After teasing the world with a truly bizarre trailer for the music video to his new single “★” (pronounced “Blackstar”) last week, David Bowie has followed up by releasing the even more insane 10-minute long full cut. Directed by Johan Renck, the new video is a sprawling, scarecrow-infested bad acid trip, replete with an otherworldly solar eclipse, an oversized candle “at the center of it all,” and what appears to be a number of ill-clad caffeine addicts shaking away in a decrepit old barn.
But for as oddly disturbing as the visuals are, the music might even go a step further. The song is framed in three separate movements and is carried along by a free-form saxophone instrumental and Bowie’s own repeated plea that he’s “a blackstar.” It’s gorgeous and unsettling to say the least, and if this first single is any indication, then early reports that this album would be the singer’s strangest yet could indeed be true.
David Bowie’s new album Blackstar is set to be released on January 8th.