Suburban
Speed

Rating: 8.5/10

by Jonathan Greer

This is the first time I've ever had to revise a review following the death of an artist, and of course it needed revised not simply because Bowie has died, but because his passing has added an extra dimension to this, his final album.

The clues were all there, but in the four times I listened to this between its Friday release and the announcement of his death on Monday morning, I missed them all. They seem so obvious now - the funereal chant on the first part of the title track, the giveaway lines on both that song and 'Lazarus'. Then there are the visual clues - the deathbed video for 'Lazarus', the abandoned spacesuit on the 'Blackstar' video, and I think for the first time, the absence of Bowie's image on the cover. It's as if he imagined on the day he died people would be walking around, listening to his new album on their phones or tablets, with a single black star taking over the screen like a badge of mourning.

There hasn't been anything like this in musical history, where the artist arranges the musical soundtrack for his own death. On predecessor The Next Day the other musicians were sworn to secrecy about Bowie even making an album, this time they had to keep the overall concept behind it secret - although according to some reports some of the players on the album were unaware of his declining health.

Although it has been intended to put a full stop to his career, Blackstar still manages to experiment and stretch his music further. The dominance of Donny McCaslin's saxophone in the arrangements is significant. It was an instrument which Bowie had utilised throughout his career, and whilst some passages here might hint ever so subtly back to the brassiness of 'Young Americans' or the drone of 'Subterraneans' from Low, it feels that this band were taking him somewhere new although where that might be is anyone's guess.

In fact on the previously heard songs here - 'Sue (Or In a Season of Crime)' and 'Tis a Pity She was a Whore' - McCaslin played the sax parts which Bowie had played on the original recordings. The new version of 'Sue' in particular sounds incredibly good, the ensemble gelling more convincingly than on the previous release, with some extra percussion from LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy propelling it along.

The lyrics are deliberately puzzling and intriguing, and now we can pore over their meaning for years to come. Who or what is the Blackstar? It's an image that manages to reference celebrity, cancer diagnosis and who knows what else. Elvis and Bowie share a birthday and Blackstar emerged on that date, making the rare Elvis tune of the same name eerily prescient. What did he think would happen on the day he died? It's enough to keep fan sites and message boards ticking over far into the future.

It seems futile at the moment to go through the tracks and analyse everything. Everyone is going to hear this and draw their own conclusions now. Although just seven tracks in total, appropriately Blackstar is more focused and intense than The Next Day. 'Dollar Days' is one of the prettiest Bowie songs for ages, and the finale of 'I Can't Give Everything Away' is a fitting curtain closer, not just on what was originally thought to be a strong new album to add to his discography, but also as full stop at the end of a brilliant, unique career.