Bowie spent ten years saying nothing, then released The Next Day on his birthday with no warning at all. The record earns the ambush. Visconti produced, the band is largely the Reality-era crew, and the writing is sharp and unsentimental, from the title track's snarl through "Where Are We Now?" looking back at Berlin without a trace of nostalgia. The defaced Heroes sleeve was the whole thesis in one image. Spread across two LPs in this 2025 remaster. Street date: July 24.