David Bowie continues exploring new territory into his old age with the kaleidoscopic avant-pop release of his new song “Tis a Pitty She Was a Whore.” Further defying classification, he also blends noir imagery with verbal minimalism on the new video for “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime).”
Following a decade of silence from the enigmatic icon, Bowie is producing at an impressive clip. Last year he released The Next Day (which made mxdwn’s list of the Best Albums of 2013 in addition to other accolades the album received). Then, toward the end of this year, Bowie released career retrospective Nothing Has Changed featuring a new song called “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime).” On top of that, Crave Online is reporting he plans to release the song as a single with a b-side–the newly released “Tis a Pitty She Was a Whore.”
The most recent development, as reported by Antiquiet, is that Bowie has released a new video for “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)” directed by Tom Hingston and Jimmy King, which you can see in full below.
Fortunately, the new songs bear witness that Bowie is far from content with reliving the golden era of his Berlin days. Take the manic, paranoid jazz of “Sue,” with lyrics cast in haunting white lights against deserted, ominously dark subways as a figure looms in the background. Though it discusses much of the same material you might find on Low, this song and video are far more menacing than the morose minimalism of his late-70s watershed.
“Tis a Pitty She Was a Whore,” on the other hand takes the warped pop aesthetic he perfected on Scary Monsters to a ludicrous extreme. The result is something akin to seeing the first Technicolor scene in the Wizard of Oz, or perhaps like dropping acid for the first time: you never imagined that so much additional detail was possible until you witnessed it for yourself. The results are an over-saturated, madcap ride, but Bowie’s graceful croon helps you traverse the frightful cacophony.
Listen to the new song “Tis a Pitty She Was a Whore” below and then watch the new video for “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime).”
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