01/12/2016
MORE PRAISE FOR ★ ALBUM IN US PRESS
“I catch the paper boy...”
There’s been a whole raft of great reviews for the ★ album over the last few days.
We’ll be selecting a few from around the globe over the next week or so.
Here are edited excerpts from three reviews in the American press.
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The Wall Street Journal: Ziggy Stardust Plays Jazz - By JIM FUSILLI (http://smarturl.it/WSJBlackstarReview)
With “Blackstar,” the delicious conceit of David Bowie conspiring with modern jazz artists is fulfilled beautifully. What began merely as a “boundary-pushing experiment,” according to Mr. Visconti, the album confirms that Mr. Bowie has long found inspiration in jazz. With its powerful, erudite performances by Mr. McCaslin and crew, “Blackstar” emerges as an album to savor as well as admire.
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Chicago Sun-Times: Bowie obliterates boundaries on his blazing ‘Blackstar’ (http://smarturl.it/SunTimesBlackstar)
Has there ever been a pop star cooler than David Bowie? Through a career spanning nearly 50 years and a wide assortment of styles and genres— including a few he helped pioneer— this multifaceted artist and personality has continued to pique our curiosity without compromising or embarrassing himself.
Not all of Bowie’s projects have been mind-blowing, of course; but his latest album, Blackstar— out Friday, his 69th birthday— is an unqualified triumph. Texturally adventurous, sonically stunning and full of both ambivalence and yearning, it reveals a musician who has seldom acknowledged boundaries or courted accessibility in top form, with most accessible results.
Blackstar reaffirms both his gift for flash and the soulfulness that sustains it — the fire under his chilly exterior, which by all indications is burning as brightly as ever.
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Los Angeles Times: David Bowie looks far beyond pop on jazz-inspired 'Blackstar' - By Mikael Wood (http://smarturl.it/LATimesBlackstar)
As fierce and unsettling -- and sometimes as beautiful -- as anything in Bowie’s one-of-a-kind catalog, “Blackstar” looks to jazz not for tunes or signifiers but for a proud sense of sonic freedom. If anything, it views taste and maturity with suspicion -- and thus shares about as much with your typical rocker-doing-jazz record as the singer’s trippy new off-Broadway musical, “Lazarus,” does with “Les Miz.”
The album’s intensity shouldn’t come as a surprise. In early 2013, after 10 years of quiet, Bowie suddenly reemerged with “The Next Day,” a jolt of vivid guitar rock that openly recalled his classic work from the 1970s. But where “The Next Day” showed he could still do pop economy, “Blackstar” emphasizes a different Bowie attribute: His willingness to pursue an idea well beyond the constraints of verse-chorus-verse.
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While we’re with the LA Times, the paper ran another recent piece by Sasha Frere-Jones, titled: An insider's look behind the making of David Bowie's secretive 'Blackstar' album, with contributions from both Tony Visconti and Donny McCaslin. (http://smarturl.it/LATimesMakingBS)
iTunes: smarturl.it/blackstar_itunes
Amazon: smarturl.it/blackstar_amazon
Spotify: smarturl.it/blackstar_spotify
Vinyl: smarturl.it/blackstar_vinyl
