New David Bowie video: “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)”

After so many years away from the public eye (and so many years after I’ve uttered such a phrase, and not in this digital medium), it feels downright strange to type “here’s a new Bowie video, from his soon-to-be-released album.” But well, here it is. Called “The Stars (Are Out Tonight),” it’s both disturbing and hilarious. A man who is happily (boringly?) settled into a comfortable though uneventful life is besieged by fashionably dressed stalkers. Though of course in Bowie’s case, these are fashionista monsters of his own making. His wife is portrayed by Tilda Swinton, and Norwegian model Iselin Steiro does a dead-on reading of a young ‘Thin White Duke.’ Keeping with the whole androgynous theme, models Andrej Pejić and Saskia de Brauw play the stalker couple. Just brilliant.

“Stars are never sleeping / dead ones and the living // We will never be rid of these stars / but I hope they live forever.”