Blackstar by David Bowie

The reason Blackstar has already secured its place in the permanent record of popular music is something no amount of musical daring alone could manufacture. Blackstar is a document of a man confronting his own death with extraordinary artistic composure. Bowie had been diagnosed with liver cancer eighteen months before the album's release, and kept his illness entirely secret. He poured that knowledge — the fear, the acceptance, the dark humour, the desperate creativity — into the record, encoding it in imagery dense enough to feel meaningful without giving the game away. Songs about bluebirds and freedom, about stepping aside, about the impossibility of giving everything away. A title that conjures darkness, mystery, and the void. The whole thing was a message in a bottle, written by a man who knew exactly when it would be found. When the bottle washed ashore, it changed the way the entire record sounded. Featured songs:BlackstarTis A Pity She Was A WhoreLazarusSue [Or In A Season Of Crime]Dollar DaysI Can’t Give Everything AwayMore Bowie on my Substack