B-side "Where Are We Now?" Genre Alternative rock | Format 7"
digital download Length 3:57 | |
Released 25 February 2013 (2013-02-25) Recorded The Magic Shop
(New York, New York) | ||
"The Stars (Are Out Tonight)" is a song by English musician David Bowie; it serves as the second single from his twenty-fourth studio album The Next Day. The song's official music video was released on 25 February 2013 and the song itself was released for digital download the following day. In the UK it joined BBC Radio 2's Playlist in the B list in March 2013, "The Next Day" was also the album on the week beginning 11 March, the week in which it was released. The song was released with "Where Are We Now?" – the album's first single – on a limited edition 7" 45 vinyl record on 20 April 2013 in celebration of Record Store Day. In December 2013 the song was nominated for a 2014 Grammy Award in the category 'Best Rock Performance'.
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Composition and reception
According to Rolling Stone's Eric B. Danton, "the song starts with a slow, heavy backbeat and guttural guitar that dissolve into a propulsive bassline topped with shards of guitar and atmospheric synthesizers, for an effect reminiscent of vintage Bowie."
Andrew Trendell of Gigwise described the song as a "fierce but vibrant classic Bowie rocker in the vein of material from the brilliant ‘Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)’," while Billboard critic Eric B. Danton interpreted it as "a return to alternative rock for Bowie."
Music video
The official music video for the song premiered on 25 February 2013, and was made by Canadian director Floria Sigismondi. It stars Bowie and English actress Tilda Swinton as his wife. Andreja Pejić plays one of the "stars" and Saskia de Brauw plays the other. The Norwegian model Iselin Steiro plays the young Bowie.