Blackstar: The Testament of David Bowie – The Nacional.com

One of the last genius of rock star David Bowie, is that exposed the myopia of music critics and received their disc media beforehand, but none captured the messages along it were too obvious They are not hidden: sometimes repeats “I’m dying” nearly 15 times in the same song

‘Blackstar’ appeared in stores and digital platforms on 8 January, and Bowie died of cancer 10. at night. As a great testimony to this dramatic turn, the reviews they were journalists wrote before his death, indelible in the Internet age

But most striking is that ‘Blackstar’ is not a posthumous album.: It not hits stores on 8 January with the intention (the distributors did not even know that Bowie had cancer). Nor is it a forced issue of new songs that the star had saved, as often happens in almost all cases in which artists approach their twilight.

This is an album thought through as something completely new and, as was always the custom of Bowie, revolutionized the world of music. His process of creation began from zero while his battle against cancer.

The song that gives title track has that sound ingredient that could marry into the ‘trip hop’ without marrying with the label-but also through the styles explored in all the decades: something of his 70, his 80th of the past decade …

Your letter and yes, the whole song, is his farewell, which has been translated as the time when the star, shining star, turns off. The letter says it all, at times in the third person but in the choir, in the first person: “Something happened the day he died, his spirit rose one meter and took off, someone else took his place, and cried bravely ‘I am a black star, I’m a black star’ “

It is also the song that comes to life in the symbol created for the album cover, the first time the face of Bowie does not appear as the first. print. As if the star outside the tombstone (a virtual, because Bowie was cremated).

In another court, ‘Tis a Pity She Was a Whore’, there is a possible reference to his illness than anyone could have imagined until the news broke: the song starts with a sound just three seconds which is recording be forced breathing, clearly the result of a condition. Only an artist of the stature of Bowie could make such a sound of a song.

Another showing his genius is ‘Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)’, in which the saxophone breaks out who has accompanied many previous successes, and weaves a progressive growth -Bowie, somehow, also made part of progresivo– remote rock climbing going to a very intense pace synth sequences and to a point where download all the sound explodes in a silence in which one feels the energy of a connected amplifier

This is the only song that already had a ‘rack’ with Bowie. it had been a single published in compilation ‘nothing has changed’ -’Nada has changed ‘, great title to define Bowie, November 2014. It is assumed that he knew of his illness the middle of that year.

‘ Dollar Days’, basked in the obvious way of referring to death that went unnoticed: talk all the time of falling, or walking down: “There is nothing for me, there is nothing to do … I die / treatment / die / treatment”. It could not be more obvious.

Each section shows the artist in his full side. For example, ‘Girl Loves Me’, which has not been much talked about, shows the depth of Bowie singer and songwriter. He collaborated in the implementation James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem.

In these reflections that come with the farewell, Bowie sings “I Can not Give Everything Away ‘(‘ I can not drop everything ‘), with a letter that had come from the depths of its decline: “I know that something is very wrong, pulse back to the prodigal sons, hearts with flowery news blackout, with designs of skulls in my shoes (…). Seeing more and feeling less, meaning that saying no but yes, this is all I wanted to say, is the message that I send you “. ‘Blackstar’ is a testament.

‘Lazarus’, the single with video he posted on Thursday, January 7 (another too obvious reference to his illness), starts with the stamp of something he can be declared inventor: guitar style ‘glam’ Mick Ronson (who died in 1993) seeded in ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars’. But then takes elements of jazz. And the end is not any particular genre, but a new one with the name ‘bowie’.

To feed all theories about a symbol like Bowie, ‘Lazarus’ turns out to be a reference to Lazarus Bethany, the man who raises the miracles of Jesus Christ. Many want to see the resurrection of another Lazarus.

Blackstar

“Blackstar” was produced by Tony Visconti, who was with David Bowie in 13 of their studio albums, and accompanying other musicians saxophonist Donny McCaslin, guitarist Ben Monder, pianist Jason Lindner, drummer Mark Guiliana and bassist Tim Lefebvre. He collaborated James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem. Everyone knew the secret of the disease Bowie remained year and a half.