Will David Bowie Let Us Down?

The cover photograph of David Bowie's new album, Never Let Me Down, shows the musician frantically jumping forward. Flying a few feet above the floor overtaken by some strange circus scene, Bowie’s dry brown pompadour tumbles to the side as his arms reach out to you... desperately.

The record is Bowie’s first since 1984’s ill-received Tonight, and he now seems somewhat anxious to grab back that egosatisfying mass adulation he experienced after releasing the multi-million-seller Let’s Dance. But it’s difficult to produce the kind of commercial sounds that make hit singles, while also remaining substantial enough to get your picture on the cover of Time. So Bowie, whose long career has helped define such genres as glam rock, blue-eyed soul and moody synthesized pop, dug into his past for this new album.