Bowie's back

I have to say, I'd kind of assumed David Bowie had retired. After 1995's 1. Outside - if not one of his greatest ever albums, then certainly up there with the likes of Man Who Sold The World and Lodger in the very creditable second tier - we'd had four LPs that were good but rarely great (Earthling, 'Hours...', Heathen and Reality) until a heart attack in 2004, whereby Bowie proceeded to disappear from public view save for the odd phone-call on the Jonathan Ross Radio 2 show (when that was still going) and a cameo in Series 2 of Ricky Gervais's Extras. I'd assumed that he was taking it easy on doctor's orders, or maybe that he was 'doing a Beefheart' and pursuing his painting career.

But whaddya know? Out of the blue up pops "Where Are We Now?" sounding rather like the opposite of an out-take from 'Hours...' (in that it sounds like it would have considerably lifted the quality of that album if it had been included in preference to some of the cuts that did in fact make it onto the record). If the forthcoming album (to be released in March) is up to this standard it'll certainly be a great comeback. Nice effort from the man who was "Dave" before our present pinhead weasel of a PM was even born.