JUST when you thought it was all over, and the turgid, pompous mess of 1999's "...hours" had finally whacked some hefty nails into the coffin of David Bowie's declining talents, pop's original changeling confuses his public yet again - by making a good record.

The man to be thankful to is Bowie's collaborator from his creative heyday, legendary producer Tony Visconti, who brings clarity and direction to the sound without it ever becoming a backwards-looking rehash of the past.

Bowie's voice is to the front of the mix and full of confidence, poise, and even that great rarity in late Bowie records - melody.

On opening track Sunday, he croons in his Scott Walker filled-with-cosmic-dread voice.

Elsewhere, he nods to art rockers new and old - covering The Pixies' track Cactus, drafting in Foo Fighters/Nirvana man Dave Grohl to riff it up on a heavy version of Neil Young's I've Been Waiting For You. And the bad-tempered squall of guitar at the start of Slow Burn may sound like Bowie's usual guitar-torturing henchman Reeves Gabrels, but is actually The Who's Pete Townshend letting rip, while the song itself has more than a hint of Heroes about it. There's even a sense of self-parody on the early highlight Slip Away, where he sings "in space it's always 1982 - a joke we always knew" - surely Bowie sending up the fact that his futurism will always have a vague whiff of Eighties synthesisers and general pretentiousness about it.

The songs are still a rung below greatness, but if you're a fan who has not seen a reason to buy a new Bowie record for a good many years, then this enjoyable, accessible - if patchy - outing is definitely worth investigating.

Updated: 11:38 Thursday, June 20, 2002