Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Bowie, David
Label: Columbia Records
Release: 2016
Length: 41:13
Rating: 5/5
On January 10, 2016, the world was suddenly shaken by the news that David Robert Jones, who spent most of his life far better known under the stage name David Bowie, was gone for good. He died just two days after the release of his new studio album »Blackstar« and two days after his sixty-ninth birthday. Over more than four decades of music-making, generations knew Bowie by the names of his invented personas too, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and the Thin White Duke, because David kept ‘regenerating’ himself in ever-new sonic and visual guises. Nobody expected the final farewell of one of the greatest musical innovators and artistic icons of all time at the start of 2016, nobody except him and his closest family, so plenty of fans didn’t believe the news at first and figured it was a pretty bad joke. Sadly, the news was true and finally confirmed, and the music world wrapped itself in darkness for a while.
According to longtime collaborator, the famed producer Tony Visconti, who once again helped out with the brilliant production, David was well aware of his approaching end while recording »Blackstar«. No wonder, then, that the lion’s share of the lyrics deals with realizing and accepting his own mortality, while most of the compositions come wrapped in pretty gloomy, shockingly cold ambient. On »Blackstar«, one of his most experimental efforts ever, David went back, at least partly, for inspiration to his unforgettable Berlin trilogy of albums, soaked in krautrock and electronics, even though there are plenty of avant-garde and jazzy moments here too, plus a whole galaxy of art rock sonic finesse. You can draw a few parallels with the album »Station to Station« (1976) as well, which was also one of his most experimental achievements.
In the structure of its individual pieces and its ambient nature, »Blackstar« couldn’t be more different from its predecessor »The Next Day« (2013), the album with which Bowie, who last appeared on stage in 2006 for a charity performance, returned to the music scene after a ten-year break. The title track, which came out as the first single from the album and was also used in the TV series ‘The Last Panthers’, runs almost ten minutes, making it the second-longest piece of Bowie’s career (the classic »Station to Station« is a little over ten minutes long) and one of his most experimental too. The chillingly cold, dark atmosphere, in which the music icon faces his approaching farewell, hits the listener right in the gut, while somewhere around the middle it picks up brighter, more ethereal ambient shades. It’s also great to hear that the saxophones, which he loved so much especially in the seventies, came back into David’s music near the end of his road.
»Tis a Pity She Was a Whore« is ruled by jazz-rock electronics, fueled by black humor in the lyrics, which didn’t desert Bowie even in his final days. The end result is yet another excellent composition, where avant-garde experimentation, with a bunch of fun improvisational bits, is combined with a direct message and a playful chorus. »Lazarus«, which came out as the last single from the album, is basically Bowie’s personal epitaph. The chillingly dark mood returns here with melancholic arrangements, amplified even further by David’s poignant singing, as the lyrics say goodbye to ‘earthly’ life. The accompanying video, in which Bowie was filmed on his deathbed, was especially harrowing. »Sue (Or In a Season Of Crime)«, an experimental cut loose between avant-garde, electronics and jazz, features an accompanying orchestra and is some of the most avant-garde stuff David made since the end of the seventies. The slightly paranoid »Girl Loves Me« continues the gloomy mood of the previous piece, while a lovely orchestral arrangement softens its largely avant-garde nature.
»Dollar Days« is a beautiful but extremely sad ballad with acoustic guitar, saxophone and piano up front, reminiscent of some of David’s ballads from the seventies. The wistful mood returns as David says goodbye to us once more. The last track on the album, »I Can’t Give Everything Away«, which fits the definition of a pop song in Bowie’s recognizable style better than anything else on the record, makes for an exceptionally beautiful close to a magnificent musical career. Here the atmosphere is no longer sad but uplifting and liberating, thanks to a wonderful orchestral arrangement and one more, final, heart-wrenching vocal confession, where you can feel that David is already preparing for his journey to the ‘other side’.
With »Blackstar« as his final farewell, David Bowie gave his followers a masterpiece, one that stands shoulder to shoulder with the best of his incredibly rich, many-layered artistic career. Even at the very end, Bowie stayed true to himself and, with a grand finale, confirmed his reputation as the eternal sonic visionary and musical ‘spaceman’, one who has had no equal for a long time. According to Visconti, the eternal musical chameleon hoped until the last that he’d be granted at least a few more months, since he had already managed to record some demo material for a potential ‘post-Blackstar’ album. There’s probably no need to even guess that, with the huge surge of interest in David’s music that followed his death, this material will sooner or later get an official release too. The legend of David Bowie goes on.
Line-up
David Bowie – vocals, acoustic guitar, production, string arrangements, harmonica on “I Can’t Give Everything Away”
Donny McCaslin – flute, saxophone, woodwinds
Ben Monder – guitar
Jason Lindner- keyboards
Tim Lefebvre – bass guitar
Mark Guiliana – drums, percussion
Erin Tonkon – backing vocals on “Tis a Pity She Was a Whore”
Tony Visconti – production, string arrangements, sound engineer
James Murphy – percussion on “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)” and “Girl Loves Me”
Production
David Bowie and Tony Visconti
Track list
1. Blackstar (9:57)
2. Tis a Pity She Was a Whore (4:52)
3. Lazarus (6:22)
4. Sue (Or in a Season of Crime) (4:40)
5. Girl Loves Me (4:51)
6. Dollar Days (4:44)
7. I Can’t Give Everything Away (5:47)
