Released on 8 January 2016, Bowie's 69th birthday, the album was recorded in secret in New York City with his longtime co-producer Tony Visconti and a group of local jazz musicians: Donny McCaslin, Jason Lindner, Tim Lefebvre and Mark Guiliana.

In the years following Bowie's death, commentators have named Blackstar one of his best works, and was included in the 2018 edition of the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

[2] Like his previous album The Next Day (2013), recording took place in secret at the Magic Shop and Human Worldwide Studios in New York City, with production being co-handled by Bowie and longtime collaborator Tony Visconti.

[6] Bowie recruited a local New York jazz quartet led by saxophonist Donny McCaslin, and featuring other musicians including drummer Mark Guiliana, pianist Jason Lindner and bassist Tim Lefebvre,[7][8] as the backing band for the sessions.

Bowie also encouraged the band to try new things and experiment with ideas; Lindner told Rolling Stone, "He gave us the freedom to really just play, sort of be ourselves, and if we were hearing anything in particular, to try it out.

[14] James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem was present during the second block of recording; his work on Arcade Fire's Reflektor inspired Bowie to create a remix of "Love Is Lost" for The Next Day Extra.

Songs recorded included "Blackstar", "I Can't Give Everything Away", "Killing a Little Time" and a remake of "Someday" (now retitled "Blaze").

Although Bowie performed his vocals live while the band were playing during the Magic Shop sessions, he and Visconti moved to Human Worldwide studios in April for proper recording.

[b] The album's title track incorporates nu jazz[35] while progressing through a drum and bass–style rhythm, an acid house–inspired portion of the instrumental, a saxophone solo, and a lower-tempo blues-like section.

[5][38] Andy Greene of Rolling Stone said that the re-recording of "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore" was "powered by a hip hop beat and free-form sax",[5] unlike the original, which was described by Dalton as "a propulsive, roaring, heavily electronic wall of sound.

[27][40] "Dollar Days", the sixth track, contains a sax solo and an arrangement that Dalton considers reminiscent of Bowie's work on Young Americans (1975).

[22] "Lazarus" features the lines "Look up here, I'm in heaven / I've got scars that can't be seen", which appeared in many publications following Bowie's death on 10 January.

[40] "Dollar Days" contains the lyrics "don't believe for just one second I'm forgetting you — I'm trying to, I'm dying to/too", which Pegg and O'Leary note is a very dark pun.

[41][47] "I Can't Give Everything Away" contains the line "Seeing more and feeling less / Saying no but meaning yes / This is all I ever meant / That's the message that I sent", which led Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph to think of the song as a point where "Bowie sounds like he is grappling with his own mystery.

With the record removed, the black paper behind the cutout reveals a hidden picture of a starfield when the foldout sleeve is held up to a light source.

[50][51] Music journalists noted that a "black star lesion," usually found inside a breast, suggests to medical practitioners evidence of certain types of cancer.

[55] The title track was released as the album's lead single on 19 November 2015[56] and used as the opening music for the television series The Last Panthers.

[57] Its music video, shot in September 2015 in a Brooklyn studio,[58] is a surreal ten-minute short film directed by The Last Panthers director Johan Renck.

It depicts a woman with a tail, played by Elisa Lasowski,[59] discovering a dead astronaut and taking his jewel-encrusted skull to an ancient, otherworldly town.

[61] The second single, "Lazarus", was released on 17 December 2015 as a digital download, and received its world premiere on BBC Radio 6 Music's Steve Lamacq Show the same day.

[64] Blackstar was released on 8 January 2016, coinciding with Bowie's 69th birthday, through his ISO label, Columbia Records and Sony Music.

[82] Andy Gill of The Independent regarded the record as "the most extreme album of [Bowie's] entire career", stating that "Blackstar is as far as he's strayed from pop.

"[79] Jon Pareles of The New York Times described the album as "at once emotive and cryptic, structured and spontaneous and, above all, willful, refusing to cater to the expectations of radio stations or fans".

[85] The Daily Telegraph's Neil McCormick hailed Blackstar as an "extraordinary" album which "suggests that, like a modern day Lazarus of pop, Bowie is well and truly back from beyond.

"[78] In a favourable review for Exclaim!, Michael Rancic wrote that Blackstar is "a defining statement from someone who isn't interested in living in the past, but rather, for the first time in a while, waiting for everyone else to catch up".

"[80] Chris Gerard of PopMatters called the album "singular in its unique sound and vibe," describing it as "trippy and majestic head-music spun from moonage daydreams and made for gliding in and out of life.

Although he felt it wasn't as "accessible" as The Next Day, he considered it a "great companion piece" and "a fitting end to one of rock's most influential careers.

Praising the experimental nature and lyrics, staff writer Lior Phillips concluded "It's a startling reminder that the only way Bowie can transcend 49 years of artistry is by detaching from the Superstar he had become and transform into a new thing altogether.

[95] In The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll, Blackstar finished at number one in the voting for 2016's top album.

[99] Blackstar was later named as one of the greatest albums of the 2010s decade by numerous publications, including Billboard,[100] Consequence of Sound,[101] NME,[102] Pitchfork,[93] Rolling Stone,[103] Slant Magazine[104] and Stereogum.