David Bowie Announces New Album ‘Blackstar,’ Dispels Rumors

David Bowie officially announced his upcoming album Blackstar on October 25, Billboard reports, which marks the singer's 25th studio album overall. Blackstar follows 2014's greatest hits collection Nothing Has Changed, and will be his first album of new material since The Next Day (2013).

The announcement was posted on Bowie's official website with little flourish or fanfare in tone or language, although it does manage to throw a bit of shade at previous speculation: "Contrary to inaccurate reporting on the sound and content of the album, only the following can be confirmed: The single [‘Blackstar’] will be released on November 20th and is not part of David's theatre piece ‘Lazarus.’ The album will be released on David's [69th] birthday, January 8th 2016."

It modestly concludes with nothing more than two hashtags: #Blackstar and #NewBowieAlbum.

The only additional piece of the puzzle we currently have is a short snippet of the title track/lead single, which Bowie wrote for the new UK series The Last Panthers.

Of David Bowie's contribution, Johan Renck, the show's director, told The Guardian that he "was looking for one of the icons from my youth to write the music for the title sequence, but was presented with a god." Renck described the track as "dark, brooding, beautiful and sentimental (in the best possible incarnation of this word)," all of which he claims apply perfectly to the series itself.

Whether "Blackstar" is both the title track and the lead single remains to be seen, but it may be a safe bet to assume that its "dark" and "brooding" sounds are more indicative of the album than the Times' speculation of krautrock influences.

But, as we've come to know of David Bowie: Expect the unexpected.

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