It’s haunting, it’s strange, it’s only a single by David goddamn Bowie!
The musical legend has churned out “Black Star”, his latest delightful (yet rather confusing) offering, with an accompanying video that sees him transported to some other-worldly realm. With a few dodgy looking scarecrows gyrating their hips (yes, apparently that is actually a thing), a flimsy looking bible and a solar eclipse thrown in for good measure, you’d be mistaken for thinking someone had unearthed one of The Mirror‘s undercover sting operations on a weird hay-stuffed cult.
An amalgamation of psychedelic-rock slow cooked over a pop-art fire, this track has so many twists and turns we can barely keep up. Throughout the track Bowie’s vocals are reminiscent of some sort of haunting religious ceremony – all be it in a barn with plenty of sexually frustrated ‘hay people’ chanting “I’m not a porn star / I’m not a film star / I’m a black star”.
It’s a wonderfully weird offering, one whose repeat button can’t help but be clicked after the 10 minute show is up – oh, and did I mention there are some perplexing bagpipe sounds at the end? Yeah, that too.
