Anticipate David Bowie's BLACKSTAR

I couldn't get past how many terrible rock songs TND had. The one in which he yelled through clenched teeth that she'd NEVER BEEE THE BOSS OF MEEEEE made me laugh for days.

That's a lot of laughing!

this is so wild!

crap this is cool

Great song. I wish the drums were lower in the mix though

Atvlong last a great Bowie record.probably.

My goodness his voice sounds good. If he's not touring so as not to trash his instrument, he can keep on not touring.

The clip's somehow referencing ergotism, right?

I thonk he don't do interviews as well anymore

Nor do I

"Finally, doing the Scott Walker album I wanted to do!"

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 24 October 2015 18:16 (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hah, just looking at the album title and off the back of Sue, this is exactly what I was thinking before I even clicked the thread.

First 4 minutes > last 4 minutes > middle 3 minutes. Brilliant video though.

first 4 minutes percussion reminded me of Björk's Hunter tbh

I thought there was a bit of a Kid A/Amnesiac era Radiohead vibe crossed with the David Bowie from Labyrinth growing old and crossing over with Pan's Labyrinth. Was pretty strange to see it by accident on Sky Arts.

Okay HERE'S something funny -- turns out the director of the video, Johan Renck, who has also directed a lot of other things of late, including the TV series Bowie's done a song for...is none other than Stakka Bo. Really.

https://vimeo.com/70208312

Via Wikipedia, more of his resume:

"He has directed music videos for a number of artists including Madonna's "Hung Up" and "Nothing Really Matters", Kylie Minogue's "Love at First Sight", All Saints' "Black Coffee", Robyn's "Handle Me", Robbie Williams's "Tripping" and "She's Madonna", The Libertines' "What Became of the Likely Lads", Suede's "She's in Fashion", New Order's "Crystal" and "Krafty", Beyoncé's "Me, Myself and I", Chris Cornell's "Can't Change Me", The Knife's "Pass This On", Fever Ray's "Seven" and Bat for Lashes' "Daniel".[4] In 2012 he directed the music video "Blue Velvet" for Lana Del Rey which was also used for the commercial campaign by H&M, as well as the music video for "Wild" by Beach House. In 2015 he directed the ten-minute video for David Bowie's "Blackstar."

oh wow i'm a huge fan of this dude's videos. who knew

Video's great, song is OK. It could fit right on "Outside" without calling attention to itself, for better or for worse. Thinking specifically of stuff like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Okg1UBdyvow

I thought of Outside too. He's still got that weird charisma in the video, no question.

That's exactly why I like it so much.

First 4 minutes > last 4 minutes > middle 3 minutes. Brilliant video though.

― ArchCarrier

agreed with all of that. that video, though. hoooooly shit it's good

http://49.media.tumblr.com/1549d7a19297aa8de4679d49209ec6a4/tumblr_ny4jmuaiBT1qdmmiqo2_500.gif

as expected, mojo are all over this.

collecters edition (i.e subscribers) has a special bowie cover, a massive feature re the album, and have given the album 4/5 rating.

" * somewhat recalls station to station in form - epic multipart title track opener, seven songs in 41 minutes, odd atmospherics, rhythmic heft, tremendous singing - but otherwise there's no obvious precedent in the bowie canon'

colour me fucking pyched.

Well, to be fair, legacy artists keep MOJO going. The album must be 4/5 stars.

i tried gifing this video and it has some special codec or something that blocks that from being possible =(

gotta go with screen capture

There is absolutely no chance anything about this resembles "Station to Station" beyond the artist's name.

Loving this song. Did not believe he had anything like this still in him. He tried so hard in the 90s and could not come close. He had 10 years to write an album and put out one with Boss of Me on it. Now out of nowhere comes this. I've been in a good mood all day after seeing this. It's brilliant.

feeling pretty ho hum about this, interesting enough, nice to see the old boy still doing it, and not embarrassing himself.

otoh: horrible drum sounds, really grating refrain of "im a blackstar" - and that's the only things I remember from the track having listened to it 4 hours ago.

Does he ever say "I'm not a pop star?"

really grating refrain of "im a blackstar"

That's the best bit!

Excellent track. Got a lot of anticipation now happening for the full album.

xps damn the first thing i thought was how good the drums sounded.

So did anybody else get a bit of

https://s3.amazonaws.com/tribeca_cms_production/uploads/article/header_marquee/5260607bb57ce9a4b7000008/large_decker_cronenberg.jpg

from this

I have no idea what that is. (Please tell me it's not fucking Doctor Who.)

kinda like this, the beginning is like radiohead, i don't feel the middle part too much, i like the end reprise without the basic as hell breakbeat. video feels very inspired by punchdrunk immersive theatre - dunno if that's a ref point here but for the last 2/3/4 years they've had huge shows in london and nyc i am seeing ghosts of their design/costume/lighting everywhere.

I got Dr Who vibes from this. Bowie needs to be a guest Doctor.

tracklist:

Blackstar
’Tis A Pity She Was A Whore
Lazarus
Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)
Girl Loves Me
Dollar Days
I Can’t Give Everything Away

apparently 'Tis A Pity and Sue are re-recordings, and James Murphy did percussion on two tracks

xpost Nightbreed?

it's David Cronenberg's bad guy from Clive Barker's Nightbreed. I also got a bit of that character from Pan's Labyrinth.

Yeah it's Nightbreed. The button eyes, the girl with the tail, the pastoral stuff (spacebarn), city in the distance with the huge candle all kind of reminded me of it

Can't believe he still had a song like this in him. I liked the basic backbeat in the last part - seemed to fit the direction well and there's enough going on that I didn't want the drums to do much.

wow blackstar, really did not expect something this good

If the rest holds up, it will easily be the best thing he's done since the early 80s. Very nice. Definitely picks up on a 'Nite Flights' vibe, which is never a bad thing.

See, it was initially disappointing to hear that 'Tis A Pity and Sue were on this album, since we'd already heard them and the album has only seven tracks, but I am so excited to hear they're re-recorded versions. The Sue already heard was very good, and 'Tis A Pity sounded like a demo of a great great track. These plus the fantastic Blackstar track are so promising I can't believe it. If he keeps up the same standard for the remaining four tracks it'll be up there with the 70s stuff. Doesn't seem possible, but can't wait to hear it.

Rolling Stone interview with Visconti, McCaslin and Guiliana.

The album begins with the 10-minute title track, a surreal, haunting song that began as two completely separate tunes before Bowie and Visconti sewed them together. The original version was actually more than 11 minutes long, but they cut it to 9:57 after learning iTunes won't post singles that cross the 10-minute mark. "It's total bullshit," says Visconti with a laugh. "But David was adamant it be the single, and he didn't want both an album version and a single version, since that gets confusing."

iTunes won't post singles that cross the 10-minute mark

well that's fucking stupid

From physical format limitations to corporate policy limitations, how wonderful.

i dont like his current singing style. way too consciously grand/delicately wounded etc for my liking. but i quite like the song overall.

2nd half makes me think of rocky horror.

I do find that verse and his singing of it quite poignant.

Its limpid strum calls back to Space Oddity for me, too.

For me, Girl Loves Me is the only dud, and even that's pretty likeable. The album has definite Station to Station vibes I think. Just occurred to me he's wearing his STS outfit in the Lazarus video as well...