David Bowie has released the second single, “Lazarus,” off the highly anticipated Blackstar, and you will fall under its otherworldly spell.
After teasing “Lazarus” earlier this week, the erstwhile Thin White Duke released the follow up single to the namesake epic off the forthcoming record, out January 8th, but it’s not just another incredible track to make you even more impatient for the full album, it’s also a piece from his musical production also titled “Lazarus,” which is currently on Broadway, this is his version.
This smoldering tune would feel right at home anywhere in Bowie’s Berlin trilogy, his ethereal voice pours through the sleek, horn suffused instrumental with the same viscosity as honey. “Lazarus” feels like an old jazz number mutated in the void of space (but not Space Jazz, that’s L. Ron Hubbard territory) imbued with this feeling of wistful reflection that is more alluring than sorrowful.
It’s great to see Bowie thrusting himself towards uncharted territories again, 2013 saw Bowie return with the enjoyable, if not a little staid, The Next Day, but these two singles portend what could be Bowie’s boldest work. Much like the single before it, “Lazarus” shows Bowie at his most elegant and ambitious yet. It seems already that Blackstar is going to remind the denizens of this planet why they can’t resist him because this is something only the man who fell to Earth could conjure.