Thanks again to eljr for making a thread for the New Year in which to find and discuss brand new music!
David Bowie - Blackstar
My first new album of the New Year, and what a listen! I'm now going on my third listen since Sunday.
I don't think I can add anything really to eljr's fine summation, but at the risk of embarrassing myself, I'll try. Prefatory remark: I am a Bowie fan, but not a real "deep" one (I still have only listened to his 90's and 2000's material just once or twice for instance) and know little about his life or circumstances surrounding this release, besides some highlights I've gleaned in recent days.
Hmm...well, this has many of the hallmarks that make a classic Bowie album imo: variances from maniac intensity (often at climatic moments) to quiet and contemplative atmospheric passages, enigmatic lyrics, a driving rhythmic base to many tracks, and moments of highly emotive lyrical and musical heights that force you to stop and listen (and even become emotional given his demise and the lyrical content), all contained in an art rock/experimental type package (with some nice jazz inflection) that melds the retro and contemporary seamlessly and is mostly mid-tempo and "dark" sounding (musically, but often lyrically as well). A very interesting and compelling listen; very meaningful music. It is always fortuitous when an artist who has been around for so long, and has put out so much material, can still create such enjoyable, engaging, and relevant, music. A very fitting swan song: I don't think it's premature to call it one of the best in the history of rock n' roll.
Favorites are: Blackstar, Lazarus, and I Can't Give Everything Away (my personal favorite, very tender...and an elegiac final word imo that is quickly becoming one of my favorite all time Bowie songs).
4 1/2 out of 5 for me as well, one of his best, and I don't feel this is an over-rating due to the resultant emotion surrounding this release which can inflate such ratings (at least temporarily), but as objective of an assessment as I can muster (for instance, in listening to some of his back catalog in the last couple days, I have not come to like in any greater degree material I am ambivalent about, nor like more that which I do like already; also, I am very rarely compelled to listen to any new-to-me album 3 times in a matter of days: that by itself is a high indication that I really am fond of the material and will remain so for the foreseeable future). At the very least, this will surely hold a 4/5 for me ultimately.
Thanks for this parting gift David, and for all the great music throughout the decades.
EDIT: The
DR for this album, per the norm, on the CD is a lowly 5. I just ordered the vinyl which has a DR of 11: this one deserves it!