...what was remarkable was how thoroughly Bowie could impose himself on different genres, how he could take other people?s ideas and twist them until they seemed entirely his own. 1975?s Young Americans was recorded at Sigma Sound, home of the luscious string-laden soul released on Philadelphia International, but it didn?t sound like a Philly soul record. Recorded with Brian Eno, 1977?s Low and Heroes were clearly in thrall to the music of German experimentalists Kraftwerk and Neu!, but they didn?t sound much like Kraftwerk or Neu!. They sounded like David Bowie, even though they sounded nothing like David Bowie had recorded before.
...On release, Blackstar sounded remarkably like the kind of confident, decisive break with his past Bowie kept turning out at the height of his powers: the thrillingly exploratory jazz-influenced sound had as little to do with the music on The Next Day as the soul of Young Americans had with the glam albums that preceded it. It sounded like a new beginning, but it was the exact opposite: it was a farewell, a puzzle, filled with clues no one picked up on, that would suddenly be solved by his death. David Bowie went out the way he spent most of his career: unknowable, one step ahead of everyone else.