` ` The Last Time '' is David Bowie 's first new album in five years . It was n't due to hit stores until March 2012 , but it 's now streaming on iTunes . Through all of his alternate guises — space alien , drugged-out cartoon , machine-obsessed private detective , guy who just discovered the Pixies — he 's maintained a spectacularly consistent inconsistency , and while not all of it has worked , at least we always knew that another character was following right behind . Bowie 's 26th album finds him vacillating between forward - looking restlessness and outright nostalgia .
` ` The Last Time '' is David Bowie 's first new album in five years . It was n't due to hit stores until March 2012 , but it 's now streaming on iTunes . Bowie 's 26th album finds him vacillating between forward - looking restlessness and outright nostalgia .