Thought to be retired from music and the public eye, David Bowie tonight announced he will release The Next Day — his first new album in a decade —next March, a collection preceded by the single “Where Are We Now?” that’s available immediately via iTunes and can be heard via its accompanying video.

Long-running darkwave favorites Clan of Xymox — still centered around founding member Ronny Moorings — this fall will pay tribute to some of its own favorite bands with a collection called ‘Kindred Spirits’ that will feature covers of tracks by The Cure, Depeche Mode, Siouxsie and the Banshees and both Joy Division and New Order.

The series launched this summer, and, so far, titles are available on Joy Division/New Order, The Smiths, Cocteau Twins and David Bowie. Next month sees publication of a title on Kate Bush, with books due in spring and summer 2013 on Abba, My Bloody Valentine, Kraftwerk, PIxies, R.E.M. and Roxy Music.

In this week’s link round-up we find Lloyd Cole writing about David Bowie’s ‘Low,’ plus interviews with Jim Reid of the recently reunited Jesus and Mary Chain, Ivan Doroschuk of Men Without Hats, Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger of The Beat (aka The English Beat) and New Wave piano man Joe Jackson.

This week’s new releases include the first new album in 27 years from Dexys Midnight Runners (now named Dexys), plus reissues from David Bowie (‘Ziggy Stardust’), Propaganda (‘Wishful Thinking’), Germs (‘GI’) and Bob Mould’s Sugar (‘Beaster’), as well as a new collection of Ministry remixes and covers.

The Cure tonight played the first of at least 19 European festival dates on the books this summer, and Robert Smith had a little secret to reveal at Holland’s famed Pinkpop Festival: new guitarist Reeves Gabrels, a former David Bowie collaborator who previously recorded with Smith in the late ’90s.