LOW

The genius of Brian Eno had a hand in many interesting mainstream releases in the 70's. Every album he cooperated on seemed to challenge his colleague artists to come up with their best work, Roxy Music and John Cale's Fear being notable examples. And that also seems to apply for Bowie's Low.

Low mostly feels like a collage of Eno ideas rather then an album with a recognizable Bowie vision, which obviously affects my appraisal of it, as I'm not much of a Bowie fan. It's not entirely consistent, but there are accomplished art-punk songs such as Speed of Life and Sound of Vision. But much of it seems to be made up from short instrumental snippets and less memorable songs such as Be My Wife. The instrumental pieces on the second half of the album are more remarkable.

The importance of this album lies very much in its sonics, more then in the song writing. The sound that was achieved here seems to purify some of the best ideas that had been bubbling in Eno's mind for years. He had always used keyboards in a way that was very different from his contemporaries and didn't get involved with baroque synth solos or tweeting moogs, but strived to incorporate ambient textures and new sounds in rock. The influence on artsy new wave bands such as Ultravox, Japan and Tuxedo Moon is obvious. I even suspect that tracks like Warszawa and Sunterraneans might even have inspired Peter Gabriel for some of his soundtrack ideas. Bowie and Eno sure captured the spirit of the age.

Low is one of the best Bowie albums for me, but as stated before, I've never been very impressed by his music, so my appreciation might reveal more about my admiration for Eno then offering an insight into Bowie's music. 3.5 stars