David Bowie- Blackstar (2016)

This haunting and mournfully reflective bunch of songs was unexpectedly given to us mere days before David Bowie died at the disappointing age of 69 in the early days of 2016, a year which would yet prove to have further unpleasant shocks in store.

It is. of course, a work of brilliance. ate period Bowie is consistently excellent, but tis is something special. It's not just the oft-quoted impression, I think, that this is the album where Bowie, artist to the end, effectively curates his own death. No; it's just a brilliantly introspective album, jazzy, the good kind of weird, that takes a good few listens to drill its tendrils into your brain and then continues drilling indefinitely.

"Lazarus" and "Blackstar" are obviously the standout tracks, but the whole death-soaked album is devoid of filler, ending, appropriately, with the pensive "I Can't Give Everything Away". The perspective of five years has, if anything, made it even clearer that this album is an extraordinary artifact, and perhaps the pinnacle of Bowie's lifelong performance through Ziggy Stardust, Thin White Duke, and finally a personal, but not cultural, oblivion.

David Bowie was a bloody genius. That is all.