With The Next Day due in the coming fortnight, David Bowie has unveiled the second single from the record, ‘The Stars (Are Out Tonight)’.

Producer Tony Visconti had previously suggested that the spectral ‘Where Are We Now?’ was relatively unrepresentative of the record, promising “quite a rock album”. Correspondingly, new single  ‘The Stars (Are Out Tonight)’ is a swaggering rock track, led by a quavering Bowie vocal.

Floria Sigismondi’s video sees Bowie in full acting mode, playing off against the wonderful We Need To Talk About Kevin actress Tilda Swinton. The pair play a docile couple tormented by a pair of phantasmagoric celebrity rockers. The antagonists bear a noticeable resemblance to various iterations of Bowie of yore, continuing The Next Day‘s obvious thematic fascination with looking back and growing older.

Bowie will release ‘The Stars (Are Out Tonight)’, on February 26. The Next Day, meanwhile, is due on March 11; the tracklisting is below. Bowie’s guitarist Gerry Leonard has suggested that there is a “50-50” chance the singer will tour off the back of The Next Day. Beck, meanwhile, recently reimagined Bowie’s ‘Sound And Vision’ with a 157-piece orchestra.