I’m pretty sure I had never seen this video before coming across it yesterday. I did previously comment on “Slow Burn.” You can read those comments and watch the video I included at the time, of Bowie performing the song live. But this is an official video. Apparently, despite the song being released (and nominated for a Grammy) in 2002 as part of the Heathen album, this full video wasn’t released until 2011. Despite being well received by critics and despite the album being a commercial and critical success, “Slow Burn” did poorly as a single, so the plug was pulled on promoting the song perhaps earlier than Bowie imagined.

As a genuine Bowie video that I had never seen before, I consider this to be a personal find. That said, its not an especially innovative video. The most interesting aspect of it is the appearance of a space suit that seems similar to others that appeared in other Bowie videos, most notably “Blackstar” (Bowie himself appeared in a vaguely similar spacesuit in the original “Space Oddity” video). There’s also some other space imagery at the end. This is interesting but a little gratuitous, as there is no obvious connection between this song and space. But maybe I’m missing something.

The other thing I find somewhat interesting is that Bowie managed to use a dance movie I remember him always doing in concert in this video. Its the moment where he kind of slithers. It takes a second, but is a very Bowie move.

I don’t know that the video adds to the meaning of the song, which I very much like, but again, it is new to me and that’s great!