Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	81/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
The A.V. Club	A−
The Daily Telegraph
Entertainment Weekly	B
The Guardian
The Independent
NME	8/10
Pitchfork Media	7.6/10
Rolling Stone
Spin	5/10

The Next Day is the twenty-fourth studio album by musician David Bowie, released on 8 March 2013 on his ISO Records label, under exclusive licence to Columbia Records. The album was announced on Bowie's 66th birthday, 8 January 2013. Bowie's website was updated with the video for the lead single, "Where Are We Now?", and the single was immediately made available for purchase on the iTunes Store.

It was Bowie's first album of new material in ten years, since 2003's Reality, and surprised fans and media who believed he had retired. The album was streamed in its entirety on iTunes days before its official release.The Next Day Extra, an additional disc featuring four more tracks, and remixes of songs from the original album, was released in November.The Next Day was met with critical acclaim, and earned Bowie his first number-one album in the United Kingdom since 1993's Black Tie White Noise. It was ranked as the second best album of 2013 (in a tie with Blue October's Sway) by German music magazine and was also nominated for the 2013 Mercury Prize. The album was nominated for Best Rock Album at the 2014 Grammy Awards and for MasterCard British Album of the Year at the 2014 BRIT Awards.

Recording of the album took place at The Magic Shop and Human Worldwide Studios in New York City. Bowie and producer Tony Visconti worked in secret alongside long-term engineer Mario J. McNulty, recording the album over a two-year period. The recording sessions were sporadic, and Visconti estimated that only three full months were spent demoing and recording material. Visconti recalled that the album began with a one-week recording session:

Sterling Campbell was on drums, I was on bass, David was on keyboards, Gerry Leonard was on guitar. By the end of five days we had demoed up a dozen songs. Just structures. No lyrics, no melodies and all working titles. This is how everything begins with him. Then he took them home and we didn't hear another thing from him for four months.

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Wikipedia