Moving on from the NC game.
by Bryan (IrishCavan), Howth Castle and Environs, Tuesday, January 21, 2025, 18:09 (18 days ago)
Watched the Bowie Last Five Years documentary on Max. I never appreciated Bowie's last 2 albums until I watched this. Valentine's Day on his penultimate album kicks ass while taking on America's gun culture. Slainte was especially right about his last album. Just great stuff, and he wrote this while knowing he was likely to die soon.
Best Last Album is a fun, if morbid, category
by HCE, Wednesday, January 22, 2025, 05:22 (17 days ago) @ Bryan (IrishCavan)
and 2016 featured two of the greatest: Blackstar and Cohen's You Want It Darker.
Thanks for the documentary rec--I'll need to check that out.
If this listing doesn't require actual death,
by hlewis, Wednesday, January 22, 2025, 13:42 (17 days ago) @ HCE
edited by hlewis, Wednesday, January 22, 2025, 14:20
then I'd offer "The Argument" by Fugazi. It's arguably their best album. (Edit - I did not consciously use "arguably" in an attempt to be clever. I am decidedly on the other side of that fine line between clever and not very clever.)
If you ghoulish fuckers insist on death, then I'd offer "Grace" by Jeff Buckley.
If you require of the artist some level of awareness of one's imminent demise, I'd offer the Purple Mountains self-titled from 2019 (check out the song "Nights that Won't Happen"). David Berman hanged himself less than a month after it was released, and a few weeks before a tour. I was never a massive Silver Jews (his most recognizable band) fan before, but something in the PM album got me a bit obsessed, and when I learned he had died (I had tickets to an early show on the tour) it screwed my brain up in a not entirely bad way that has never corrected itself. So by all means, if you haven't, check it out.
I definitely placed You Want It Darker and Blackstar
by OGerry , Maine wilderness, Wednesday, January 22, 2025, 08:20 (17 days ago) @ HCE
in the same category in my mind. I loved them both, but, between the two, I return to Darkstar a little more often.
Although, now that I think of it, I may listen to Darkstar more often, but I don't ever pray it, which I do "Hineni, hineni," in Cohen's voice.
"The Wind" by Zevon reminds me a bit of "Blackstar,"
by Bryan (IrishCavan), Howth Castle and Environs, Wednesday, January 22, 2025, 05:56 (17 days ago) @ HCE
where an artist made an album after their terminal diagnosis. One of my favorite last albums, though, is Joy Division's "Closer," released after Curtis's suicide.
I've listened to Blackstar as much as I've listened
by Dylan, Indianapolisish, Wednesday, January 22, 2025, 04:35 (17 days ago) @ Bryan (IrishCavan)
to any Bowie album, front-to-back. Somewhere along the way I realized, "oh, this is what it sounds like when David Bowie dies."