David Bowie Teases Second Single Off New Album 'The Next Day'

DavidBowie.com

After stunning his fans on his 66th birthday with a new single, the gorgeous, down-tempo "Where Are We Now," and news of new album due in March, David Bowie's surprise return to the spotlight carries on with news of a second single, due Feb. 26.

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"The Stars (Are Out Tonight)," the third track listed on The Next Day, was teased on Bowie's official Facebook page with nothing more than a release date and the single's cover art, in which the song's title and Bowie's name are superimposed over a black-and-white photo of a metallic bust.

Bowie has so far taken a heavily artistic slant to his first music project in a decade. "Where Are We Now," a song about Bowie's years spent in Berlin in the 1970s, debuted with a conceptual video directed by Tony Oursler.

In it, the singer's face is projected onto the body of a puppet, next to another puppet featuring the face of Oursler's wife, Jacqueline Humphries.

The album's cover, too, is a bold artistic statement. Devised by British graphic designer and filmmaker Jonathan Barnbrook, the controversial record sleeve features a reproduction of the cover of Bowie's seminal album Heroes -- but the word "Heroes" is crossed out and a white box obfuscates Bowie's face. Inside the box is the album's title, printed in a drab, Helvetica-like font that Barnbrook calls "Doctrine."

"Obscuring Bowie’s image is also reference to his identity, not only in the past when he changed endlessly but that he has been absent from the music scene for the past ten years," Barnbrook explained in a blog entry about the design. 

The Next Day will be released in the U.S. on March 12.