This was going to be a post about how brilliant the new David Bowie album is. But currently my brain hurts a lot and I can't think straight. I can't believe he's gone.
I can't write about how influential he was right now. Loads of words will be typed over the next few days and weeks about his work and his life. All I can say right now is that Bowie has been a huge part of my life, for most of my life, and at the moment I'm just stunned. So sad for Iman and their 15 year old daughter Lexi.
I can't write about how influential he was right now. Loads of words will be typed over the next few days and weeks about his work and his life. All I can say right now is that Bowie has been a huge part of my life, for most of my life, and at the moment I'm just stunned. So sad for Iman and their 15 year old daughter Lexi.
So this is from an email to friends last Friday -
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As I'd ordered David Bowie's Blackstar from Amazon they very kindly sent me the MP3 files at 1 minute after midnight last night! So I didn't get to bed till one o'clock, as I HAD to listen to it all didn't I?
Basically, it's bloody good. It's only about 40 minutes long, which is good as long albums can get a bit dull. Blackstar is anything but. It's choc full of invention and mystery and surprises and there seems to be loads to discover with every play. Best album since Scary Monsters? Nah. But best album since 1.Outside? Maybe...
The title track and "Lazarus" I already knew from the singles. "Blackstar" is majestic and epic in every way, mysterious, scary, beautiful, and stunning - the video is amazing too. Strangely though I don't know if it's the best track to open the album. It's perhaps a bit too much right at the start and at 10 minutes long it kind of overbalances the album somehow. Having said that, I can't think where else it might fit in. "Lazarus" also has a superb video which was released yesterday, which is scary and comedic in equal measure. The song is claustrophobic and dark and spooky, the opening part reminds me of Joy Division, the chorus melody stealing a little from Bowie's own "Slip Away" from Heathen, but the whole track is way more than the sum of it's influences and I love the skronking sax on the long outro. At the moment it's my favourite track on the album, though this will, I'm sure, change...
"Sue" and "Tis A Pity She Was A Whore" were released as a single over a year ago, but the album contains brand new recordings of both of these tracks, and both are better, in my opinion, than the originals, with "Sue" being especially intense. The bass on these tracks (on the whole album actually) is awesome, brilliantly recorded and played. Many reviews are banging on about Blackstar being a jazz record, but really this album isn't. It may be a jazz band playing the music, but they are playing full on rock for the most part, with "Sue" verging on drum and bass and coming across like a sort of demented Earthling out-take. Just because a song has a sax solo instead of a guitar solo doesn't automatically make it jazz! The sax on "Tis A Pity" actually reminds me of Andy Mackay's wilder exploits on early Roxy albums, and it's probably the hardest, most powerful song on the album (as well as being perhaps the most playful), although the new "Sue" rocks like a demon too.
Then we get the three brand new songs.
"Girl Loves Me" is a delightfully bonkers piece, with pseudo made up Clockwork Orange type droog speak, and that insanely catchy "where the f... did Monday go?" refrain. It reminds me in places of the ...hours era b-side "No-One Calls" which had a similar melody and a similarly woozy air about it.
"Dollar Days" is the very definition of wistful. Bowie in full on croon mode, going on about how he may never see those English evergreens again. It's almost like something from a musical, with a strangely old-fashioned, and very English, feel about it (despite the title...) It's also somehow a very sad song, though I'm not entirely sure why.
"I Can't Give Everything Away" is beautifully sung, and beautifully played and may well end up being my favourite song on the album. The verses are very short, just a couple of lines each before the soaring choruses keep crashing in. The intro nicks the harmonica tune from "A New Career In A New Town" and the outro contains a proper guitar solo which is very Frippian - lovely nods to the past (in the same way that one of the Next Day songs ended with the "Five Years" drum beat). The melody is again very theatrical, Bowie delivers the goods perfectly. As with "Dollar Days" there's something that feels very personal about this song, and something rather sad too. After The Next Day I felt that Bowie had loads more to give. After this song I wonder if he's hinting that, actually, he doesn't. I really, really hope I'm wrong but if he never records again, this would be the perfect song on which to bow out.
Basically, it's bloody good. It's only about 40 minutes long, which is good as long albums can get a bit dull. Blackstar is anything but. It's choc full of invention and mystery and surprises and there seems to be loads to discover with every play. Best album since Scary Monsters? Nah. But best album since 1.Outside? Maybe...
The title track and "Lazarus" I already knew from the singles. "Blackstar" is majestic and epic in every way, mysterious, scary, beautiful, and stunning - the video is amazing too. Strangely though I don't know if it's the best track to open the album. It's perhaps a bit too much right at the start and at 10 minutes long it kind of overbalances the album somehow. Having said that, I can't think where else it might fit in. "Lazarus" also has a superb video which was released yesterday, which is scary and comedic in equal measure. The song is claustrophobic and dark and spooky, the opening part reminds me of Joy Division, the chorus melody stealing a little from Bowie's own "Slip Away" from Heathen, but the whole track is way more than the sum of it's influences and I love the skronking sax on the long outro. At the moment it's my favourite track on the album, though this will, I'm sure, change...
"Sue" and "Tis A Pity She Was A Whore" were released as a single over a year ago, but the album contains brand new recordings of both of these tracks, and both are better, in my opinion, than the originals, with "Sue" being especially intense. The bass on these tracks (on the whole album actually) is awesome, brilliantly recorded and played. Many reviews are banging on about Blackstar being a jazz record, but really this album isn't. It may be a jazz band playing the music, but they are playing full on rock for the most part, with "Sue" verging on drum and bass and coming across like a sort of demented Earthling out-take. Just because a song has a sax solo instead of a guitar solo doesn't automatically make it jazz! The sax on "Tis A Pity" actually reminds me of Andy Mackay's wilder exploits on early Roxy albums, and it's probably the hardest, most powerful song on the album (as well as being perhaps the most playful), although the new "Sue" rocks like a demon too.
Then we get the three brand new songs.
"Girl Loves Me" is a delightfully bonkers piece, with pseudo made up Clockwork Orange type droog speak, and that insanely catchy "where the f... did Monday go?" refrain. It reminds me in places of the ...hours era b-side "No-One Calls" which had a similar melody and a similarly woozy air about it.
"Dollar Days" is the very definition of wistful. Bowie in full on croon mode, going on about how he may never see those English evergreens again. It's almost like something from a musical, with a strangely old-fashioned, and very English, feel about it (despite the title...) It's also somehow a very sad song, though I'm not entirely sure why.
"I Can't Give Everything Away" is beautifully sung, and beautifully played and may well end up being my favourite song on the album. The verses are very short, just a couple of lines each before the soaring choruses keep crashing in. The intro nicks the harmonica tune from "A New Career In A New Town" and the outro contains a proper guitar solo which is very Frippian - lovely nods to the past (in the same way that one of the Next Day songs ended with the "Five Years" drum beat). The melody is again very theatrical, Bowie delivers the goods perfectly. As with "Dollar Days" there's something that feels very personal about this song, and something rather sad too. After The Next Day I felt that Bowie had loads more to give. After this song I wonder if he's hinting that, actually, he doesn't. I really, really hope I'm wrong but if he never records again, this would be the perfect song on which to bow out.
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And how horribly right those words were. He never saw those English evergreens again... At the end of the incredible "Lazarus" video Bowie the rock star climbs back into the wardrobe. Mr Jones has put Bowie back in the box. For the last time.
David Robert Jones, devoted husband and father, died today.
But David Bowie, incredible rock legend, creator of some of the most fantastic music in the world, will live forever!
R x
