Day 173 | Something in the Air

Bowie would often include a song on one album that tipped his hand out what would be on the next. To me, “Queen Bitch” sounds like it would have been at home on Ziggy Stardust instead of Hunky Dory, “1984,” despite its subject matter would have musically fit on Young Americans, “The Secret Life of Arabia” from ‘Heroes’ is thematically similar to many of the songs on Lodger. Along those lines, “Something in the Air” portends Heathen. This is a song that, to me sounds better standing alone than on the rest of the album. It is atmospheric and vaguely anxious. The title alone is foreboding. And, much as Heathen coincidently struck the right tone post-9/11, “Something in the Air” was something of a canary in a coal mine in 1999, before a series of really bad stuff began happening. That said, the lyrics suggest that the song is actually about a personal relationship, but I read it as having a double, more metaphorical meaning. The “you” that the narrator has “danced with” too long might not be a person at all, but an era. Album: Hours