SoundBites: David Bowie

Bowie poses late last year for a promotional picture for the Blackstar album.

Just days before his death this week, David Bowie marked his 69th birthday with the release of a new album, Blackstar, with critics giving the thumbs up to the latest and final work in a long and innovative career.

Bowie died Sunday night (Monday NZT) at age 69 after an 18-month battle with cancer.

The singer, songwriter, actor and artist made his return to the music scene after 2013's chart-topping The Next Day, itself released after a 10-year gap.

Blackstar, co-produced by Bowie's long-time collaborator Tony Visconti, features only seven songs, but critics praised the latest work, with Britain's Guardian newspaper calling it "a spellbinding break with (Bowie's) past".

The album is part jazz but full of what NME describes as "warped showtunes, skronking industrial rock, soulful balladeering, airy folk-pop, even hip-hop".

Rolling Stone magazine last month wrote that the "arty, unsettling Blackstar is Bowie's best anti-pop masterpiece since the 70s".

The singer last week premiered the video for single Lazarus, in which he is seen lying in what appears to be a hospital bed with his eyes bandaged.

It was directed by music video and commercial director Johan Renck, who also worked on the film for the album's nearly 10-minute title track.

"I have no desire to do any more videos knowing the process never ever gets as formidable and fulfilling as this was," Renck said in an online statement.

"I've basically touched the sun." - AP

Popular tracks

Online music service Spotify has revealed its most-streamed Bowie tracks - though these numbers have skyrocketed in the past few days:

1) Under Pressure (65m plays)
2) Space Oddity (31m plays)
3) Life On Mars? (30m plays)
4) Heroes (21m plays)
5) Let's Dance (18m plays).

Revisit a classic

It's probably no surprise that despite his extensive career and many hits, Bowie's most streamed Spotify track by far is his duet with Freddie Mercury and Queen - Under Pressure.

The 1981 track appeared on Queen's Hot Space album.

Built on a simple yet infectious John Deacon bassline, it found new life with Vanilla Ice using the sample on Ice Ice Baby in 1990, but don't let that spoil it for you.

What's your favourite David Bowie track? Comment below: