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Listen to: David Bowie's Blackstar

Blackstar is David Bowie's farewell to fans
Blackstar is David Bowie's farewell to fans Blackstar is David Bowie's farewell to fans

DAVD Bowie's farewell to his fans is no sop to those still pining away for their beloved Ziggy, offering instead a pointedly modernist brew of busy processed beats, electronic embellishments and warm, jazzy flourishes.

The meandering, hymn-like title track sifts through five minutes of sax-skronk strewn musical desert before unearthing its actual, rather slinky tune: pulsing ambient plodder Girl Loves Me just about gets by on Dave's pleasingly unhinged vocal, while 'Tis A Pity She Was A Whore's horn-honking ambient synthpop quickly begins to grate.

Much better is the rather sinister sound of Sue (Or In A Season of Crime), its prowling post-punk guitar and bass throb backed by junglist beats, while raw emotion meshes with melancholy melody to devastatingly powerful effect on jazz soul-tinged album highlight Lazarus and its similarly reflective companion Dollar Days.

"Look up here, I'm in heaven" croons Bowie on the former, words guaranteed to crush fans still reeling from his sudden departure, while the soft rock guitars, swelling e-strings and drum loops of I Can't Give Everything Away finds the Starman bowing out blissfully.

A typically uneven, idiosyncratic sign-off from a brilliant artist courageous enough to follow his muse wherever it led him.

RIP.