Advert for Bowies New Album Black Star

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http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/01/blackstar-david-bowie-review-interpretation-isis-ego-stardom/422928/
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kszLwBaC4Sw&feature=player_embedded

The title track of David Bowie’s new album, Blackstar, is about ISIS. Maybe. Bowie reportedly mentioned the Islamic State to the saxophonist and band leader Donny McCaslin when talking about the song, though the drummer Mark Guiliana and the producer Tony Visconti told Rolling Stone they had no idea the haunted and haunting 10-minute opener had anything to do with terrorism. Most anyone who listens to the thing would probably say the same. For starters, its first line mentions the Norse village of Ormen, which is not currently in the caliphate.

But that ISIS comment, relayed second-hand, is about all anyone’s got for now about the intentions and meaning of Blackstar from its author: Bowie doesn’t give interviews anymore. Which you might call frustrating—except for the fact that Blackstar could lose some of its considerable magic were it ever fully explained by its creator. Attempting to interpret its mystery, on your own, is part of the appeal.

His 2013 comeback record, The Next Day, collected short pop-rock jams you could throw onto a playlist; Bowie’s 25th full length  (actual title: “★”) offers seven epics of alternately terrifying and spellbinding jazz instrumentation over which Bowie bellows phrases like “The blackout hearts the flowered news / With skull designs upon my shoes” and somehow makes them catchy. Two interconnected music videos from a Breaking Bad director have preceded it, featuring people convulsing rhythmically, like GIFs, and Bowie crooning from under a burlap blindfold. Fully understanding may be futile, but understand one must try.

So let’s. That grand, freaky opener “Blackstar” has two interlocking sections. There’s a refrain where Bowie sounds solemn and a bit frightened as he describes the worship of a candle, the power of someone’s eyes, and “the day of execution.” And there’s a cheekier-seeming riff filled with brags and insults as a high, distorted voice in the background squeals “I’m a blackstar” and modulations on it: “I’m not a filmstar,” “I’m not a marvel star,” “I’m not a pop star.” There’s also this: “You’re a flash in the pan / I’m the great I Am.” To whatever extent these lyrics can be summarized, they are about worship, ambition, and ascendance—and, more than anything, the allure and power of being “at the center of it all.”

Hey up ! ..... went out at 1:45pm.