David Bowie - Blackstar review: 'Bowie’s latest renaissance is in full swing'

Bowie's 25th album moves into experimental territory
Number 25: David Bowie is back with Black Star
Richard Godwin4 August 2016

The camera turns on David Bowie’s 25th album mid-scene. Sighing woodwinds give way to the mournful old-man voice familiar from his surprise comeback, The Next Day (2013), describing the “Villa of Amen” in the centre of which stands a “solitary candle”, plus assorted apocalyptic ephemera.

It’s like the opening of an Ingmar Bergman film or perhaps Scott Walker’s later work — and certainly nothing like rock ’n’ roll, which long-time producer Tony Visconti has said is precisely the intention.

It’s all gracefully baffling: “I used up all my money/ I was looking for your ass”, he informs us on Lazarus — but it’s also creepingly absorbing, if you allow it. The opening track evolves over 10 minutes into something approaching a knees-up, while Dollar Days and I Can’t Give Everything Away are elegaic and insistent.

The New York jazz group, the Donny McCaslin Quartet, provide supple and sympathetic backing throughout — drummer Mark Guiliana is notably excellent. At 69 (happy birthday!) Bowie’s latest renaissance is in full swing.

(RCA).

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