Blackstar (David Bowie album)

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BlackStar.PNG
File:Blackstar (Front Cover).png
Cover for CD and digital editions
Studio album by David Bowie
Released 8 January 2016
Recorded 2014–15
Studio
  • The Magic Shop
  • (New York City)
  • Human Worldwide Studios
  • (New York City)
Genre
Length 41:13
Label
Producer
David Bowie chronology
Five Years (1969–1973)
(2015)Five Years (1969–1973)2015		 Blackstar
(2016)
Singles from Blackstar
  1. "Blackstar"
    Released: 19 November 2015
  2. "Lazarus"
    Released: 17 December 2015
  3. "I Can't Give Everything Away"
    Released: 6 April 2016

Blackstar,[1] or Blackstar, is the twenty-sixth and final studio album by English musician David Bowie. It was released worldwide through Bowie's ISO Records label[2][3] on 8 January 2016, Bowie's 69th birthday.[4][5][6] Bowie died two days after its release. Co-producer Tony Visconti described the album as Bowie's intended swan song and a "parting gift" for his fans before his death.[7]

Blackstar was met with critical acclaim and commercial success, reaching the number one spot in a number of countries in the wake of Bowie's death, and becoming Bowie's first and only album to reach number one on the Billboard 200 album chart in the US.[8] The album remained at the number one position in the UK charts for three weeks before being replaced by one of Bowie's compilation albums, Best of Bowie.[9] As of May 2016, Blackstar has sold 1,780,000 copies worldwide.[10]

Background and recording

Bowie recorded the album in the midst of a battle with cancer. His illness was only known by those very close to him and that remained so until the news of his death became public, two days after the album's release. It became apparent immediately after that many lyrics seem to have come from a man who knew death was near.[11] Like The Next Day, recording of this album took place in secret at The Magic Shop[12] and Human Worldwide Studios in New York City.[13] Bowie began writing and making demos for songs that appear on Blackstar as soon as sessions for The Next Day concluded. Two songs that appear on Blackstar, "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)" and "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore", were previously released, but were re-recorded for Blackstar, including new saxophone parts played on the latter song by Donny McCaslin (replacing parts Bowie played on the original release).[14] The title of the latter derives from the title 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, a play by John Ford, an English dramatist of the 17th century.[15] McCaslin and the rest of the jazz group recorded their parts in the studio over a period of about one week a month from January to March 2015, and were unaware of Bowie's declining health.[16] The song "Lazarus" was included in Bowie's Off-Broadway musical of the same name.[17]

Composition

The music on Blackstar has been characterized as incorporating art rock,[18][19] jazz,[20] and experimental rock,[21] as well as elements from industrial rock, folk-pop and hip hop.[22] According to producer Tony Visconti, they deliberately attempted "to avoid rock’n’roll"[23] while making the album, and he and Bowie 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.[23][24] Saxophone was the first instrument Bowie learned, and he was an avid jazz listener in his youth.[25][26][27] Both Billboard and CNN noted that Bowie's lyrics seem to revolve around his impending death,[28][29] with CNN noting that the album "reveals a man who appears to be grappling with his own mortality".[28]

Release and packaging

The title track was released as a first single on 19 November 2015[30] and was used as the opening music for the television series The Last Panthers.[31] "Lazarus" was released on 17 December 2015 as a digital download, and received its world premiere on BBC Radio 6 Music's Steve Lamacq Show the same day.[32]

The artwork for Blackstar was designed by Jonathan Barnbrook, who had designed the artwork for Bowie's Heathen, Reality and The Next Day. The CD cover is adorned with a large black star on a plain white background, with the six star segments below the main star forming the word 'B O W I E' in stylized letters.[33] The vinyl cover, in black, features the star as a cutout section, revealing the vinyl (with an all-black picture label) beneath it. It was observed that the Unicode for a black star symbol (★) is U+2605, 26 May being the birthday of Bowie's former guitarist Mick Ronson.[34] It was also observed that a "black star lesion," usually found inside a breast, suggests to medical practitioners evidence of certain types of cancer.[35][36] When exposing the vinyl album's cover to sunlight, a field of glowing stars is revealed, which fades when the sunlight is removed.[37]

Blackstar sold 146,000 copies in its first week on sale in the United Kingdom[38] (a week which saw four other Bowie albums in the top 10 and a further seven in the top 40, the latter equalling Elvis Presley's chart record).[39] and more than 181,000 in the United States.[40] Within days of the album's release, online retailer Amazon.com temporarily sold out of both the CD and LP editions of the album.[41] In the week 11–17 January, Blackstar was the number 1 most downloaded album in 25 iTunes national charts.[42]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic 87/100[43]
Review scores
Source Rating
The A.V. Club A–[44]
AllMusic 4/5 stars[45]
Entertainment Weekly A–[46]
The Guardian 4/5 stars[47]
The Independent 4/5 stars[48]
Pitchfork Media 8.5/10[49]
PopMatters 9/10[50]
Q 4/5 stars[19]
Rolling Stone 4/5 stars[51]
Spin 7/10[52]

Blackstar received widespread acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, the album received an average score of 87, which indicates "universal acclaim", based on 43 reviews.[43] Rolling Stone critic David Fricke described the album as "a ricochet of textural eccentricity and pictorial-shrapnel writing".[51] Andy Gill of The Independent regarded the record as "the most extreme album of [Bowie's] entire career", stating that "Blackstar is as far as he's strayed from pop."[48] Reviewing for Q magazine, Tom Doyle wrote, "Blackstar is a more concise statement than The Next Day and a far, far more intriguing one."[19] In a favourable review for Exclaim!, Michael Rancic wrote that Blackstar is "a defining statement from someone who isn't interested in living in the past, but rather, for the first time in a while, waiting for everyone else to catch up".[53]

The New York Times described the album as "at once emotive and cryptic, structured and spontaneous and, above all, willful, refusing to cater to the expectations of radio stations or fans".[54] Pitchfork Media's review of Blackstar was written on the day of the album's release, two days before Bowie's death, and concluded with the line "This tortured immortality is no gimmick: Bowie will live on long after the man has died. For now, though, he’s making the most of his latest reawakening, adding to the myth while the myth is his to hold."[55]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by David Bowie, except where noted. 

Blackstar — CD – vinyl – digital download
No. Title Length
1. "Blackstar"   9:57
2. "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore"   4:52
3. "Lazarus"   6:22
4. "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)" (Bowie, Maria Schneider, Paul Bateman, Bob Bharma) 4:40
5. "Girl Loves Me"   4:51
6. "Dollar Days"   4:44
7. "I Can't Give Everything Away"   5:47
Total length:
 41:13
Digital download bonus track
No. Title Length
8. "Blackstar" (Video) 9:59
Total length:
 51:12

Personnel

Personnel adapted from Blackstar liner notes.[13]

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Charts and certifications

Commercial performance

Blackstar was already on course to debut at number 1 on the UK Albums Chart prior to the announcement of Bowie's death on 10 January, according to the Official Charts Company. The album debuted at number 1 after selling 146,000 copies.[56] It became his tenth number one album in the UK.[57] The album remained three weeks at number one, falling at number 2 behind another Bowie album, the compilation Best of Bowie (2002).[9]

In the US, the album peaked at number 1, becoming Bowie's first and only number one in that country.[8][58] The album also peaked at number one in 28 countries, number 2 in Greece, Mexico, South Korea and Taiwan, number 4 in Hungary and 5 in Japan.

Release history

Region Date Format(s) Label Ref.
Europe 8 January 2016
[97]
United Kingdom
[98][99][100]
United States
[101][102][103]

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "David Bowie finally tops US Billboard charts with Blackstar. The Guardian. 18 January 2016. Retrieved on 18 January 2016.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ https://twitter.com/chartnews/status/735818396164575233
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  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  15. ↑ The Inside Story of David Bowie's Stunning New Album, 'Blackstar', rollingstone.com, 23 November 2015
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  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ The following references cite the album as jazz:
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  61. ↑ "David Bowie – Chart history" Billboard Canadian Albums Chart for David Bowie. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  62. ↑ "Top Stranih [Top Foreign]" (in Croatian). Top Foreign Albums. Hrvatska diskografska udruga. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
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  67. ↑ "Top 40 album DVD és válogatáslemez-lista – 2016. 2. hét" (in Hungarian). MAHASZ. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  68. ↑ "GFK Chart-Track Albums: Week 2, 2016". Chart-Track. IRMA. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
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  74. ↑ "Oficjalna lista sprzedaży :: OLIS - Official Retail Sales Chart". OLiS. Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
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  79. ↑ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
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  81. ↑ "David Bowie – Chart history" Billboard Top Alternative Albums for David Bowie. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  82. ↑ "David Bowie – Chart history" Billboard Top Rock Albums for David Bowie. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  83. ↑ "David Bowie – Chart history" Billboard Top Tastemaker Albums for David Bowie. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  84. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  85. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Enter David Bowie in the field Interpret. Select album in the field Format. Click Suchen
  86. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  87. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  88. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Click on næste to go to page if certification from official website
  89. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  90. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Select Album e Compilation in the field Sezione. Enter David Bowie in the field Filtra. Select 2016 in the field Anno. The certification will load automatically
  91. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  92. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  93. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Select the "Chart", enter 2016 in the field "Year". Select '' in the field "Semana". Click on "Search Charts"
  94. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Enter David Bowie in the field Search. Select Artist in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Select Platinum in the field By Award. Click Search
  95. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  96. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  97. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  98. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  99. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  100. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  101. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  102. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  103. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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