David Bowie - Blackstar - Album of the Week January 5

Blackstar was released on David Bowie's 69th birthday (January 8, 2016), just two days before he died. As we approach the album’s one-year anniversary and Bowie's 70th birthday, it feels like a fine time to feature it on Album of the Week. I’ve listened to the album only a few times and am intrigued, but not yet intimately familiar or attached. 

My band was invited to play a Bowie tribute show with a bunch of other local this Sunday, January 8 in Sacramento, so I’ve been dipping pretty deep into his catalogue over the past month. He’s simply amazing. You don’t have to get 15 seconds into Blackstar to realize that this guy never even remotely settled or slowed down creatively. (Watch this video). Blackstar was near the top of just about every year-end music list (and I’m one of those people who reads those damn things), which managed to further renew my interest in it. I'll also play a few other favorites to fill the hour. Listen live at 5pm on January 5th.

A bit more background:

Billboard and CNN wrote that Bowie's lyrics seem to address his impending death, with CNN noting that the album "reveals a man who appears to be grappling with his own mortality". "Lazarus", the second track on the album, was notable for the lines "Look up here, I'm in heaven / I've got scars that can't be seen"; this specific part of the lyrics appeared in many publications following Bowie's death on 10 January. 

The music on Blackstar has been characterized as incorporating art rock, jazz, and experimental rock, as well as elements from industrial rock, folk-pop and hip hop. The saxophone was the first instrument Bowie learned, and he was an avid jazz listener in his youth.

According to producer Tony Visconti, he and Bowie deliberately attempted "to avoid rock’n’roll" while making the album, and they had been listening to rapper Kendrick Lamar's 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly during the recording sessions and cited it as an influence. Electronic duo Boards of Canada and experimental hip hop trio Death Grips have also been cited as influences.