David Bowie – Blackstar (Album Review)

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He’s back! Three years after setting hearts a-flutter with his first new music in a decade, David Bowie returns with his latest opus, titled Blackstar. While 2013’s The Next Day satisfied fans just by merely existing, Blackstar seems intent on making the listener both uncomfortable and fulfilled, forcing him or her to follow the artist into previously unchartered territory while simultaneously touching on past glories.

David Bowie has such a diverse and rich legacy that it’s almost impossible not to listen to his new music without being at least vaguely reminded of something he’s done before. And while Bowie seems to be adamantly putting the past behind him with this album, there are still a few reminders of what has come before…I hear snippets of his 1970s Berlin trilogy, Black Tie, White Noise, Outside, Station To Station, Scary Monsters, even a bit of Ziggy Stardust…but mostly, this is Bowie as we’ve never heard him before.

The first track to be released, and the first one on the album, is the ten minute title track. It is by far and away the most challenging of the seven songs. It’s as if Bowie has thrown this out, daring fans to digest it. The song has two distinct sections, the first of which is repeated. It begins with a dark, ominous mix of strings and synths as Bowie sings in a high, quavering voice, “In the villa of Oman” as Mark Guiliana’s drums skitter behind him. Indeed Guiliana’s drums, along with Donny McCaslin’s saxophone set the main musical tone of this record. After a few minutes, Bowie segues into a more melodic mode, singing “Something happened on the day he died” in a higher-pitched voice that sounds like the Bowie of the late 1960s.

Tony Visconti’s production is impeccable combining electronic beats, treated vocals, horns, drums and strings to form an ever-intriguing piece that reveals more with each listen.

I, like most people, experienced this song initially while watching Bowie’s strange, unsettling video, but I find I enjoy the track much more on its own than with the visuals.

Like Station To Station, which he released 40 years ago, Bowie offers up the longest and most complex track first, then rewards the listener with the immediate gratification of more traditional fare. With Station To Station it was Golden Years and TVC15, with Blackstar its Tis A Pity She Was A Whore and Lazarus. The former song had been previously released in a different, more discordant form in 2014. This time around, Bowie gives the song a smooth groove as McCaslin’s sax flutters throughout the track. Bowie slips easily into falsetto, offering up some of his most soulful singing on the record. Meanwhile Mark Guiliana propels the tune with a relentless drum beat.

This is followed by the latest single and video, Lazarus, easily the most accessible track on the album. It begins with a bit of post-punk guitar and a sparse drum beat, recalling Joy Division’s bleak sound, but then McCaslin blows a beautifully sensuous sax track while bassist Tim Lefebvre lays down an equally seductive bass line. The song features some of Bowie’s most personal lyrics…”I’m in danger…I’ve got nothing left to lose”, although one never knows if Bowie is referring to himself or playing a part. This song is part of a play of the same name being performed in New York and starring Dexter’s Michael C Hall, so it’s most likely the latter.

Next is another song to have had its premiere in 2014. Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime) gets a much more intense reworking with Guiliana’s frenetic drumming leading the way as guitars lay down an updated blues-rock riff. The track builds and builds with sax and assorted synths joining in to create quite a big noise by the time it comes to a screeching halt.

Girl Loves Me, with its lyrics derived from English gay slang from the 1950s, is next, and despite its interesting lyrical content, turns out to be the least interesting, musically. It features a big, lumbering beat that never takes off and, I should note, percussion from LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy. No one, not even Bowie, is perfect and this tune, while acceptable, doesn’t really do much for me.

The album closes with two more conventional-sounding songs that segue into each other. First is Dollar Days, featuring a mellower vibe than most of the previous tracks and another fine Bowie vocal performance. Keyboard player Jason Lindner gets a chance to shine here, although I found myself wishing that veteran Bowie pianist Mike Garson was on board to add some of his magic to the track.

Finally, we have I Can’t Give Everything Away, another more conventional tune with a strong melody. In fact, it seems to me that Bowie may have borrowed the tune from Ziggy Stardust’s Soul Love. No matter, it’s a lovely way to wrap things up…a sleek, enjoyable track with McCaslin’s slightly jazzy sax throughout.

So that’s it. I’ve listened to the album several times under varying circumstances and found myself enjoying it more with every spin. It seemed daunting at first, but I remember feeling the same way the first time I heard Station To Station, Low and The Man Who Sold The World and they all number among my favourite albums. Time will tell if that’s the case with Blackstar.

Marty Duda

Watch the video for Lazarus here:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-JqH1M4Ya8]

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