02 

Album: Black Star

Artist: David Bowie

Release: January 8

No 2016 album countdown is complete without mentioning David Bowie’s final studio release, which came out just days before the news of his untimely death shook the world as we entered the new year. Despite the huge hole David Bowie has left in the music industry, as well as in the lives of his countless admirers, his parting gift to the world, Blackstar, channels the essence of what makes him so truly inimitable as an artist and a person. Experimenting with an array of new styles, the album boasts the same distinctive vocals that are so characteristic of his sound, combined with modern hip-hop beats, haunting piano accompaniments, discordant guitars and a feeling of ambition and creativity which is possibly more vibrant than anything we’ve heard from Bowie before. It truly feels as though Bowie entered a new musical chapter for this final release, which makes his departure even more of a tragedy, yet I have no doubt that Blackstar will be amongst his most seminal releases in years to come, discussed and debated long into the future due to its lyrical richness. Rife with widely-discussed symbols and clues, it is retrospectively clear that Bowie’s awareness of his declining health played into the enigmatic themes of mortality and the afterlife which underpin the record, and it is with this in mind that we place Blackstar so highly in this list. Long live Bowie!

By Georgia Welch