David Bowie - "Atomica"

David Bowie surprised a lot of people when he released the album The Next Day in 2013. It had been recorded in relative secrecy and was his first album of new material in 10 years.

Soon after its release, a special “extended edition” of the album was released with eight more songs, plus two remixes. It seems a shame that the eight songs, all of which are great, were relegated to a special edition.

The following year (2014), Bowie released a two-song digital single. Paired with the eight songs we could have had a nice new album between The Next Day and Bowie’s final release Blackstar.

I titled this imagined album Atomica after one of the tracks. Since this would have been a 2014 release, I didn't arrange it like a vinyl album like I usually do with these posts. However, theoretically you could equally divide it with five songs on each side and both would be just under 20 minutes long.

1. Atomica
2. Plan
3. The Informer
4. Like a Rocket Man
5. 'Tis a Pity She was a Whore
6. Born in a UFO
7. I’ll Take You There
8. God Bless the Girl
9. So She
10. Sue (or in a Season of Crime)

The album kicks off with the title tune, and ends with “Sue (or in a Season of Crime),” which I think is a good segue since Bowie ended up re-recording it for Blackstar (as he did for “Sue” as well). Overall, I think this makes a great package of songs. I especially like “Like a Rocket Man” for its poppy sound that to my ears hearken back to Bowie’s '70s material. This album clocks in a bit under 40 minutes.

Tracks 1-4 and 6-9 are available on the extended version of The Next Day. Tracks 5 and 10 are available as a single, or the Nothing Has Changed box set.

For a cover, Bowie seems to have liked minimalist artwork for The Next Day and Blackstar so I wanted something simple. Taking a cue from the title song, I used a fallout shelter symbol and turned it 180 degrees. And the result was an unintended face, and I thought it was perfect.