David Bowie - Blackstar [2016]

For those who processed the record directly before or after his death, it will be impossible to separate Bowie’s death from the analysis of Blackstar. One could argue that it’s nearly impossible to find a similar situation in music history. That situation would have to have the following five key factors:

(1) The artist is aware that he will probably die soon and decides to record an album 

(2) The album produced contains songs that musically have a dark and foreboding atmosphere 

(3) There are blatant references to death and mortality, lyrically and visually throughout the project (the "Lazarus" video speaks for itself)

(4) The public did not know that the artist had the illness which caused his death.

It is sadly appropriate that Bowie, a one of a kind artist, would exit this earth artistically in such unique circumstances. To dedicate your life to art is one thing, but to use the possibility of your death as something that fuels your art is something else entirely.

David Bowie - Low [1977]

Low is arguably Bowie’s greatest and most daring achievement. The Thin White Duke had just dropped Station to Station in 76’, which is, in comparison to this record, an amazing, but relatively straightforward, rock masterpiece. Take out the epic krautrock title track are what exactly is the listener left with on Station to Station? The remaining album is something that comes off as very American, despite the fact that Bowie himself is English. To be fair, this isn’t exactly the biggest surprise as it was recorded in Los Angeles, with a band that was majority American. Of the five songs not named “Station to Station”, two of them in particular are clearly groovy and more importantly, a bit soulful. “Stay” and “Golden Years” sport rhythms that make the fact that Bowie, an English rock star, was the first white man on Soul Train (despite his awkward Soul Train performance) significantly less surprising. Overall, the title track aside, Station to Station was a very warm, and arguably, American record, which is what makes the entire aesthetic of Low all the more surprising and intriguing, even when analyzing it decades after the fact.

Julia Holter - Have You In My Wilderness [2015]

Holter has released high quality music in the past, with songs like the hauntingly bleak and string filled “World” being a highlight off of her last LP, Loud City Song, which was released in 2013. However, with Have You In My Wilderness, the singer/songwriter seems to have taken it up another level. Holter’s latest record features great string arrangements, graceful piano playing and a tasteful use of just the right amount of echo on the primary and background vocals.

Versis - Copæsthetic [2015]

L.A. rapper Versis debuted with iLLCANDESCENT, an excellent album that showed a maturity and confidence far beyond his young age. He skillfully rhymed over airy atmospheric boom-bap production that had tasteful jazzy samples. Five years later, he returned with the brief and effective twenty minutes of Copæsthetic. 

Matthew Halsall & The Gondwana Orchestra - Into Forever [2015]

Halsall takes his interesting brand of harp filled, Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders influenced jazz compositions and goes vocal on 5 out of the 11 tracks with the help of Josephine Oniyama and Bryony Jarman-Pinto, who sings on the last track. Oniyama is quite a formidable vocalist, with a soulful style that works great with the spiritual jazz that Halsall and the Gondwana Orchestra bring - "Badder Weather" is a moving performance. Vocal jazz is, an unexpected switch from Halsall, as all his past albums are instrumental, but it is done well. On Into Forever,  The long improvisation filled tracks are mostly gone, in favor of focused, relatively short statements; some of which could even be characterized as interludes ("Dawn Horizon", "Cushendun"), with the longest track clocking in at only 6 minutes and 22 seconds.