the UK last weekend in their round up of 2013. And flattery in the form of imitation is unlikely to end there.