It feels as much a statement as a song. Once the excitement of his unexpected return had died down, the one criticism levelled at last year’s The Next Day was that it sounded not a million miles removed from the albums that Bowie was making before he vanished. It was superior but relatively straightforward rock music: the Bowie who spent the 70s confounding expectations and leaping into the unknown had clearly left the building. The main message of Sue (in a Season of Crime) seems to be: no he hasn’t. Something about the pained vocal style recalls latterday Scott Walker, the living embodiment of the celebrated rock star who’s cut all ties with his past and fully immersed himself in the avant garde (Walker’s influence could also be detected in the dense mass of historical and literary allusions that comprised some of The Next Day’s lyrics).
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