Not the first posthumous compilation from
David Bowie -- that would be the lavish box
Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976), which was planned prior to his January 10, 2016 death --
Legacy is nevertheless the first designed with his, well, legacy in mind. That much can be gleaned from the title of the compilation, but that's a bit of a feint since this set essentially repackages the simplest incarnation of a previous
Bowie hits compilation, 2014's
Nothing Has Changed.
Legacy is available as a single and a double-disc, both carrying sequencings that mirror those on
Nothing Has Changed (and both featuring a new mix of "Life on Mars?"). On the single disc, the first 12 songs are the same, then the back sequence is different, discarding "Absolute Beginners" and "Hallo Spaceboy" and concluding with "Where Are We Now?" and "Lazarus." Similarly, the double-disc has a nearly identical sequencing on its first disc -- "Ashes to Ashes" and "Fashion" are swapped -- with the differences arriving in the comp's final six songs, so
Heathen's "Everyone Says Hi" is here, and this concludes with "Lazarus" and "I Can't Give Everything Away." In both cases, the
Legacy sequencing is slightly better than that on
Nothing Has Changed, since it winds up ending on the elegiac note that
Bowie gave Blackstar. Still, it's splitting hairs: the 2016 and 2014 compilations are similar to each other, and they're also similar to the many
Bowie comps that came before, and they're all just as likely to satisfy and pique interest. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine