NEW David Bowie album: Blackstar (January 8, 2016)

I say listen, while the emotions are strong...Its a powerful message and one he intended for us to hear

 

Still haven't.... But I think the last part of your message is a very convincing reason.

 

I got it before the news came out but hadn't listened to it yet. I regret not having a single listen to the album as "Bowie's newest album" as opposed to "Bowie's last album".

 

Why wait, while Bowie's intention was for us to hear it.If that was his wish, I think one should honor that.

 

It's a pretty amazing album, one that needs to be listened to intently in one sitting.

 

Indeed. Followed by subsequent repeated listenings! This is an experience.

 

Not necessarily a fun one, but a fascinating, moving, and musical one.

 

Well said. I'd add otherworldly to your list of adjectives.

 

Well, Bowie might have been from another world, right?

 

My wife finally admitted that she liked Lazarus tonight. She's a roots/folk freak, that's a big admission from her.

 

It's poignant that you raise that.

It's something that I luckily, thankfully managed to do. There was an unburdened elation and excitement that sadly only lasted a couple of days. I'd had the album preordered from iTunes (I was away on holiday) and downloaded it that Friday morning. Of course, it's not a morning album but I played it straight away.

Then later that day or the Saturday, I can't remember, I played it for my parents (whom I was visiting) which was a nice moment for me, as they were the ones that introduced me Bowie 30 years ago. They're not so into his modern stuff and they can't buy CDs where they live now and they're not into downloading, so on my last couple of semi-annual visits I persevered (you WILL like this!) and brought them copies of The Next Day and Nothing Has Changed. It's me trying to return the favour of them introducing me to Ziggy, Diamond Dogs, Aladdin Sane and the rest.

So my playing to them of Blackstar meant we came full circle. My mum thought it was "Bowie being weird" and Dad said he still preferred the older stuff but it was lovely to share it with them.

Then on Monday morning, they came into my room to tell me. I guess it was a fitting way for me to find out: told by my parents who'd "told" me about him in the first place.

So we had a couple of days of it as his newest album at least. And for that I am grateful.

(And by this of course I don't mean to "stick two fingers up" to you as it were, your point struck a chord with me)

 

My experience was similar. I'd ordered from Amazon and was notified that I could download the album at a minute after midnight. So I did and went to bed after listening to the album. It seemed a bit sad, in a way I couldn't explain, but I was thrilled by the album. The next day and across the weekend it got played a lot, and I enthused about it to everyone. Lots of my friends were impressed by it, some were long time fans, some not so much, but the response was overwhelmingly positive. That was a great weekend.

Then at 7am on that Monday morning, the awful news. And the whole feel of the album changed. How could we have been so blind, it seems so obvious now that this was a goodbye note.
I had actually emailed some friends on the day of release to say that the last two songs seemed like Bowie was retiring, bowing out from the business. But I couldn't have guessed how final that retirement would be.
Blackstar is a wonderful record.
I couldn't play the thing for a while after DB died though. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Then a very dear friend said "It's new music, from your all time favourite singer, so play the album, it's surely what Bowie would have wanted." And she was right.
Bowie left us with this record, to be played, not for it to be sat on a shelf gathering dust. It needs to be heard.
It's perhaps not his greatest album ever, but it's damn good. And certainly, for now, to me it's the most important.

 

Anybody heard "The Ship" by Eno? It may be coincidence but it goes well with "Blackstar"....

 

Just got a copy of it, but haven't given it a play yet. Thanks for the heads up to that!

 

It is a coincidence, as Eno had early versions of The Ship in installations at least as far back as 2014, and probably earlier. I'm not yet convinced by The Ship. The title track could be about half the length and I'd be happier, but "Fickle Sun" is better and Eno's cover of "I'm Set Free" is stunningly good.

 

Got its own The Ship thread here or you could check out BWW

 

I had the vinyl but kept it sealed until last Monday (I've been playing the cd this whole time). So I opened the vinyl and let it rip on the Maggies and subwoofer - played it straight thru. Wow, what a piece! Crazy and intense at a slightly higher volume.

 

And...how would you compare the sound of the CD to the vinyl?

 

I can't speak for the CD, but I got the official high res download. Not only does the vinyl blow it away, my high res rip of the vinyl blows it away. The mastering for the official hi-res has squashed the dynamics horribly.

DR numbers from vinyl rips can be extremely misleading, due to the natural rumble of vinyl and surface noise, etc. My rip is unreasonably clean (it took literally every little click out over the space of three days.) But the numbers are almost DOUBLE for the vinyl. The DR numbers for the download are 5-5-5-5-6-6-6. The numbers for the vinyl rip are 11-10-11-10-11-11-10.

There are times that the vinyl (almost) sounds like a different MIX, not just a different mastering job.

 

You guys probably already knew this but I just saw this doing the rounds on Reddit:

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet »

 

Reminds me a lot of the starfilled black universe that was shown on the official album website I believe shortly after release; if you hovered or clicked individual stars different social media posts from fans were displayed. Wonderful idea that was.

 

Wonderful, and forward-thinking as always...

Is that still online? I'd love to see it.

 

Tried a quick search some time ago and couldn't find it; nor any info referring to it.... anyone else ?

 

Found this, doesn't say much else than what's in the thread.

Something beautiful happens when David Bowie's ‘Blackstar' vinyl is left in the sun »

 

Even his son is impressed.

Duncan Jones ‏@ManMadeMoon 8m8 minutes ago
Leaving us surprises even now. So clever. So missed. http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/this-is-what-happens-when-you-leave-david-bowies-blackstar-in-the-sun…