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Blackstar (album)

January 01, 1970

Blackstar (stylised as ★)[1] is the 26th and final studio album by the English musician David Bowie. Released on 8 January 2016, Bowie's 69th birthday, the album was recorded in secret in New York City with his longtime co-producer Tony Visconti and a group of local jazz musicians: Donny McCaslin, Jason Lindner, Tim Lefebvre and Mark Guiliana. The album contains re-recorded versions of two songs, "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)" and "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore", both of which were originally released in 2014. More experimental than its predecessor The Next Day (2013), the music on Blackstar combines atmospheric art rock with various styles of jazz. Bowie took inspiration from artists including Kendrick Lamar and Death Grips, listening to them during the album's production. The cover art, designed by Jonathan Barnbrook, features a large black star with five star segments at the bottom that spell out the word "BOWIE".

Blackstar
Studio album by
David Bowie
Released8 January 2016 (2016-01-08)
RecordedJanuary–May 2015
Studio
  • Magic Shop, New York City
  • Human Worldwide, New York City
Genre
Length41:14
Label
Producer
David Bowie chronology
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

The album was preceded by the singles "Blackstar" and "Lazarus", both of which were supported by music videos. Two days after its release, Bowie died of liver cancer; his illness had not been revealed to the public until then. Visconti described the album as Bowie's intended swan song and a "parting gift" for his fans before his death. Upon release, the album was met with commercial success, topping charts in a number of countries in the wake of Bowie's death, including the UK, and became his only album to top the US Billboard 200. It was the fifth-best-selling album of the year, worldwide, and has been certified Gold and Platinum in the US and the UK, respectively.

Critically acclaimed, Blackstar won three Grammy Awards at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards in 2017 and awarded the British Album of the Year at the 2017 Brit Awards. It was listed as one of the best albums of 2016 and later the 2010s decade by numerous publications. Outtakes from the recording sessions were released on the No Plan EP in 2017. In the years following Bowie's death, commentators have named Blackstar one of his best works, and was included in the 2018 edition of the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Background and recording edit

David Bowie recorded Blackstar while suffering from liver cancer.[2] Like his previous album The Next Day (2013), recording took place in secret at the Magic Shop and Human Worldwide Studios in New York City, with production being co-handled by Bowie and longtime collaborator Tony Visconti.[3] Bowie began writing and making demos for songs that appear on Blackstar as soon as sessions for The Next Day concluded. Two songs, "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)" and "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore", had been previously released, but were re-recorded for Blackstar.[4] The title of the latter derives from 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, a play by the 17th century English dramatist John Ford.[5] The song "Lazarus" was included in Bowie's Off-Broadway musical of the same name.[6]

 
The backing band on Blackstar.
Top: Donny McCaslin, Jason Lindner
Bottom: Tim Lefebvre, Mark Guiliana

Bowie recruited a local New York jazz quartet led by saxophonist Donny McCaslin, and featuring other musicians including drummer Mark Guiliana, pianist Jason Lindner and bassist Tim Lefebvre,[7][8] as the backing band for the sessions.[9] McCaslin and Guiliana previously played on the original version of "Sue".[10] The musicians received demos from Bowie in December 2014 in preparation for the sessions at the start of the new year. Visconti told Mojo: "If we'd used [Bowie's] former musicians they would be rock people playing jazz...Having jazz guys play rock music turns it upside down."[9] Lefebvre later said that the band's chemistry made the sessions much easier. Bowie knew exactly what he wanted, so Lefebvre felt special that Bowie chose a band that was a "unit" and not a random set of studio musicians. Bowie also encouraged the band to try new things and experiment with ideas; Lindner told Rolling Stone, "He gave us the freedom to really just play, sort of be ourselves, and if we were hearing anything in particular, to try it out."[11] Visconti gave consistent praise to the band, saying "They can play something at the drop of a dime".[12]

Recording began at the Magic Shop in the first week of 2015. Most of the rhythm tracks were recorded in one or two takes. Tracks for both Blackstar and the Lazarus musical were recorded: "Lazarus", "No Plan", the re-working of "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore" and "When I Met You".[12] During the week, Bowie celebrated his 68th birthday; his wife Iman visited him in the studio and the band played an avant-garde rendition of "Happy Birthday". Following the January sessions, further recording commenced in blocks; according to Nicholas Pegg, they lasted four to six days each, in the first week of February and the third week of March. Bowie emailed demos to the musicians before each session.[13] The backing band were reportedly unaware of Bowie's declining health – McCaslin said the band worked with Bowie "essentially from 11 to 4 every day", while Lefebvre stated that "it never looked to us like he was sick".[14]

 
Ben Monder joined the band for the March sessions as an additional guitarist.

James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem was present during the second block of recording; his work on Arcade Fire's Reflektor inspired Bowie to create a remix of "Love Is Lost" for The Next Day Extra.[a] Recorded in early February was "Dollar Days", "Girl Loves Me", "Someday" and the remake of "Sue (Or In a Season of Crime)".[17] "Dollar Days" was created without a preliminary demo being made for the song. McCaslin later stated that Bowie one day "just picked up a guitar ... he had this little idea, and we just learned it right there in the studio."[5] For the March sessions, the band were joined by jazz guitarist Ben Monder, who played on the original recording of "Sue". Songs recorded included "Blackstar", "I Can't Give Everything Away", "Killing a Little Time" and a remake of "Someday" (now retitled "Blaze"). Although Bowie performed his vocals live while the band were playing during the Magic Shop sessions, he and Visconti moved to Human Worldwide studios in April for proper recording. The majority of his vocals were recorded from scratch between April and May, although some vocals from the Magic Shop sessions, including part of "I Can't Give Everything Away" and the full vocal for "No Plan" were kept. The final master mix is credited to English engineer Tom Elmhirst, although Bowie and Visconti oversaw the mixing sessions in general.[18]

Composition and influences edit

According to Visconti, he and Bowie deliberately attempted "to avoid rock'n'roll" while making the album. They listened to rapper Kendrick Lamar's 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly during the recording sessions and cited it as an influence.[19] Discussing the album, Visconti said "We wound up with nothing like that, but we loved the fact that Kendrick was so open-minded and he didn't do a straight-up hip-hop record. He threw everything on there, and that's exactly what we wanted to do."[20] According to Pegg, another album Bowie listened to during the sessions was D'Angelo's Black Messiah (2014), which featured a fusion of soul, jazz and funk that was reminiscent of Bowie's work on "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)".[20] Electronic duo Boards of Canada and experimental hip hop trio Death Grips have also been cited as influences.[19][21]

Music edit

 
James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem played percussion on "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)" and "Girl Loves Me".[20]

The music on Blackstar has been characterised as incorporating art rock,[22][23] jazz,[23][24] experimental jazz,[25][26] free jazz,[22] and experimental rock,[27] as well as elements of industrial rock, folk-pop and hip hop.[28] Bryan Wawzenek of Ultimate Classic Rock writes that it was his most experimental album in years.[29] The saxophone was the first instrument Bowie learned; he was an avid jazz listener in his youth[30][31][32] and had occasionally worked with jazz musicians in the past.[b] The album's title track incorporates nu jazz[35] while progressing through a drum and bass–style rhythm, an acid house–inspired portion of the instrumental, a saxophone solo, and a lower-tempo blues-like section.[36][37] Ten minutes in length, it originally began as two separate melodies before being merged to one single piece.[5][38] Andy Greene of Rolling Stone said that the re-recording of "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore" was "powered by a hip hop beat and free-form sax",[5] unlike the original, which was described by Dalton as "a propulsive, roaring, heavily electronic wall of sound."[25] "Lazarus" is described by Pegg as "an intense, brooding threnody".[39] Some critics felt the track begins to drag across its six-minute runtime.[27][25] Although the original version of "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)" featured brass-heavy instrumentation and a bebop-jazz arrangement, Stephen Dalton of Classic Rock magazine writes that the re-recorded version "feels sharper, denser and heavier", with added funk rock guitar lines and "percussive shudders".[25] "Girl Loves Me" features synthesisers, "acrobatic" drumming, strings and "bouncing" bass.[27][40] "Dollar Days", the sixth track, contains a sax solo and an arrangement that Dalton considers reminiscent of Bowie's work on Young Americans (1975).[25] Biographer Chris O'Leary believes "Dollar Days" has "the lushest arrangement" on the album.[41] In the final track, "I Can't Give Everything Away", Bowie plays a harmonica solo similar to one from his instrumental track "A New Career in a New Town" off his 1977 album Low.[42]

Lyrics edit

Billboard and CNN wrote that Bowie's lyrics seem to address his impending death,[43][44] with CNN noting that the album "reveals a man who appears to be grappling with his own mortality".[43] The title track features the lyrics: "Something happened on the day he died / Spirit rose a metre and stepped aside / somebody else took his place, and bravely cried, 'I'm a blackstar, I'm a blackstar'"; Jesse Kinos-Goodin of CBC Music felt these lyrics represented Bowie reflecting on his life and impending death.[22] "Lazarus" features the lines "Look up here, I'm in heaven / I've got scars that can't be seen", which appeared in many publications following Bowie's death on 10 January.[45] "Girl Loves Me" was notable for its inclusion of Nadsat, a fictional language created by Anthony Burgess for his 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange, where it was used very often.[46] It also included Polari, a type of slang used commonly in England by homosexual men during the mid-20th century.[5] The refrain, the explicit "Where the fuck did Monday go?", was interpreted by Pegg as the kind of desperation from a man who knows his time is running out.[40] "Dollar Days" contains the lyrics "don't believe for just one second I'm forgetting you — I'm trying to, I'm dying to/too", which Pegg and O'Leary note is a very dark pun.[41][47] "I Can't Give Everything Away" contains the line "Seeing more and feeling less / Saying no but meaning yes / This is all I ever meant / That's the message that I sent", which led Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph to think of the song as a point where "Bowie sounds like he is grappling with his own mystery."[48]

Artwork and packaging edit

 
Jonathan Barnbrook designed the album's artwork.

The artwork for Blackstar was designed by Jonathan Barnbrook, who filled the same role on Heathen (2002), Reality (2003) and The Next Day. The cover's star image is credited to NASA in the CD booklet.[3] The five star segments below the main star form the word "BOWIE" in stylised letters.[49] The vinyl cover, in black, features the star as a cutout, revealing the record (with an all-black picture label) beneath. With the record removed, the black paper behind the cutout reveals a hidden picture of a starfield when the foldout sleeve is held up to a light source. It took more than four months for fans to discover the effect. The designer claimed there were many other surprises hidden in the LP's artwork.[50][51] Music journalists noted that a "black star lesion," usually found inside a breast, suggests to medical practitioners evidence of certain types of cancer.[52][53] The sleeve is the first and only Bowie sleeve to not feature an image of the artist himself.[54] After Bowie's death, Barnbrook released the Blackstar design elements under a Creative Commons NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.[55]

Release edit

The title track was released as the album's lead single on 19 November 2015[56] and used as the opening music for the television series The Last Panthers.[57] Its music video, shot in September 2015 in a Brooklyn studio,[58] is a surreal ten-minute short film directed by The Last Panthers director Johan Renck. It depicts a woman with a tail, played by Elisa Lasowski,[59] discovering a dead astronaut and taking his jewel-encrusted skull to an ancient, otherworldly town. The astronaut's bones float toward a solar eclipse, while a circle of women perform a ritual with the skull in the town's centre.[60] The short film won the award for Best Art Direction at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards.[61]

The second single, "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.[62] A music video for "Lazarus", shot in November 2015 in a studio in Brooklyn and again directed by Renck,[63] was released on 7 January 2016, the day before the album's release. It prominently features Bowie, appearing with a bandage and buttons sewn over his eyes, lying on a deathbed.[22] The video was nominated for three awards: Best Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Editing, at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards.[64]

Blackstar was released on 8 January 2016, coinciding with Bowie's 69th birthday, through his ISO label, Columbia Records and Sony Music.[65][66][67] Two days later on 10 January, Bowie died of liver cancer; his illness had not been revealed to the public until then. Visconti described the album as Bowie's intended swan song and a "parting gift" for his fans before his death.[2] Within days of the album's release, online retailer Amazon.com temporarily sold out of both the CD and LP editions.[68] The third and final single, "I Can't Give Everything Away", was released posthumously on 6 April.[69]

The outtakes "No Plan", "Killing a Little Time" and "When I Met You" were included on an EP, No Plan, released on 8 January 2017, which would have been Bowie's 70th birthday.[70] The three songs had appeared on the soundtrack album for the Lazarus musical in October 2016.[70][71] In 2018, Jon Culshaw played Bowie in the BBC radio play The Final Take: Bowie in the Studio, an imagined account of Bowie as he works on the album and looks back over his life.[72]

Critical reception edit

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?8.4/10[73]
Metacritic87/100[74]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [75]
The A.V. ClubA−[76]
The Daily Telegraph     [48]
Entertainment WeeklyA−[77]
The Guardian     [78]
The Independent     [79]
NME4/5[80]
Pitchfork8.5/10[81]
Rolling Stone     [82]
Spin7/10[83]

Blackstar was acclaimed by music critics and fans. On Metacritic, the album has an average score of 87 out of 100 based on 43 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[74] Several considered it a career highlight.[84] Rolling Stone critic David Fricke called Blackstar "a ricochet of textural eccentricity and pictorial-shrapnel writing".[82] 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."[79] Jon Pareles of 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".[85] The Daily Telegraph's Neil McCormick hailed Blackstar as an "extraordinary" album which "suggests that, like a modern day Lazarus of pop, Bowie is well and truly back from beyond."[48] Alexis Petridis of The Guardian praised the album, calling it "a rich, deep and strange album that feels like Bowie moving restlessly forward, his eyes fixed ahead: the position in which he's always made his greatest music."[78] 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".[86]

Reviewing for Q magazine, Tom Doyle wrote, "Blackstar is a more concise statement than The Next Day and a far, far more intriguing one."[23] NME critic Sam Richards stated that Bowie had maintained his "formidable record of reinventing himself" on a "busy, bewildering and occasionally beautiful record", adding that "one of the few certainties we can take from this restless, relentlessly intriguing album is that David Bowie is positively allergic to the idea of heritage rock."[80] Chris Gerard of PopMatters called the album "singular in its unique sound and vibe," describing it as "trippy and majestic head-music spun from moonage daydreams and made for gliding in and out of life."[87] Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly considered the album Bowie's best work in years. In a review published before his death, Greenblatt felt the album contained enough themes and imagery that could "probably be dissected for days or even weeks."[77] In a review before Bowie's death, Ryan Dombal of Pitchfork wrote: "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."[81]

Barry Walters of NPR, reviewing the album the day after Bowie's death, believed the album "resonates precisely because it favors emotion over meaning." Walters felt that the album is "so startling" because it reminded listeners that even though Bowie was long past his golden years, it is almost as if he never left them. He concluded the review stating "even while staring down death, [he] reversed his claim on "Station to Station" so many years ago: It's never too late to be grateful."[88] Writing for The A.V. Club, which chose it as the best album of 2016, Sean O'Neal described Blackstar as "a sonically adventurous album that proves Bowie was always one step ahead—where he'll now remain in perpetuity."[89] Sandra Sperounes of the Edmonton Journal stated that Bowie kept true to the artistic statement "An artist must be willing to embrace failure as one step to evolving what it is he does. You have to be able to fail to accept it – otherwise you're not going to go anywhere. With Blackstar, he kept true to this artistic statement until his body failed. We have to accept it – the Starman is now returning to the heavens above. We can't begin to thank you enough for all your gifts."[90]

Following Bowie's death, Bryan Wawzenek of Ultimate Classic Rock ranked Blackstar as Bowie's twelfth-greatest album, describing it as a throwback to his Berlin Trilogy. Although he felt it wasn't as "accessible" as The Next Day, he considered it a "great companion piece" and "a fitting end to one of rock's most influential careers."[29] In 2018, Consequence of Sound ranked the album as Bowie's eighth-greatest, writing: "This is one of Bowie's most dynamic outings and a courageous triggering of a second creative wind." Praising the experimental nature and lyrics, staff writer Lior Phillips concluded "It's a startling reminder that the only way Bowie can transcend 49 years of artistry is by detaching from the Superstar he had become and transform into a new thing altogether."[91] The album was also included in the 2018 edition of Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[92] Pitchfork later listed the album as one of the greatest albums of the 2010s decade, calling it "a magnificent farewell to his audience."[93]

Accolades edit

Blackstar was named one of the best albums of 2016 by numerous publications.[94] According to Metacritic, it was the most prominently ranked record of 2016.[95] In The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll, Blackstar finished at number one in the voting for 2016's top album.[96] At the 59th Annual Grammy Awards in 2017, the album won awards for Best Alternative Music Album, Best Recording Package and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.[97] In addition, the title track won both Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance.[97] The album was nominated for the Top Rock Album award at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards,[98] losing to Blurryface by Twenty One Pilots.[99] Blackstar was later named as one of the greatest albums of the 2010s decade by numerous publications, including Billboard,[100] Consequence of Sound,[101] NME,[102] Pitchfork,[93] Rolling Stone,[103] Slant Magazine[104] and Stereogum.[105]

Accolades for Blackstar
Publication Accolade Rank Ref.
The A.V. Club 20 Best Albums of 2016
1
[89]
Billboard The 100 Greatest Albums of the 2010s
49
[100]
Consequence of Sound Top 50 Albums of 2016
3
[106]
The 100 Top Albums of the 2010s
17
[101]
The Guardian 100 Best Albums of the 21st Century
24
[107]
The Independent Best Albums of 2016
17
[108]
Mojo The Best of 2016
1
[109]
The New York Times The Best Albums of 2016
2
[110]
NME NME's Albums of the Year 2016
6
[111]
The Best Albums of The Decade: The 2010s
13
[102]
Pitchfork The 50 Best Albums of 2016
4
[112]
The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s
37
[93]
Q Q's Top 50 Albums of the Year 2016
1
[113]
Rolling Stone 50 Best Albums of 2016
2
[114]
Readers' Poll: 10 Best Albums of 2016
1
[115]
100 Best Albums of the 2010s
5
[103]
Slant Magazine The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s
39
[104]
sputnikmusic Staff’s Top 50 Albums of 2016
1
[116]

Commercial performance edit

Blackstar was already on course to debut at number one on the UK Albums Chart prior to the announcement of Bowie's death on 10 January 2016, according to the Official Charts Company.[117] The album debuted at number one after selling 146,000 copies in the first week[118] (a week that 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)[119] and became his tenth number-one album in the UK.[120] The album remained three weeks at number one,[121] falling to number two behind another Bowie album, the compilation Best of Bowie (2002), which became the first-ever album to get to number one in the UK because of streaming.[121] As of January 2018, the album has sold 446,000 copies in the United Kingdom.[122] Bowie was the biggest-selling vinyl artist of 2016 in the UK, with five albums in the vinyl Top 30, including Blackstar as the number one vinyl album of the year. It sold twice as many copies as the previous year's winner, Adele's 25.[123]

In the US, the album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, moving 181,000 copies in its first week.[124] Its number one debut was previously anticipated by Billboard,[125] though its total sales exceeded expectations by 51,000 copies.[126] The album topped the iTunes chart following Bowie's death, with Best of Bowie (2002) placing second.[126][127] It was Bowie's first number one in the US and best weekly sales figure.[128][129] It was the 14th-best-selling album in the US in 2016, with 448,000 copies sold that year.[130] After news of his death, some music stores in both the US and UK sold out of copies.[131][132] The album also peaked at number one in 24 countries, number two in Greece[133] and Mexico,[134] number four in Hungary,[135] and number five in Japan.[136] It has since been certified Gold in Germany, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the US, certified Platinum in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Poland, Switzerland and the UK, and 2× Platinum in the Netherlands. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), it was the fifth-best-selling album of the year, worldwide.[137] It has sold more than 1,900,000 copies as of April 2017.[138]

Track listing edit

All tracks are written by David Bowie, except where noted

Blackstar track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)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)"music by Bowie, Maria Schneider, Paul Bateman and Bob Bhamra4:40
5."Girl Loves Me" 4:52
6."Dollar Days" 4:44
7."I Can't Give Everything Away" 5:47
Total length:41:14
Download release bonus content
No.TitleLength
8."Blackstar" (video)10:00
Total length:51:14

Notes

  • "Blackstar" is stylised as "★".[3]
  • "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)" contains elements from "Brand New Heavy" by Plastic Soul, written by Bateman and Bhamra. The latter's surname is consistently misspelled as "Bharma" in the album's liner notes.[3]

Personnel edit

Personnel adapted from Blackstar liner notes.[3]

Charts edit

Certifications edit

‹See Tfd›‹See Tfd›
Certifications for Blackstar
Region Certification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[183] Platinum 70,000^
Austria (IFPI Austria)[184] Platinum 15,000*
Belgium (BEA)[185] Platinum 30,000*
Canada (Music Canada)[186] Platinum 80,000^
Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[187] Platinum 20,000‡
France (SNEP)[188] Platinum 100,000‡
Germany (BVMI)[189] Platinum 200,000‡
Italy (FIMI)[190] Platinum 50,000*
Netherlands (NVPI)[191] Platinum 40,000‡
New Zealand (RMNZ)[192] Gold 7,500^
Poland (ZPAV)[193] Platinum 20,000‡
Portugal (AFP)[194] Gold 7,500^
Spain (PROMUSICAE)[195] Gold 20,000‡
Sweden (GLF)[196] Gold 20,000‡
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[197] Platinum 20,000‡
United Kingdom (BPI)[198] Platinum 446,000[122]
United States (RIAA)[199] Gold 500,000‡
Summaries
Worldwide — 1,900,000[200]

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Release history edit

Release formats for Blackstar[201]
Region Date Format(s) Label
Various 8 January 2016

Notes edit

  1. ^ Bowie had previously provided uncredited guest vocals on the title track of Reflektor.[15][16]
  2. ^ Drummer Joey Baron played on Outside (1995) and trumpeter Lester Bowie had a brief solo on "Jump They Say" (1993).[33][34]

References edit

  1. ^ . David Bowie & Artist Arena. Archived from the original on 28 February 2016. ★ (pronounced "Blackstar")
  2. ^ a b Furness, Hannah (13 January 2016). "David Bowie's last release, Lazarus, was 'parting gift' for fans in carefully planned finale". The Daily Telegraph. from the original on 25 March 2016. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  3. ^ a b c d e Blackstar (album liner notes). David Bowie. ISO Records. 2016. 88875173862.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  4. ^ Fusilli, Jim (5 January 2016). "'Blackstar' Review: Ziggy Stardust Plays Jazz". The Wall Street Journal. from the original on 6 January 2016. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
  5. ^ a b c d e Greene, Andy (23 November 2015). "The Inside Story of David Bowie's Stunning New Album, 'Blackstar'". Rolling Stone. from the original on 22 December 2016. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  6. ^ "David Bowie's New Album Blackstar, Featuring 'Lazarus' Track, Out Today". Broadway World. 8 January 2016. from the original on 25 January 2016. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  7. ^ King, Jimmy (24 October 2015). "David Bowie Confirms New Album Blackstar Coming in January". Pitchfork. from the original on 27 October 2015. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  8. ^ Hendicott, James (24 October 2015). "Details of David Bowie's 25th album 'Blackstar' revealed". NME. from the original on 25 October 2015. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  9. ^ a b Pegg 2016, pp. 471–472.
  10. ^ Pegg 2016, pp. 269–271.
  11. ^ Greene, Andy (4 December 2015). . Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  12. ^ a b Pegg 2016, p. 472.
  13. ^ Pegg 2016, pp. 472–473.
  14. ^ Coscarelli, Joe; Paulson, Michael (10 January 2016). "David Bowie Allowed His Art to Deliver a Final Message". The New York Times. from the original on 15 January 2016. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
  15. ^ Jenn, Pelly (9 September 2013). "David Bowie Confirms Arcade Fire "Reflektor" Collaboration". Pitchfork. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  16. ^ Coulehan, Erin (10 September 2013). "David Bowie Sang on Arcade Fire's 'Reflektor'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  17. ^ Pegg 2016, p. 473.
  18. ^ Pegg 2016, pp. 473–474.
  19. ^ a b "New David Bowie album, inspired by Kendrick Lamar, features LCD's James Murphy". The Guardian. 24 November 2015. from the original on 14 September 2016. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  20. ^ a b c Pegg 2016, p. 471.
  21. ^ Britton, Luke Morgan (26 November 2015). "David Bowie's new album 'Blackstar' inspired by rap group Death Grips". NME. from the original on 2 September 2016. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  22. ^ a b c d Kinos-Goodin, Jesse (10 January 2016). "David Bowie gains immortality with Lazarus, the boldest character of his career". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. from the original on 14 February 2019. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  23. ^ a b c Doyle, Tom (January 2016). "David Bowie: "Blackstar"". Q (354).
  24. ^ McCormick, Neil (8 January 2016). "David Bowie, Blackstar, review: 'extraordinary'". The Telegraph. from the original on 24 April 2018. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  25. ^ a b c d e Dalton, Stephen (27 November 2015). "David Bowie: Blackstar". Classic Rock. from the original on 6 January 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  26. ^ Corner, Lewis (10 January 2016). "David Bowie's new album Blackstar was his perfect goodbye message to fans". Digital Spy. from the original on 13 January 2016. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  27. ^ a b c Rayner, Ben (8 January 2016). "David Bowie's Blackstar a nearly perfect goodbye: review". Toronto Sun. from the original on 11 January 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  28. ^ Richards, Sam (8 January 2016). "David Bowie – 'Blackstar' Review: The NME Verdict". NME. from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
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Book sources edit

External links edit

  • Blackstar at Discogs (list of releases)

January 01, 1970
blackstar, album, blackstar, stylised, 26th, final, studio, album, english, musician, david, bowie, released, january, 2016, bowie, 69th, birthday, album, recorded, secret, york, city, with, longtime, producer, tony, visconti, group, local, jazz, musicians, do. Blackstar stylised as 1 is the 26th and final studio album by the English musician David Bowie Released on 8 January 2016 Bowie s 69th birthday the album was recorded in secret in New York City with his longtime co producer Tony Visconti and a group of local jazz musicians Donny McCaslin Jason Lindner Tim Lefebvre and Mark Guiliana The album contains re recorded versions of two songs Sue Or in a Season of Crime and Tis a Pity She Was a Whore both of which were originally released in 2014 More experimental than its predecessor The Next Day 2013 the music on Blackstar combines atmospheric art rock with various styles of jazz Bowie took inspiration from artists including Kendrick Lamar and Death Grips listening to them during the album s production The cover art designed by Jonathan Barnbrook features a large black star with five star segments at the bottom that spell out the word BOWIE BlackstarStudio album by David BowieReleased8 January 2016 2016 01 08 RecordedJanuary May 2015StudioMagic Shop New York City Human Worldwide New York CityGenreArt rock jazz rock experimental jazz experimental rockLength41 14LabelISO Columbia SonyProducerDavid Bowie Tony ViscontiDavid Bowie chronologyFive Years 1969 1973 2015 Blackstar 2016 Who Can I Be Now 1974 1976 2016 Singles from Blackstar Blackstar Released 19 November 2015 Lazarus Released 17 December 2015 I Can t Give Everything Away Released 6 April 2016 The album was preceded by the singles Blackstar and Lazarus both of which were supported by music videos Two days after its release Bowie died of liver cancer his illness had not been revealed to the public until then Visconti described the album as Bowie s intended swan song and a parting gift for his fans before his death Upon release the album was met with commercial success topping charts in a number of countries in the wake of Bowie s death including the UK and became his only album to top the US Billboard 200 It was the fifth best selling album of the year worldwide and has been certified Gold and Platinum in the US and the UK respectively Critically acclaimed Blackstar won three Grammy Awards at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards in 2017 and awarded the British Album of the Year at the 2017 Brit Awards It was listed as one of the best albums of 2016 and later the 2010s decade by numerous publications Outtakes from the recording sessions were released on the No Plan EP in 2017 In the years following Bowie s death commentators have named Blackstar one of his best works and was included in the 2018 edition of the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die Contents 1 Background and recording 2 Composition and influences 2 1 Music 2 2 Lyrics 3 Artwork and packaging 4 Release 5 Critical reception 5 1 Accolades 6 Commercial performance 7 Track listing 8 Personnel 9 Charts 9 1 Weekly charts 9 2 Monthly charts 9 3 Year end charts 9 4 Decade end chart 10 Certifications 11 Release history 12 Notes 13 References 13 1 Book sources 14 External linksBackground and recording editDavid Bowie recorded Blackstar while suffering from liver cancer 2 Like his previous album The Next Day 2013 recording took place in secret at the Magic Shop and Human Worldwide Studios in New York City with production being co handled by Bowie and longtime collaborator Tony Visconti 3 Bowie began writing and making demos for songs that appear on Blackstar as soon as sessions for The Next Day concluded Two songs Sue Or in a Season of Crime and Tis a Pity She Was a Whore had been previously released but were re recorded for Blackstar 4 The title of the latter derives from Tis Pity She s a Whore a play by the 17th century English dramatist John Ford 5 The song Lazarus was included in Bowie s Off Broadway musical of the same name 6 nbsp The backing band on Blackstar Top Donny McCaslin Jason LindnerBottom Tim Lefebvre Mark Guiliana Bowie recruited a local New York jazz quartet led by saxophonist Donny McCaslin and featuring other musicians including drummer Mark Guiliana pianist Jason Lindner and bassist Tim Lefebvre 7 8 as the backing band for the sessions 9 McCaslin and Guiliana previously played on the original version of Sue 10 The musicians received demos from Bowie in December 2014 in preparation for the sessions at the start of the new year Visconti told Mojo If we d used Bowie s former musicians they would be rock people playing jazz Having jazz guys play rock music turns it upside down 9 Lefebvre later said that the band s chemistry made the sessions much easier Bowie knew exactly what he wanted so Lefebvre felt special that Bowie chose a band that was a unit and not a random set of studio musicians Bowie also encouraged the band to try new things and experiment with ideas Lindner told Rolling Stone He gave us the freedom to really just play sort of be ourselves and if we were hearing anything in particular to try it out 11 Visconti gave consistent praise to the band saying They can play something at the drop of a dime 12 Recording began at the Magic Shop in the first week of 2015 Most of the rhythm tracks were recorded in one or two takes Tracks for both Blackstar and the Lazarus musical were recorded Lazarus No Plan the re working of Tis a Pity She Was a Whore and When I Met You 12 During the week Bowie celebrated his 68th birthday his wife Iman visited him in the studio and the band played an avant garde rendition of Happy Birthday Following the January sessions further recording commenced in blocks according to Nicholas Pegg they lasted four to six days each in the first week of February and the third week of March Bowie emailed demos to the musicians before each session 13 The backing band were reportedly unaware of Bowie s declining health McCaslin said the band worked with Bowie essentially from 11 to 4 every day while Lefebvre stated that it never looked to us like he was sick 14 nbsp Ben Monder joined the band for the March sessions as an additional guitarist James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem was present during the second block of recording his work on Arcade Fire s Reflektor inspired Bowie to create a remix of Love Is Lost for The Next Day Extra a Recorded in early February was Dollar Days Girl Loves Me Someday and the remake of Sue Or In a Season of Crime 17 Dollar Days was created without a preliminary demo being made for the song McCaslin later stated that Bowie one day just picked up a guitar he had this little idea and we just learned it right there in the studio 5 For the March sessions the band were joined by jazz guitarist Ben Monder who played on the original recording of Sue Songs recorded included Blackstar I Can t Give Everything Away Killing a Little Time and a remake of Someday now retitled Blaze Although Bowie performed his vocals live while the band were playing during the Magic Shop sessions he and Visconti moved to Human Worldwide studios in April for proper recording The majority of his vocals were recorded from scratch between April and May although some vocals from the Magic Shop sessions including part of I Can t Give Everything Away and the full vocal for No Plan were kept The final master mix is credited to English engineer Tom Elmhirst although Bowie and Visconti oversaw the mixing sessions in general 18 Composition and influences editAccording to Visconti he and Bowie deliberately attempted to avoid rock n roll while making the album They listened to rapper Kendrick Lamar s 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly during the recording sessions and cited it as an influence 19 Discussing the album Visconti said We wound up with nothing like that but we loved the fact that Kendrick was so open minded and he didn t do a straight up hip hop record He threw everything on there and that s exactly what we wanted to do 20 According to Pegg another album Bowie listened to during the sessions was D Angelo s Black Messiah 2014 which featured a fusion of soul jazz and funk that was reminiscent of Bowie s work on Sue Or in a Season of Crime 20 Electronic duo Boards of Canada and experimental hip hop trio Death Grips have also been cited as influences 19 21 Music edit nbsp James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem played percussion on Sue Or in a Season of Crime and Girl Loves Me 20 The music on Blackstar has been characterised as incorporating art rock 22 23 jazz 23 24 experimental jazz 25 26 free jazz 22 and experimental rock 27 as well as elements of industrial rock folk pop and hip hop 28 Bryan Wawzenek of Ultimate Classic Rock writes that it was his most experimental album in years 29 The saxophone was the first instrument Bowie learned he was an avid jazz listener in his youth 30 31 32 and had occasionally worked with jazz musicians in the past b The album s title track incorporates nu jazz 35 while progressing through a drum and bass style rhythm an acid house inspired portion of the instrumental a saxophone solo and a lower tempo blues like section 36 37 Ten minutes in length it originally began as two separate melodies before being merged to one single piece 5 38 Andy Greene of Rolling Stone said that the re recording of Tis a Pity She Was a Whore was powered by a hip hop beat and free form sax 5 unlike the original which was described by Dalton as a propulsive roaring heavily electronic wall of sound 25 Lazarus is described by Pegg as an intense brooding threnody 39 Some critics felt the track begins to drag across its six minute runtime 27 25 Although the original version of Sue Or in a Season of Crime featured brass heavy instrumentation and a bebop jazz arrangement Stephen Dalton of Classic Rock magazine writes that the re recorded version feels sharper denser and heavier with added funk rock guitar lines and percussive shudders 25 Girl Loves Me features synthesisers acrobatic drumming strings and bouncing bass 27 40 Dollar Days the sixth track contains a sax solo and an arrangement that Dalton considers reminiscent of Bowie s work on Young Americans 1975 25 Biographer Chris O Leary believes Dollar Days has the lushest arrangement on the album 41 In the final track I Can t Give Everything Away Bowie plays a harmonica solo similar to one from his instrumental track A New Career in a New Town off his 1977 album Low 42 Lyrics edit Billboard and CNN wrote that Bowie s lyrics seem to address his impending death 43 44 with CNN noting that the album reveals a man who appears to be grappling with his own mortality 43 The title track features the lyrics Something happened on the day he died Spirit rose a metre and stepped aside somebody else took his place and bravely cried I m a blackstar I m a blackstar Jesse Kinos Goodin of CBC Music felt these lyrics represented Bowie reflecting on his life and impending death 22 Lazarus features the lines Look up here I m in heaven I ve got scars that can t be seen which appeared in many publications following Bowie s death on 10 January 45 Girl Loves Me was notable for its inclusion of Nadsat a fictional language created by Anthony Burgess for his 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange where it was used very often 46 It also included Polari a type of slang used commonly in England by homosexual men during the mid 20th century 5 The refrain the explicit Where the fuck did Monday go was interpreted by Pegg as the kind of desperation from a man who knows his time is running out 40 Dollar Days contains the lyrics don t believe for just one second I m forgetting you I m trying to I m dying to too which Pegg and O Leary note is a very dark pun 41 47 I Can t Give Everything Away contains the line Seeing more and feeling less Saying no but meaning yes This is all I ever meant That s the message that I sent which led Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph to think of the song as a point where Bowie sounds like he is grappling with his own mystery 48 Artwork and packaging edit nbsp Jonathan Barnbrook designed the album s artwork The artwork for Blackstar was designed by Jonathan Barnbrook who filled the same role on Heathen 2002 Reality 2003 and The Next Day The cover s star image is credited to NASA in the CD booklet 3 The five star segments below the main star form the word BOWIE in stylised letters 49 The vinyl cover in black features the star as a cutout revealing the record with an all black picture label beneath With the record removed the black paper behind the cutout reveals a hidden picture of a starfield when the foldout sleeve is held up to a light source It took more than four months for fans to discover the effect The designer claimed there were many other surprises hidden in the LP s artwork 50 51 Music journalists noted that a black star lesion usually found inside a breast suggests to medical practitioners evidence of certain types of cancer 52 53 The sleeve is the first and only Bowie sleeve to not feature an image of the artist himself 54 After Bowie s death Barnbrook released the Blackstar design elements under a Creative Commons NonCommercial ShareAlike license 55 Release editThe title track was released as the album s lead single on 19 November 2015 56 and used as the opening music for the television series The Last Panthers 57 Its music video shot in September 2015 in a Brooklyn studio 58 is a surreal ten minute short film directed by The Last Panthers director Johan Renck It depicts a woman with a tail played by Elisa Lasowski 59 discovering a dead astronaut and taking his jewel encrusted skull to an ancient otherworldly town The astronaut s bones float toward a solar eclipse while a circle of women perform a ritual with the skull in the town s centre 60 The short film won the award for Best Art Direction at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards 61 The second single 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 62 A music video for Lazarus shot in November 2015 in a studio in Brooklyn and again directed by Renck 63 was released on 7 January 2016 the day before the album s release It prominently features Bowie appearing with a bandage and buttons sewn over his eyes lying on a deathbed 22 The video was nominated for three awards Best Direction Best Cinematography and Best Editing at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards 64 Blackstar was released on 8 January 2016 coinciding with Bowie s 69th birthday through his ISO label Columbia Records and Sony Music 65 66 67 Two days later on 10 January Bowie died of liver cancer his illness had not been revealed to the public until then Visconti described the album as Bowie s intended swan song and a parting gift for his fans before his death 2 Within days of the album s release online retailer Amazon com temporarily sold out of both the CD and LP editions 68 The third and final single I Can t Give Everything Away was released posthumously on 6 April 69 The outtakes No Plan Killing a Little Time and When I Met You were included on an EP No Plan released on 8 January 2017 which would have been Bowie s 70th birthday 70 The three songs had appeared on the soundtrack album for the Lazarus musical in October 2016 70 71 In 2018 Jon Culshaw played Bowie in the BBC radio play The Final Take Bowie in the Studio an imagined account of Bowie as he works on the album and looks back over his life 72 Critical reception editProfessional ratingsAggregate scoresSourceRatingAnyDecentMusic 8 4 10 73 Metacritic87 100 74 Review scoresSourceRatingAllMusic nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp 75 The A V ClubA 76 The Daily Telegraph nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp 48 Entertainment WeeklyA 77 The Guardian nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp 78 The Independent nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp 79 NME4 5 80 Pitchfork8 5 10 81 Rolling Stone nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp 82 Spin7 10 83 Blackstar was acclaimed by music critics and fans On Metacritic the album has an average score of 87 out of 100 based on 43 reviews indicating universal acclaim 74 Several considered it a career highlight 84 Rolling Stone critic David Fricke called Blackstar a ricochet of textural eccentricity and pictorial shrapnel writing 82 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 79 Jon Pareles of 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 85 The Daily Telegraph s Neil McCormick hailed Blackstar as an extraordinary album which suggests that like a modern day Lazarus of pop Bowie is well and truly back from beyond 48 Alexis Petridis of The Guardian praised the album calling it a rich deep and strange album that feels like Bowie moving restlessly forward his eyes fixed ahead the position in which he s always made his greatest music 78 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 86 Reviewing for Q magazine Tom Doyle wrote Blackstar is a more concise statement than The Next Day and a far far more intriguing one 23 NME critic Sam Richards stated that Bowie had maintained his formidable record of reinventing himself on a busy bewildering and occasionally beautiful record adding that one of the few certainties we can take from this restless relentlessly intriguing album is that David Bowie is positively allergic to the idea of heritage rock 80 Chris Gerard of PopMatters called the album singular in its unique sound and vibe describing it as trippy and majestic head music spun from moonage daydreams and made for gliding in and out of life 87 Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly considered the album Bowie s best work in years In a review published before his death Greenblatt felt the album contained enough themes and imagery that could probably be dissected for days or even weeks 77 In a review before Bowie s death Ryan Dombal of Pitchfork wrote 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 81 Barry Walters of NPR reviewing the album the day after Bowie s death believed the album resonates precisely because it favors emotion over meaning Walters felt that the album is so startling because it reminded listeners that even though Bowie was long past his golden years it is almost as if he never left them He concluded the review stating even while staring down death he reversed his claim on Station to Station so many years ago It s never too late to be grateful 88 Writing for The A V Club which chose it as the best album of 2016 Sean O Neal described Blackstar as a sonically adventurous album that proves Bowie was always one step ahead where he ll now remain in perpetuity 89 Sandra Sperounes of the Edmonton Journal stated that Bowie kept true to the artistic statement An artist must be willing to embrace failure as one step to evolving what it is he does You have to be able to fail to accept it otherwise you re not going to go anywhere With Blackstar he kept true to this artistic statement until his body failed We have to accept it the Starman is now returning to the heavens above We can t begin to thank you enough for all your gifts 90 Following Bowie s death Bryan Wawzenek of Ultimate Classic Rock ranked Blackstar as Bowie s twelfth greatest album describing it as a throwback to his Berlin Trilogy Although he felt it wasn t as accessible as The Next Day he considered it a great companion piece and a fitting end to one of rock s most influential careers 29 In 2018 Consequence of Sound ranked the album as Bowie s eighth greatest writing This is one of Bowie s most dynamic outings and a courageous triggering of a second creative wind Praising the experimental nature and lyrics staff writer Lior Phillips concluded It s a startling reminder that the only way Bowie can transcend 49 years of artistry is by detaching from the Superstar he had become and transform into a new thing altogether 91 The album was also included in the 2018 edition of Robert Dimery s book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die 92 Pitchfork later listed the album as one of the greatest albums of the 2010s decade calling it a magnificent farewell to his audience 93 Accolades edit Blackstar was named one of the best albums of 2016 by numerous publications 94 According to Metacritic it was the most prominently ranked record of 2016 95 In The Village Voice s annual Pazz amp Jop critics poll Blackstar finished at number one in the voting for 2016 s top album 96 At the 59th Annual Grammy Awards in 2017 the album won awards for Best Alternative Music Album Best Recording Package and Best Engineered Album Non Classical 97 In addition the title track won both Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance 97 The album was nominated for the Top Rock Album award at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards 98 losing to Blurryface by Twenty One Pilots 99 Blackstar was later named as one of the greatest albums of the 2010s decade by numerous publications including Billboard 100 Consequence of Sound 101 NME 102 Pitchfork 93 Rolling Stone 103 Slant Magazine 104 and Stereogum 105 Accolades for Blackstar Publication Accolade Rank Ref The A V Club 20 Best Albums of 2016 1 89 Billboard The 100 Greatest Albums of the 2010s 49 100 Consequence of Sound Top 50 Albums of 2016 3 106 The 100 Top Albums of the 2010s 17 101 The Guardian 100 Best Albums of the 21st Century 24 107 The Independent Best Albums of 2016 17 108 Mojo The Best of 2016 1 109 The New York Times The Best Albums of 2016 2 110 NME NME s Albums of the Year 2016 6 111 The Best Albums of The Decade The 2010s 13 102 Pitchfork The 50 Best Albums of 2016 4 112 The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s 37 93 Q Q s Top 50 Albums of the Year 2016 1 113 Rolling Stone 50 Best Albums of 2016 2 114 Readers Poll 10 Best Albums of 2016 1 115 100 Best Albums of the 2010s 5 103 Slant Magazine The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s 39 104 sputnikmusic Staff s Top 50 Albums of 2016 1 116 Commercial performance editBlackstar was already on course to debut at number one on the UK Albums Chart prior to the announcement of Bowie s death on 10 January 2016 according to the Official Charts Company 117 The album debuted at number one after selling 146 000 copies in the first week 118 a week that 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 119 and became his tenth number one album in the UK 120 The album remained three weeks at number one 121 falling to number two behind another Bowie album the compilation Best of Bowie 2002 which became the first ever album to get to number one in the UK because of streaming 121 As of January 2018 the album has sold 446 000 copies in the United Kingdom 122 Bowie was the biggest selling vinyl artist of 2016 in the UK with five albums in the vinyl Top 30 including Blackstar as the number one vinyl album of the year It sold twice as many copies as the previous year s winner Adele s 25 123 In the US the album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart moving 181 000 copies in its first week 124 Its number one debut was previously anticipated by Billboard 125 though its total sales exceeded expectations by 51 000 copies 126 The album topped the iTunes chart following Bowie s death with Best of Bowie 2002 placing second 126 127 It was Bowie s first number one in the US and best weekly sales figure 128 129 It was the 14th best selling album in the US in 2016 with 448 000 copies sold that year 130 After news of his death some music stores in both the US and UK sold out of copies 131 132 The album also peaked at number one in 24 countries number two in Greece 133 and Mexico 134 number four in Hungary 135 and number five in Japan 136 It has since been certified Gold in Germany New Zealand Portugal Spain Sweden and the US certified Platinum in Australia Austria Belgium Canada Denmark France Italy Poland Switzerland and the UK and 2 Platinum in the Netherlands According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry IFPI it was the fifth best selling album of the year worldwide 137 It has sold more than 1 900 000 copies as of April 2017 138 Track listing editAll tracks are written by David Bowie except where notedBlackstar track listingNo TitleWriter s Length1 Blackstar 9 572 Tis a Pity She Was a Whore 4 523 Lazarus 6 224 Sue Or in a Season of Crime music by Bowie Maria Schneider Paul Bateman and Bob Bhamra4 405 Girl Loves Me 4 526 Dollar Days 4 447 I Can t Give Everything Away 5 47Total length 41 14 Download release bonus contentNo TitleLength8 Blackstar video 10 00Total length 51 14 Notes Blackstar is stylised as 3 Sue Or in a Season of Crime contains elements from Brand New Heavy by Plastic Soul written by Bateman and Bhamra The latter s surname is consistently misspelled as Bharma in the album s liner notes 3 Personnel editPersonnel adapted from Blackstar liner notes 3 Musicians David Bowie vocals acoustic guitar Fender guitar Lazarus harmonica I Can t Give Everything Away string arrangement Blackstar Donny McCaslin tenor saxophone flute Jason Lindner piano Wurlitzer organ keyboards Tim Lefebvre bass Mark Guiliana drums percussion Ben Monder guitar Tony Visconti strings Blackstar James Murphy percussion Sue Or in a Season of Crime and Girl Loves Me Erin Tonkon backing vocals Tis a Pity She Was a Whore Production David Bowie production mixing Tony Visconti production mixing engineering Tom Elmhirst final master mixing Joe LaPorta mastering Kevin Killen engineering Kabir Hermon assistant engineering Erin Tonkon assistant engineering Joe Visciano mixing assistance Artwork Barnbrook album design Jimmy King photography Johan Renck photography Dollar Days image NASA star imageCharts editWeekly charts edit Weekly chart performance for Blackstar Chart 2016 Peakposition Australian Albums ARIA 139 1 Austrian Albums O3 Austria 139 1 Belgian Albums Ultratop Flanders 139 1 Belgian Albums Ultratop Wallonia 139 1 Canadian Albums Billboard 140 1 Croatian International Albums HDU 141 1 Czech Albums CNS IFPI 142 1 Danish Albums Hitlisten 139 1 Dutch Albums Album Top 100 139 1 Finnish Albums Suomen virallinen lista 143 1 French Albums SNEP 139 1 German Albums Offizielle Top 100 144 1 Greek Albums IFPI 133 2 Hungarian Albums MAHASZ 135 4 Irish Albums IRMA 145 1 Italian Albums FIMI 139 1 Japanese Albums Oricon 146 5 Japanese Albums Oricon 136 5 Mexican Albums AMPROFON 134 2 New Zealand Albums RMNZ 139 1 Norwegian Albums VG lista 139 1 Polish Albums ZPAV 147 1 Portuguese Albums AFP 139 1 Scottish Albums OCC 148 1 South Korean Albums Gaon 149 29 South Korean Albums International Gaon 150 2 Spanish Albums PROMUSICAE 139 1 Swedish Albums Sverigetopplistan 139 1 Swiss Albums Schweizer Hitparade 139 1 UK Albums OCC 151 1 US Billboard 200 124 1 US Top Alternative Albums Billboard 152 1 US Top Rock Albums Billboard 153 1 US Top Tastemaker Albums Billboard 154 1 Monthly charts edit Monthly chart performance for Blackstar Chart 2016 Peakposition Argentine Monthly Albums CAPIF 155 2 Year end charts edit 2016 year end chart performance for Blackstar Chart 2016 PeakPosition Australian Albums ARIA 156 8 Austrian Albums O3 Austria 157 6 Belgian Albums Ultratop Flanders 158 3 Belgian Albums Ultratop Wallonia 159 9 Canadian Albums Billboard 160 37 Danish Albums Hitlisten 161 17 Dutch Albums Album Top 100 162 7 French Albums SNEP 163 27 German Albums Offizielle Top 100 164 17 Hungarian Albums MAHASZ 165 65 Icelandic Albums Plotutioindi 166 18 Italian Albums FIMI 167 16 Japanese Albums Oricon 168 78 Mexican Albums AMPROFON 169 94 New Zealand Albums RMNZ 170 6 Polish Albums ZPAV 171 40 South Korean Albums International Gaon 172 39 Spanish Albums PROMUSICAE 173 23 Swedish Albums Sverigetopplistan 174 20 Swiss Albums Schweizer Hitparade 175 6 UK Albums OCC 176 6 US Billboard 200 177 64 US Top Rock Albums Billboard 178 4 Worldwide Albums IFPI 179 5 2017 year end chart performance for Blackstar Chart 2017 PeakPosition Belgian Albums Ultratop Flanders 180 108 Belgian Albums Ultratop Wallonia 181 182 Decade end chart edit Decade end chart performance for Blackstar Chart 2010 2019 Position UK Vinyl Albums OCC 182 15Certifications edit See Tfd See Tfd Certifications for Blackstar Region Certification Certified units sales Australia ARIA 183 Platinum 70 000 Austria IFPI Austria 184 Platinum 15 000 Belgium BEA 185 Platinum 30 000 Canada Music Canada 186 Platinum 80 000 Denmark IFPI Danmark 187 Platinum 20 000 France SNEP 188 Platinum 100 000 Germany BVMI 189 Platinum 200 000 Italy FIMI 190 Platinum 50 000 Netherlands NVPI 191 Platinum 40 000 New Zealand RMNZ 192 Gold 7 500 Poland ZPAV 193 Platinum 20 000 Portugal AFP 194 Gold 7 500 Spain PROMUSICAE 195 Gold 20 000 Sweden GLF 196 Gold 20 000 Switzerland IFPI Switzerland 197 Platinum 20 000 United Kingdom BPI 198 Platinum 446 000 122 United States RIAA 199 Gold 500 000 Summaries Worldwide 1 900 000 200 Sales figures based on certification alone Shipments figures based on certification alone Sales streaming figures based on certification alone Release history editRelease formats for Blackstar 201 Region Date Format s Label Various 8 January 2016 CDdownloadvinylstreaming ISOColumbiaSonyNotes edit Bowie had previously provided uncredited guest vocals on the title track of Reflektor 15 16 Drummer Joey Baron played on Outside 1995 and trumpeter Lester Bowie had a brief solo on Jump They Say 1993 33 34 References edit Blackstar CD David Bowie amp Artist Arena Archived from the original on 28 February 2016 pronounced Blackstar a b Furness Hannah 13 January 2016 David Bowie s last release Lazarus was parting gift for fans in carefully planned finale The Daily Telegraph Archived from the original on 25 March 2016 Retrieved 23 April 2018 a b c d e Blackstar album liner notes David Bowie ISO 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Italiana 22 February 2016 Retrieved 25 January 2016 Select 2016 in the Anno drop down menu Select Blackstar in the Filtra field Select Album e Compilation under Sezione Dutch album certifications David Bowie Blackstar in Dutch Nederlandse Vereniging van Producenten en Importeurs van beeld en geluidsdragers Retrieved 15 August 2018 EnterBlackstar in the Artiest of titel box Select 2016 in the drop down menu saying Alle jaargangen New Zealand album certifications David Bowie Blackstar Recorded Music NZ Retrieved 29 January 2016 Wyroznienia Platynowe plyty CD Archiwum Przyznane w 2018 roku in Polish Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry Retrieved 31 January 2018 Portuguese album certifications David Bowie Blackstar PDF in Portuguese Associacao Fonografica Portuguesa Retrieved 28 April 2018 Spanish album certifications David Bowie Blackstar El portal de Musica Productores de Musica de Espana Retrieved 3 February 2016 Sverigetopplistan David Bowie in Swedish Sverigetopplistan Retrieved 17 October 2016 The Official Swiss Charts and Music Community Awards David Bowie IFPI Switzerland Hung Medien Retrieved 18 December 2018 British album certifications David Bowie British Phonographic Industry Retrieved 15 January 2016 American album certifications David Bowie Blackstar Recording Industry Association of America Global Music Report 2017 PDF IFPI 25 April 2017 Archived from the original PDF on 26 April 2017 Retrieved 25 April 2017 Pegg 2016 pp 470 471 Book sources edit O Leary Chris 2019 Ashes to Ashes The Songs of David Bowie 1976 2018 London Repeater Books ISBN 978 1 91224 836 0 Pegg Nicholas 2016 The Complete David Bowie Revised and Updated ed London Titan Books ISBN 978 1 78565 365 0 External links editBlackstar at Discogs list of releases Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Blackstar album amp oldid 1220591261, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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