Author Biography

Leah Kardos is a senior lecturer in music at Kingston University London, UK, where she co-founded the Visconti Studio with music producer Tony Visconti. She specializes in the areas of record production, pop aesthetics and criticism, and exploring interdisciplinary approaches to creative practice.

Table of Contents

List of musical figuresList of track analysesPrefacePart 1: Last Act1. Lateness2. Remystification3.The Next Day4. AssemblagePart 2: Per Ardua ad Astra5. Icarus Takes His Pratfall6. Lazarus7. The Next BardoPart 3: Black Star8. Black Holes, Black Music, Black Arts, Black Hearts and Button Eyes9. Chaos and Chemistry10. Prodigal Sons11. Blackstar TheoryEpilogue: Legacies and VoidsReference list and bibliographyIndex

Review

The lively complexity of Blackstar Theory is a fine match for Bowie – a sparkling, timely invitation to reimmerse oneself in the density of his final works, even if the shock of grief remains palpable. * The Wire *
This is the Bowie book that many of us DB fans have been waiting for Blackstar Theory: The Last Works of David Bowie is a bravura performance by Leah Kardos, a sonata of glorious prose, amazing research, and academic erudition. ... I recommend it to any serious fan of David's, well actually, I recommend it to any serious fan of music, full stop. Go out and buy it now! * Bowie Fascination *
Kardos elegantly sidesteps speculation about Bowie's personal life in his final years, focusing instead on the work, taking in nods to Morrissey, Elvis Presley, Peaky Blinders and "the lust for life against the finality of everything". * Uncut *
Someone recently said there will never be a definitive book on Bowie and I would probably have agreed. But now that I've read this book I'm not so sure. This is as good as it gets. * The New Music Café *
This is a clever, entertaining and informative book ... It is thoughtful, wide-ranging and well-researched. In fact, it's simply one of the best books about Bowie. * International Times *
Leah Kardos deftly uncovers the patterns in David Bowie's "late style," seeing the mortality, morality, and self-consciousness hiding in plain sight. While musicological analysis is at the heart of her endeavor, she is nevertheless attuned to the places in his epic career where there are fissures and unexpected correspondences with other forms of art. Blackstar Theory is a feast for any Bowie fan—rabid or casual—and performs the closure that many of us were seeking.A welcome addition to the growing canon of Bowie studies. * Shelton Waldrep, Distinguished Professor of English, University of Southern Maine, USA *
This is one of the most intelligent studies of David Bowie's music that will ever be published. It illuminates the interconnected web of meanings that are discoverable in his work in ways I have never encountered before. Leah Kardos shows with genuine illumination that the music of the late Bowie tackles big ideas such as the nature of identity, creativity, chaos, transience and im/mortality and provides us with signposts that take us back to the very start of his extraordinary life and musical career. The book is a major achievement. * Keith Ansell-Pearson, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Warwick, UK *
A star-gazing telescope of sorts, Blackstar Theory provides an illuminating view of the last great works of a dying star. Intimately connected to the music and art of David Bowie, Leah Kardos elegantly crafts a respectful conduit for readers to share in her examination of the meanings generated by Bowie's work. As an in-depth scholarly guide and probing navigational tool, Blackstar Theory is a must-read for anyone wishing to engage with the constellation of meanings generated by Bowie's late music and art. * Lisa Perrott, Senior Lecturer, Waikato University, New Zealand, and series editor of New Approaches to Sound, Music and Media (Bloomsbury) *
Leah Kardos's book is a lovely theoretical company. She notes how music is only a small part of a huge cycle that leads us on to other music, to art and literature via fashion, film, philosophy and form and back to the work in question. * Svenska Dagbladet *

Promotional

This book considers David Bowie's ambitious late works – 2013's The Next Day, the science fiction musical Lazarus (2015) and the Blackstar album (2016) – which were shortly followed by the artist's death in early 2016, a final transformative gesture that turns popular music into death art, expanding contemporary secular prospects of human potential and immortality.

Review Quote

This is the Bowie book that many of us DB fans have been waiting for Blackstar Theory: The Last Works of David Bowie is a bravura performance by Leah Kardos, a sonata of glorious prose, amazing research, and academic erudition. ... I recommend it to any serious fan of David's, well actually, I recommend it to any serious fan of music, full stop. Go out and buy it now!

Promotional "Headline"

This book considers David Bowie's ambitious late works - 2013's The Next Day , the science fiction musical Lazarus (2015) and the Blackstar album (2016) - which were shortly followed by the artist's death in early 2016, a final transformative gesture that turns popular music into death art, expanding contemporary secular prospects of human potential and immortality.

Feature

To date, no books exist offering a critical in-depth musical and philosophical analysis of Bowie's late work, The Next Day, Blackstar and Lazarus together

Details