The Next Day is the twenty-fourth studio album by David Bowie. The album was announced on January 8th, 2013, Bowie's sixty-sixth birthday. It is 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 Next Day Extra, an additional disc featuring four more tracks, and remixes of songs from the original album, was released eight months later in November. The Next Day was met with critical acclaim, and earned Bowie his first number-one album in the UK since 1993's Black Tie White Noise. The cover art for the album is an adapted version of Bowie's 1977 album, "Heroes". Designed by Jonathan Barnbrook, who also designed packaging for Heathen and Reality, the obscuring of the photograph connotes "forgetting or obliterating the past". Barnbrook explained the cover, saying: "If you are going to subvert an album by David Bowie there are many to choose from but this is one of his most revered, it had to be an image that would really jar if it were subverted in some way and we thought "Heroes" worked best on all counts." - The Next Day is the twenty-fourth studio album by David Bowie. The album was announced on January 8th, 2013, Bowie's sixty-sixth birthday. It is 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 Next Day Extra, an additional disc featuring four more tracks, and remixes of songs from the original album, was released eight months later in November. The Next Day was met with critical acclaim