Today I bought this:

The photo isn’t great, but does show the inner sleeves which I love. The CD is included too.

I’ve listened to it twice through now, and I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a new Bowie album this much since Outside. A lot of the tone takes me back to Outside actually, although there are nods to his whole career, all the way back to the Arnold Corns stuff. The title track sounds a lot like Repetition from Lodger, Valentine’s Day has a shade of Hunky Dory, Heat and The Plan have strong instrumental overtones from the Berlin Trilogy albums.

This all makes the choice of “Where are we now?” for the first single all the more baffling; it’s insipid, ‘Hours…’-era pedestrian stuff, and possibly the weakest song on the whole album. I wonder if it’s some sort of practical joke.

Anyway, I thought I was going to hate it. Turns out I tolerated it. And when I say tolerated, I actually quite liked it. It’s got a good beat.