Blackstar (Bowie album) -- anyone else obsessed?

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CassandraW

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Where the fuck did Monday go?

It was sucked into that album, which I cannot stop listening to -- I suspect that will be the case for some time. I feel like I've just scratched the surface.

Damn, it's so weird and wonderful. I'm so glad he went out like this and not with a best-of oldies album.
 
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Diana Hignutt

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I've only heard Blackstar, the song...which was trippy and jazzy and delightfully weird. Bowie never disappoints. I'm looking forward to listening to the whole thing.
 

CassandraW

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Blackstar (the song) improves on every listen for me -- but so does every song on the album. Loving the jazz elements, loving the surreal elements.

ETA:

It isn't just that they improve on every listen -- I feel like I didn't really begin to appreciate them until I'd listened several times. It's been ages since a new album hit me this way.
 
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KTC

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an incredible gift. from first note to last. I love the last track!

- - - Updated - - -

Is it a bit ironic to say the classic Bowie is back?
 

CassandraW

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Is it a bit ironic to say the classic Bowie is back?


I agree. It's not at all a rehash of old Bowie -- it's utterly new. And yet it has that unmistakable Bowie and only Bowie-ness that his best stuff has -- and it's so damn alive.

On every listen, a different track hits me, and I wonder why it wasn't my favorite the last time through. Amazing.

ETA:

This is an album to listen to in a dim room lit by a single candle, sipping something wonderfully complex -- a great wine or scotch.
I had it on until 2 am last night, and promptly put it on again in the morning. In between I dreamt about it.

(I really do have to settle down and do some work.)
 
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Xelebes

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I had listened to/watched the Blackstar music video when it came out in early December. Too much repetition on things that should not have been repeated. The track on the album is much tighter.
 

CassandraW

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I had listened to/watched the Blackstar music video when it came out in early December. Too much repetition on things that should not have been repeated. The track on the album is much tighter.

I agree it sounds better on the album. Probably helped to hear it on good speakers rather than on my computer.
 
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CassandraW

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Oh, those two deep breaths he takes at the beginning of 'tis a pity she's a whore'...

Damn, this thing moves me. Perhaps by February, I won't be playing it obsessively. Maybe. But I think I can write off the rest of January.
 

poetinahat

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I have to get this. And I will probably end up filling in a whole lot of the back catalogue.

I haven't listened to the whole album - but the video for Lazarus overpowered me, thoroughly. Knowing that he knew - and that, having released it, he was gone - gives this work the very rarest, and deepest, of personal contexts. By ceremoniously departing his mortality, he becomes, nearly, immortal: what a commitment to posterity.

The family being away for a week, and watching it late at night - in a dark, quiet, empty house - added to the hyper-reality of it.

But at this point, I think it's not just the most brilliant, affecting video I've seen. I think it will become the marker of a place in history. Right now, it feels like the end of youth.

However monumental Bowie's legend was before, this excruciating farewell piece tops anything I would have imagined for it.

Even his Twitter account wrapped up beautifully.
 
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rugcat

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Blackstar (the song) improves on every listen for me -- but so does every song on the album. Loving the jazz elements, loving the surreal elements.

ETA:

It isn't just that they improve on every listen -- I feel like I didn't really begin to appreciate them until I'd listened several times. It's been ages since a new album hit me this way.
This is a piece (I'd hardly call it a song) that will take multiple listenings to fully appreciate.

I don't know what to make of it except that it's astonishingly good.
 

Kylabelle

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The pen in the Lazarus video, when I first saw it, was a syringe. Which, I think was an intentional impression. I watched someone die of cancer -- well, now, more than one. But the one I am remembering reached her arms and body toward the ceiling, the sky, the unknown I guess, just exactly like Bowie showed.

The image of the blindfold is one I have had of myself for years, so I feel that like a personal message.

What an amazing artist Mr. Bowie is.
 

Dawnstorm

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Reminds me a bit of the Bowie in the mid 90ies - Buddha of Suburbia/Outside. I'd like to say that "Dollar Days" is my favourite, but as soon as I say it, it feels wrong. Actually, it feels wrong to have a favourite...
 
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CassandraW

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The Lazarus video was my introduction to the album, and yes -- video and song are amazing (even more so because Bowie was dying, though they'd blow me away even if he weren't).

I waited until I'd listened to the album many times before I looked up any of the music reviews for it. They are, of course, overwhelmingly laudatory. But one thing that has amused me is how so many of the reviews try to name the "weak" tracks. It says much that they all have different answers. One review claimed Girl Loves Me is the weak link -- another says it's the best thing on the album. Another says Sue and 'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore should have been left off. Other reviews praise both songs.

My opinion -- those reviewers didn't listen to the album enough before writing their review, or they'd realize there are no "weak" tracks (though of course some might speak to a particular person more than another). Or else they just feel compelled to say something is weak -- some reviewers are like that. Yeah, none of these are "weak." On each listen, I'm finding new things to love in each one of them.

I think ultimately the title track is going to end up being my favorite (though it's still hard for me to pin a favorite right now). But after god knows how many listens, that's the one that, more than any other, makes me stop dead again and again, and forces me to replay before I move on to the others.

At some point, I will post my analysis of a couple of the songs. You will all either have to suffer through or ignore me. The lyrics, like the music itself, expand and unfold with every listen.
 

KTC

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no two people ever listen to the same album
 

CassandraW

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no two people ever listen to the same album

Yes, I think this is true.

One friend of mine said she listened to a couple of snippets and thought they were "meh." I am not sure I can be friends with her any more. I could understand hating the album, I suppose, or finding it off-putting -- but I can't understand finding it "meh." It seems to me the kind of thing that must inspire a strong reaction in anyone who feels music at all.
 

c.e.lawson

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Oh my gosh, Cass - I also saw the Lazarus video then bought the album. I'm still not all the way through it for the first time (terribly busy and stressful week), but since I first listened, I have been singing/hearing/feeling the songs in my head constantly since. It's haunting, actually. I do wonder how I would have felt without the context of his death. This is just an incredible final piece of work. And I also wonder if he held on until his final work was released into the world. It's just strange that he died so soon after. I get chills just thinking about it. Utterly amazing work.
 

CassandraW

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Haunting, indeed. The Blackstar track has made it into my dreams.

I've decided I want this album played at my wake/memorial visitation. Not kidding here. At my dad's, we had Sinatra (his favorite) playing, which he would have loved. I can't think of anything I'd rather have playing at mine than this. It might even rouse me from the dead to listen.

(Damn, isn't this music alive?)

Other women plan what songs will play at their wedding; I plan those that will play at my funeral. I am not sure what this says about me, but it might explain why I've never married.
 

c.e.lawson

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Haunting, indeed. The Blackstar track has made it into my dreams.

I've decided I want this album played at my wake/memorial visitation. Not kidding here. At my dad's, we had Sinatra (his favorite) playing, which he would have loved. I can't think of anything I'd rather have playing at mine than this. It might even rouse me from the dead to listen.

(Damn, isn't this music alive?)

Other women plan what songs will play at their wedding; I plan those that will play at my funeral. I am not sure what this says about me, but it might explain why I've never married.

I think what it says about you is that there's only one Cass, and she's pretty special.
 

CassandraW

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I thank you for the kind words, c.e. But I think probably what it shows is that I'm morbid.

I rather enjoy imagining what some of my stuffier relatives will make of "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore." (For of course I shall leave a specific request that the entire soundtrack be played.)

Alas, the worst of my stuffy relatives are likely to predecease me and miss the fun. I might have to die first, just to spite them.
 
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Max Vaehling

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I'm glad I first streamed this album on Saturday, befoire I knew he was dying. I think the experience would have been ... tilted. Of course, I did listen to it some more since, but I'm still glad my first exposure was before Monday.

I love how complex and weird the album is, but only Bowie could make songs like these catchy at the same time. That was his gift. Making the weird attractive and also making the straight commercial stuff somewhat ... off.

One thing ticks me off, though. I'm a vinyl fan. I went to the record store on Saturday to get it (without success), and now, on Amazon, prices have doubled. Yes, I'm at the anger stage now.
 

CassandraW

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Cass? I blame you for having this album on obsessive repeat while I'm working today.

I take particular pride in doing that to you, Winks.

But if it's any comfort, I've also had it on obsessive repeat.
 

CassandraW

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heh. this morning on the subway, the asswipe sitting next to me had leaky headphones, and his ipod was turned way the hell up so I could hear his horrible generic autotuned nightmare music all the way from uptown to downtown. I wanted to yank them out of his ears, hurl his ipod across the subway car, and demand to know how he could listen to such shit when Blackstar was out there in the world.

I restrained myself, but it was difficult.
 
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