★
A haunting, jazz-infused final statement recorded in secret. Dense textures, skittering drums, and a voice confronting the infinite with theatrical grace.
January 8, 2016 · Columbia
A haunting, jazz-infused final statement recorded in secret. Dense textures, skittering drums, and a voice confronting the infinite with theatrical grace.
January 8, 2016 · Columbia
Skittering jazz percussion and wailing woodwinds rattle like dry leaves across concrete, pulling the curtain down on a career defined by restless reinvention. This dark, ritualistic transmission trades the guitar-heavy structures of the immediate past for a fluid, gravity-defying orbit of brooding studio improvisation and pristine, murky electronics. The performance balances a fragile, whispering vocal delivery against a commanding theatricality, transforming a quiet confrontation with mortality into an incredibly alive, stargazing art-pop statement.
“You have to assume Bowie is tackling myriad theatrical voices as Blackstar throws up one unsettling scenario after another, with little obvious connection other than unease and the outrageously good soundtrack in which they are set”Read review
“Bowie’s joy in emphasizing the art in art-pop is palpable and its elegant, unhurried march resonates deeply”Read review
“The most extreme album of his entire career: Blackstar is as far as he’s strayed from pop”Read review
“A puzzle begging for examination, and a solidly unique work from an artist who is no stranger to breaking boundaries”Read review
“Though this mix of jazz, malice, and historical role-play is intoxicating, Blackstar becomes whole with its two-song denouement, which balances out the bruises and blood with a couple of salty tears”Read review
“With its simple (though oblique) lyrics and endlessly repeated choruses, it’s a secret pop record submerged in the dark places of studio improvisation”Read review
“Bowie’s best anti-pop masterpiece since the Seventies”Read review
“It’s a defining statement from someone who isn’t interested in living in the past, but rather, for the first time in a while, waiting for everyone else to catch up”Read review
“Blackstar finds Bowie and longtime producer Tony Visconti as hungry as they ever were, and with no modern context into which the artist can insert himself (including rock) he’s free to do what he likes”Read review
“One of the few certainties we can take from this restless, relentlessly intriguing album is that David Bowie is positively allergic to the idea of heritage rock”Read review
“The ballad Dollar Days is the softest, most classically Bowie moment, but even more Bowie is the way his grand sense of alienation comes through so recognizably in new musical terrain”Read review
“His lyrics and vocals are oblique and otherworldly, freed from the shackles of indie rock”Read review
How does ★ sound next to the rest of David Bowie's catalogue?
A heavy midnight atmosphere wraps these compositions in an impenetrable, velvety darkness that feels entirely distinct from the bright theatricality of his earlier eras.
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