David Bowie will release his 25th record, Blackstar, on January 8. The glam rocker extraordinaire confirmed the upcoming record’s release date over the weekend according to Rolling Stone.
The LP’s title track, which you can preview below, is an extension of the theme song for the upcoming TV show The Last Panthers.
The follow-up to 2013’s The Next Day, Blackstar was rumored (via an unnamed source to The Guardian) to feature jazz, “krautrock,” electronica, and Gregorian chants. The report claimed it would be his “oddest work yet” which is quite the statement for the ever-innovative musician. However, a statement on Bowie’s web site rebuffed those claims saying that reporting had misconstrued the “sound and content” of the upcoming record.
What we do know is the LP’s lead single will be released November 20. Rolling Stone notes that the track is likely inspired by avant-garde musician Scott Walker. Bowie has long been a fan of the artist, even covering one of his songs, Nite Flights on the 1993 record Black Tie White Noise.
Bowie recently co-wrote Lazarus with Tony-winning playwright Enda Walsh, a theater project loosely based on the 1963 Walter Tevis sci-fi novel The Man Who Fell to Earth. That production, which Bowie will not appear in, will premiere November 18 at the New York Theater Workshop.
While Bowie does have new music coming out, the 68-year-old musician has said that he will never tour again. “He has decided to retire and, like Phil Collins, you can’t demand these people go out there again and again and again,” said his longtime British promoter John Giddings.
