BLACKSTAR

Bowie followed up his art rock return to form The Next Day by diving deeper into the "art" side of the equation, trusting the rock to take care of itself. His secret weapon this time around is sax, flute, and woodwind specialist Donny McCaslin, who adds an air of seedy underground jazz to proceedings. With twitchy, synthetic drums and sharp backing performances all around (with guitarist Ben Monder channeling a little "Heroes"-era Robert Fripp right towards the end), Bowie takes us on a disquieting journey in which dark and disturbing things are contrasted against some of the prettiest pop music he's turned out since Space Oddity.

Sue (Or In a Season of Crime), located right at the centre of the album, is a particular case in point - somehow, it manages to sound like an extract from Outside, if you'd sucked the mid-1990s industrial rock out of Outside and made that album a thousand times weirder than it actually was, finally yielding a sound worthy of the offbeat artcrime universe of that album. Even more unconcerned with marching to anyone else's drum than The Next Day was, Blackstar finds Bowie serving up a sinister poison in decidedly sweet servings.