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Does David Bowie’s ‘Blackstar’ Show A New Era Of Creativity For The Rock Icon?

By Sarah Field
Published on: 15:16 PST, Nov 22, 2015

David Bowie’s new video for his single “Blackstar,” the title track of his upcoming album, clocks in at exactly 10 minutes. It’s a cinematic experience that combines surreal imagery with an unusual soundtrack that, according to Billboard,“spans two fairly separate songs.” The clip was so cinematic, it actually debuted in a Brooklyn theater, with Bowie collaborators Tony Visconti and Johan Renck — although not Bowie himself — in attendance.

Renck revealed that old Popeye cartoons were the inspiration for the bizarre shaking movements of the clip’s extras. In the old-style animation, only the central figures were moving continuously, with the background characters doing a loop of the same few seconds of movement. It adds to the strange atmosphere of the “Blackstar” video that Rolling Stone called “haunting” and “psychedelic.”

As Rolling Stone reported, Renck’s work on “Blackstar” started in July. He filmed David Bowie in his hometown of New York and other scenes from the video in Bucharest, Romania. Renck spoke highly of the singer, whom he’d long admired.

“[He’s] genuine, curious, playful, smart, funny, profound, truthful.

“He’s very curious. He’s very open. He’d be clear if there’s something he doesn’t like or want to do.”

The Guardian spoke favorably about the track, reviewing it in the context of Bowie’s large catalog, likening it more to Bowie’s celebrated experimental work of the 1970s than his more laborious experimental work of the early 1990s.

“It looks a bit everything-but-the-kitchen-sink on paper, but in reality it doesn’t feel cluttered at all: furthermore, it carries the listener along with it as it conjures up an atmosphere of mounting dread.”

The Verge put “Blackstar” on its recommended weekly playlist, alongside Adele, Justin Bieber, and One Direction, among others. The site noted Bowie’s long tenure in the music industry and called it “inspiring” that the singer was still exploring unique musical terrain after 50 years in the business.

The Guardian compared the “Blackstar” track to Bowie’s last unexpected release, The Next Day, which came out in 2013. That album marked a return after almost a decade of no recorded music from the rock icon, although he’d participated in smaller and more obscure projects.

Although The Next Day was heralded as a welcome comeback upon its release, The Guardian argued that, in retrospect, the album was “superior but straightforward rock.” The avant-garde nature of “Blackstar,” if it is indeed indicative of what the full album sounds like, does not have that same commercial feel.

According to Tony Visconti, who worked with Bowie on many of his albums over the past several decades, including The Next Day and Blackstar, fans can expect a departure from a standard rock sound on the new release. He said the upcoming Blackstar disc developed differently than Bowie’s last musical venture.

“‘The Next Day’ started out trying to do something new but something old kept creeping in. Not this album.”

Since The Next Day was released, Bowie has also released a compilation disc, Nothing Has Changed.

Even as Bowie continues to release new music, he has been recycling the old for fans who can never get enough of his unique style of art rock and his classic hits. There was Nothings Has Changed, and this fall off-Broadway, there is Lazarus, a new play co-written by Bowie that includes some new tracks but also a substantial amount of old music. The cast recently revealed that Bowie was “jazzed” about the off-Broadway show and tickets are sold out for the remainder of its run.

David Bowie’s next album is set for release on January 8, 2016, the musician’s 69th birthday.

[Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images]

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