Picked up the Blackstar LP yesterday morning and listened to it a couple of times during dinner last night and liked it quite a lot. We discussed where his music would be going from here but I guess that's kind of immaterial now, given the news. I always appreciated Bowie's music and worked with a lot of people who were heavily influenced by his work but I was always off listening to other genres and never got into his milieu. Amazing performer and always worth listening to. I met him one day in a recording studio -- very charming guy, dressed to the nines at 9 AM as he was coming in to do some voiceover work for a commercial. No handlers, no posse, just David Bowie.
For the hi-fi oriented amongst us, I would say that although the songs on Blackstar are interesting and the arrangements and performances are excellent, I wasn't crazy about the sound of the album. It feels like it would be better listened to on headphones or in the car than through a good stereo system. To me it's kind of closed in, foggy almost, and very atmospheric but without much delineation among the different instruments. This washiness isn't all that out of the ordinary but it strikes me that it's the sort of music you'd want to listen to from inside it rather than sitting front and center between the speakers.
-Eden (love love love the packaging of the LP too)