I don’t what’s stranger in David Bowie’s brand new video for “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)": the concept of David Bowie and his wife, played by Tilda Swinton, being taken over by some blend of aliens tabloid stars and their former selves or the images of Bowie as some regular old husband trotting down to the grocery store with his wife.

[More after the jump...]

Regardless, there’s lots and lots of strange stuff going on in the clip, directed by Floria Sigismondi from body switching to possession to enough weird stuff to spend hours digesting.  For example, even though she’s female, is the young redhead supposed to represent the androgynous earlier Bowie? Is it all a play on the different meaning of the work "stars," or is it simply as the neighbor says, “Some people, huh, they just get lost.”

Anyway, while we contemplate all of that, the bigger news is that “The Stars” is the second single from Bowie’s upcoming album, “The Next Day,” following the languid “Where Are We Now” and it couldn’t be more different.

Mid tempo and intense, the rocker sounds much more like the Bowie most of us are used to: moody and atmospheric, but also catchy.

“The Next Day” comes out March 12.

What do you think of “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)?”