Latter-day Bowie material

[moom]

The Next Day? Blackstar? Your thoughts.

The new single, Blackstar, is... man... otherworldly!

[Jimi Dean Barrett]

I love stuff like "Valentine's Day" and a lot from "The Next Day".
"Sue" was quite odd but nothing too out there. But "Blackstar"? Odd, but still with a beat, still with his commercial streak, only distorted into wonderful shapes.
I'm looking forward to "Blackstar".

[twcc]

Initially I thought Space Oddity part 3 and then I picked up a Laurie Anderson influence and it occurred to me, could this be a sort of Lou Reed 'tribute' ??

[moom]

Really, Blackstar the single is something otherworldly, that's how I feel every time I listen to it. Not for everyone on first listen, it's a grower; though you can definitely trace older Bowie on it several times.

[Jimi Dean Barrett]

Got the Blackstar album today and it's got me from 45 second in!

[Hudini]

The whole album is extraordinary. I got it on Friday and listened to it several times throughout the weekend, but in the light of this morning's sad news I understand it in a completely different way. This is the work of a man who was fully aware it would be his final artistic statement and who put everything he had in it, and it clearly shows. Even if it wasn't his last musical effort, it still would have been his best album in a long, long time. 'Lazarus' and 'I Can't Give Everything Away' are particularly haunting with the new perspective of hearing them. Coming to terms with one's own mortality is one thing, being face to face with death and accepting it is something completely inconceivable to most of us at this moment.

[twcc]

^^^
Well said.

I heard an element of tribute in the album but thought it was aimed at colleagues and friends that had passed, such as Lou Reed. I now realise that the new music was the work of a man fully aware of his own demise and the material (difficult to describe as tracks or songs) is really a final statement. Even the name and 'black star' symbol now has added meaning.

[BertWW96]

DB never stopped being a true artist; he never just "went into the studio." There was always a point.

[moom]

On Rate Your Music Blackstar is the first bolded* studio album since Scary Monsters! Current rating score - 3,99, with just under 3,000 ratings, which also makes it the first such highly-rated DB studio album since "Heroes"! The rating score has jumped 0,22 points since David's passing, which I don't think has ever happened on RYM before; normally they jump about 0,02-0,04 points (and that's if they jump), like the latest Kendrick Lamar release did.
The album page.

*Bolded release title on RYM means the release is widely acclaimed, considered a classic. Non-bolded releases are written in standard.
I've been an RYM user for about 6,5 years now.

[twcc]

^^^
Impressive jump

An observation about the review from 'mene' ... surely it was obvious that the small stars spell out a stylised B O W I E

OFF TOPIC -

There are few people in this world where one word (one name) sums them up, I can think of a few ... Bowie, Ali, Mandela, Lennon, Pele

[moom]

^^^
Impressive jump

An observation about the review from 'mene' ... surely it was obvious that the small stars spell out a stylised B O W I E

OFF TOPIC -

There are few people in this world where one word (one name) sums them up, I can think of a few ... Bowie, Ali, Mandela, Lennon, Pele

1. It's at 4,00 now Do you use RYM, twcc?
2. Some people couldn't read "Bowie" out of those symbols XD At first it wasn't obvious to me either, but I "got it" pretty soon.
3. These names could even be converted to symbolic words: "man, this is so bowie!"

[kjek1]

Blackstar is fantastic, now there's a guy who is capable of really mixing it up, and doing it to great effect (with regards to our convo on Gilmour's "Yellow Dress"). I'm happy for artists to do what they do best, but when you're a creative force like Bowie and you can change and do it with great quality and orignality that is fantastic.

The song Lazarus witht he accompanying video is incredible powerful in hindsight now. The title track is fantastic, as the OP said, otherworldly.