After the golden years

Take a journey through five very different songs from the last set in David Bowie's career-overview series.

- GRAHAM REID

Since his death in early 2016, David Bowie has been the gift that keeps on giving. And taking away. Bowie completists and uber-fans have been swamped by five enormous, career-covering box sets (each of 10 or 11 CDs), some big collections of demos and live recordings, songs for his intended musical Lazarus, Record Store Day special releases and more.

He just keeps giving and, for some, taking away huge wedges of the credit card. But the career-overview series ends with the 13-CD or 18-LP set I Can't Give Everything Away (2002-2016), which cover the studio albums Heathen (2002), Reality (2003), The Next Day (2013) and Blackstar (2016).

This was a late-career purple patch for Bowie – The Next Day a global chart-topper - and his final studio album Blackstar, released two days before his death, ranks alongside Low and Heroes as the boldest directional shift of his singular career.

These albums are remastered by producer Tony Visconti, and there are two discs of Bowie live at the 2002 Montreux Jazz Festival, two live from the Reality tour, and much more. Notably, three discs under the heading Re:Call 6 of what we'd call bits and bobs.

There you'll find Bowie with Lou Reed (Hop Frog from Reed's Edgar Allen Poe concept album The Raven), Arcade Fire (their