David Bowie: "Blackstar"

There is a star in our universe called KIC 8462852 that may or may not be the hub of what some not-at-all-crazy scientists are calling “a swarm of megastructures” that may or may not be of alien origin. (Yes, this is a real thing.) The idea came about when people noticed that this particular star was experiencing periods of unprecedented dimming, as if something huge and unknown was blocking its light. Further studies on the phenomenon are currently being done, but, in the meantime, David Bowie has given us a soundtrack and theoretical visual to the potential life surrounding KIC 8462852 in the form of “Blackstar”, the wonderfully odd and expansive title track from his forthcoming 28th studio album.

The “Blackstar” video begins with an eclipsed sun looking down on a woman with a tail and a bejeweled astronaut skull—and it only gets stranger from there. The music is similarly outré, 10 minutes of interstellar art-rock and ritualistic chanting and melodramatic balladry and even some playful funk. In scope and audacity, it’s closer to the cocaine-fueled fantasias of 1976’s “Station to Station” than almost anything he’s done since. It’s certainly worlds away from the relatively staid songs on his 2013 comeback album The Next Day, which could be looked back on as a warm-up, an explorer getting his space legs back after years on land. The “Blackstar” at the center of the song takes the form of a messianic figure whose intentions are certainly questionable and probably destructive. “You’re a flash in the pan/ I’m the great I Am,” Bowie sings in character, poking fun at our need to explain the inexplicable while remaining as perplexing and powerful as ever.

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