By Patrick Duggan
David Bowie released Blackstar, his twenty-fifth studio album, on January 8, his 69th birthday. Two days later he died after an unpublicized eighteen month battle with liver cancer. The album lingers on Bowie’s struggle with mortality, resulting in not only one of his best and most complex records to date, but also one of the most intriguing concept albums to come out of the 21st century so far. Focused but never obvious, Blackstar shows Bowie offering a fascinatingly cryptic lyrical approach in tandem with a hyper-modern, jazz inflected atmosphere, maintaining his relevancy as an artist right up to the end of The production on Blackstar is crystal clear, richly textured, and often heavily reflective of Flying
Lotus’s fusion-inspired Brainfeeder collective.The jazz influences bursting out of current hip-hop and electronic music make a strong appearance in the songwriting here, defining the overarching aesthetic of the record. All seven songs are built on skeletal drum and bass grooves and decorated in horns and
subtle synth lines. Saxophonist Donny McCaslin offers searing solo work on almost every song, and percussionist Mark Guiliana provides consistently interesting and rhythmically complex beats for the entire album. Tonally, the compositions swing between Bowie’s signature soul-driven melodies and an
abstract, atmospheric melancholy entirely new to his repertoire. The eponymous first track is the best example of this dualism, drifting through coffee house poetry and jazz musicianship before shifting into rock balladry mid-song.
Bowie’s lyrics revel in cryptic imagery and symbolism, often meditating on the devil and the afterlife. However layered and sub-textual the poetry gets, Bowie’s struggle with impending doom is clearly communicated. However, amidst the tragedy surrounding the record and woven into the writing, there’s a strong sense of hope here that translates through the sincerity of Bowie’s worn, fragile voice.
The unexplainably moving nature of the music is undeniably similar to that of Radiohead’s In Rainbows; both records seem to create pathos through very similar technique. Regardless, the circumstances that govern the heart of Blackstar set it apart not only from its stylistic peers but from most any music being produced in the modern rock scene. It’s a rare thing to see a great artist narrate his journey through death in his final work. David Bowie’s demise marks the departure of one of rock and roll’s most iconic and influential figures. His brilliance has often shone brightest through his honest exposure of his own soul, and that courage returns in full-force on Blackstar in one of the most riveting finales in rock history. Bowie may have passed the peak of his popularity decades ago, but he signed off as a rock star who truly gave both his life and his death to the arts.