David Bowie may be pushing 69, but that hasn’t stopped him from continuing to put out weird, interesting stuff. Remember when he made that music video with his doppelganger Tilda Swinton? That’s par for the course for the erstwhile Thin White Duke! He is releasing his 25th album on January 8, his birthday, but he’s already released a video for its first single. Since he’s Bowie, of course it’s a weird short film.
The album is called Blackstar, and so is the song, but it’s technically written as a symbol of just a, you know, black star. Hey, if you’re Bowie, or Prince, you can get away with stuff like that because you are an eccentric musical genius. The film was directed by Johan Renck, who is also using “Blackstar” for the theme song of his British TV show The Last Panthers.
It’s 10 minutes long, and there is a spaceman and an eclipse and ladies in the desert and, of course, David Bowie dancing and singing in a weird, creepy way in some sort of attic. There’s also a book with a black star on the cover, of course. It’s all very bizarre, and somewhat off putting, but that’s probably exactly what Bowie was going for. As for the song, considering how long Bowie has been at it, and how often older musicians rest on their laurels, it’s pretty good. It’s not the sort of Earth shaking music he used to make, but it has a beat you can (creepily) dance to.
(Via Stereogum)
