obviously people will compare the new bowie album with his past body of work, it's important to apply some frame of reference, so i'll start by saying this fit's somewhere in the earthling / outside spheres but let me state, it's just a frame of reference because the blackstar album is unlike any bowies previous works and i think does a great disservice to apply that kind of comparison without acknowledging this is a unique piece of work. 
the other aspect is to make a big deal of the jazz musicians playing rock. yeah i guess all that's important if you need a genre but bowie is way beyond genre. possibly the only pop musician who deserves that status. there's never been any individual who has imprinted upon the lives of so many and spawned so many styles so lets just for this moment give him some credit and look at the music on blackstar for what it is, a new bowie album.
it's magnificent. there's so much going on in the mix even when you think there's nothing happening, there's layers to his sound that just keep revealing themselves. he's in good hands with visconti who had applied his magick here. bowie is not one man, it's a team of people contributing, the musicians here conjure some dark brooding, sonic tones, simple riffs become complex, drum patters shift and change like water, the sax drones and throbs, blurts and squirts, it's pushing forwards all the time over some incredibly organic bass. there's subtle tonality in here and then suddenly it clobbers you like a very hard massage but never assaults or batters, it's extraordinary.
then there's the voice. completely sweeping through everything, picking you up and taking you away, god, that voice is everything, it harmonises with itself, it shifts over itself like some personality disordered doppelganger, the song 'the girl loves me' is made up of two obscure languages, one being nadsat (from a clockwork orange) the other polari an obscure london slang for gays but bowie sings it with the kind of commitment only he delivers, it's a magnificent song which does remind me slightly of the obscure  'untitled no.1' from the soundtrack album 'buddha of suburbia' just fleetingly. 
the title track is saturated in darkness but suddenly halfway through becomes something else, a ray of light, a different song altogether only to return where it started from. there's talk that this song was written about isis, i think it may well have been, but at the end of the day it don't matter what it is about, it's opaque and could be about anything. it's a beautiful opening song, filled with wonder and mystery. there's drum patterns and loops and percussion textures that shift time signatures, there's saxophones going mental, there's bass lines that are unfathomable and even a space drum that actually sounds cool for once. the saxophone blurts and squawks as the whole song shifts into another phase and bowie does his vocal changes that make you wonder where he's taking you. that dark gloomy sound is now suddenly much lighter until he kicks in again with his backing vocals all dread and creepy. there's some great synth playing on here, just tiny runs that layer the whole song adding richness. i feel that what he may be doing is using free jazz styles but between electronic instruments.  
'tis a pity she's a whore' kicks in building to a cacophony of sax, keys and percussion. bowies voice on this as the song ends is great, he's really kicking back and just cooking along, almost enjoying the groove.
lazarus is my fave at the moment, possibly as it's related to the play bowie wrote and therefore connected to the final days of jerome newton, the alien who fell to earth. i adore it, music and lyric.

just like that bluebird. 
okay i can't write anymore about this album anymore, buy it. it's fucking the best few bucks you ever spent and you can listen to it on repeat and it will always be like hearing it for the first time. it's invaluable to anyone who thinks bowie is the bees knees, or those that wish to know why he is an important artist, it's all in here waiting for you.