Here we have the last Bowie project done before his death, and released one year after. This is an E.P. of the new songs from the musical Lazarus, which was first performed in December of 2015, and was still running a month later when he died. Bowie was fully involved in the production, which was an update of The Man Who Fell To Earth. Bowie had starred in the film version back in 1976, and this new adaptation featured his music throughout, songs dating back to the early 70's, and these four new numbers.
Given the many Bowie best-of's on the market, including the recent Legacy collection released last fall, I understand why they chose to just include the new songs and make this an E.P., rather than put in all the old favourites such as Heroes, All The Young Dudes and Life On Mars, but it would have been pretty cool to have the set that mirrored the play. .No matter, it's more important to have these four tracks out. You can also buy the soundtrack from the play, which features all the material as performed by the stars in the show, rather than Bowie, as another option
Three of the songs included here are unavailable anywhere else, while Lazarus was included on last year's Blackstar release. The others are similar to that moody album, with its subdued pace but thick, dark music. Killing A Little Time has quite a violent backing, but it's mixed way behind, with Bowie's vocal the prominent sound, in its weariness. Don't read anything into that of course, the darkness comes from the plot, and the kind of music Bowie was drawn to in his late comeback. You can expect to see a continuing stream of reissues, vinyl releases, big boxes and deluxe editions, but as far as new Bowie music, this would seem to be it. Unless of course, there's some treasure-trove of demos or out-takes they haven't told us about. If not, still, not a bad career, huh?
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