Day 269 | Win

This is another song that sounds better on its own rather than on the album, amidst a string of slow ballads (most of which have single-word titles). For a long time I thought this was a case against someone thinking about suicide: “I say it’s hip to be alive… Now your smile is spreading thin…Seems you’re trying not to lose (it ain’t over, no no)…All you’ve got to do is win (it ain’t over, no, oh)”. I’ve read another interpretation, that the song is one half of a dialogue from a couple’s argument of sorts, in which both parties are trying to “win” rather than reconcile. Either way it is a more complex song than it comes off at first. Beck did a stripped down cover that reveals more of the song’s strengths than Bowie’s bigger production. Album: Young Americans