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KP says: David Bowie : Blackstar   Rating: Rating: 2/6   
Updated: 2016-01-14 22:10:55    Type:  cd review     English  View Comment Details   
I have tried for a few days now, with many replays, but this album and me are absolutely incompatible. It was of course a sad surprise that David Bowie died just a few days ago. The number of great rock artists left on this miserable mudball planet is getting smaller every day. It was however no surprise, that I would have problems with his last album. The song "Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)" was included on the brilliant compilation "Nothing Has Changed" [2014] and I still hate it's annoying sound that reminds me of very awful fusion jazz. As a matter of fact, I hate the sound on most of this new album. The electro drums are really pissing me off and then it all feels really depressing and dark. Not dark in a good way like on Bowie's last masterpiece "Outside" [1995], but dark in a way that makes me want to crawl into a corner, turn out the lights and slit my throat.

"I’m trying to
I’m dying too"

I know that Bowie had practically already been given a death sentence by the doctors when he created this album, but you could say the same thing about Motörhead's Lemmy, who must also have known that his candle of life was burning very low, when Motörhead created a fantastic last album "Bad Magic" [2015] that makes me smile and want to dance around every time I hear it. I know damn well which of those 2 albums I will want to listen to in the future.

When I want to remember David Bowie, I'll go to some of his highlights like "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars", "Aladdin Sane", "Outside". I won't be playing this, his last album, that is so full of darkness and death and makes you depressed after just a few minutes in it's unpleasant company. Hell, I thought The Cure and Nine Inch Nails had a thing or two with depression, but the difference is that the albums from those bands were also full of aggression and despair and great music. Bowie's last album is nothing like that, there is nothing to break the darkness. It's basically Black Death Jazz Fusion for the dying or the deeply depressed.

What I miss the most on this album is just a few great melodic songs. "Tis A Pity She Was A Whore" doesn't have that, but it's the closest I have come to finding a favorite track on this album. At least it holds a little humor in it and the wildly blowing horns work well here. Hard pressed I'll pick "Lazarus" as my second favorite. It's kinda annoying, but it also has undeniable qualities and I don't hate it as much as some of the other songs.

R.I.P. David Bowie. I will keep playing your fantastic music, but I think it is best if I try to forget your last album.

[2016, Columbia]


 
David Bowie : Blackstar (cd review)
David Bowie : Blackstar (cd review)
 
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