33 LAZARUS

David Bowie

The knowledge that these were the last sounds of a dying man inevitably made them more potent. Still, even without that Lazarus was still a stunning piece of music, from an album that included more thoughtful innovation and ambition than we had any right to expect from a man on his twenty-fifth album, in a recording career of more than 50 years (let alone someone in the tightening grip of cancer). Bowie artfully fused alt.rock, avant-jazz and unflinching meditations on mortality into a darkly beautiful masterpiece. The haunting, enigmatic pearl of his twilight years. PG From: Blackstar, 2016