LOW

SULA VIE DILEJO, SULA VIE MILEJO

This album supposedly opens the Berlin trilogy which is partially incorrect. The album is mostly recorded in France and only mixed in Berlin. But it is true that David and Angie spent some time together almost in front of the Wall which will add a depressive mood to this album, only augmented by their separation.

In 1976, David contacted Brian Eno (who was producing "Ultravox!") and asked him to help with his new project. Again, Bowie is changing almost completely from musical inspiration. The coldness of the album is peaking during the whole of its B-side.

In terms of popularity, this change won't affect David's success. The album reached the second spot in the UK and the 11th in the US. For such an experimental effort, it was not too bad a result.

I have always felt a bit "hungry" about side one. A great collection of short pieces of music, some of them being extraordinarily catchy as the hit single "Sound & Vision" which I am profoundly fan of, to some great instrumental pieces of work like the opener "Speed Of Life" full of fabulous synth sounds and remarkably balanced. But I have always felt that most of them were kind of unfinished. And I still feel the same more than thirty years later.

It is sufficiently rare to be mentioned, but this album is mostly instrumental. To my knowledge, no other influent singer has ever produced such a piece of art. It's like cutting one of your organ. But his voice is replaced with an orgy of synth and keys all the way through the magnificent B-side.

It starts with the cold, dark and oppressive atmosphere of "Warszawa". Brian Eno is co-credited and one can notice his major influence on this album of course. Highly experimental but combined with an incredible and touching feeling. The "vocal" part is just wonderful. The most poignant of his whole career IMHHO.

As "Young Americans" was a shock for lots of fans (to which I belong), "Low" although unanimously acclaimed by the critics will also leave some fans incomprehensive. What was going into David's mind? Releasing an almost electronic album?

I guess that because of my taste from 1973 through 1976, I was rather pleased with this change. And this part of the album is one of my preferred side of any Bowie album.

Of course "Art Decade" and "Weeping Wall" can't compete with the other two songs but are not disturbing here.

THE masterpiece track of this masterpiece album is the closing number. "Subterraneans" is such a desperate call coming from the East Berliners, such an immaculate song. David is "singing" in an unknown language. He said that he was so bored about traditional rock lyrics that he voluntarily opted for some incomprehensible stuff. And it worked remarkably.

David also plays a fantastic sax part (remember, this was his first instrument). "Subterraneans" is a cold anthem, a solemn prayer, harrowing, almost metaphysical. Again, a grandiose number.

In 1977, David will also produce two albums for Iggy. For "The Idiot" he will write all the numbers of which the world known "China Girl" as well as "Nightclubbing". Bowie is even holding the keys, almost anonymously, during the supporting tour.

A little later, it will be the turn of "Lust Of Life". Bowie will sign the music for each of the song (with the notable exception of the great "Passenger"). What a gift to his Iggy friend! But such is Bowie.

The remastered CD version holds three bonus tracks of which two are essential IMHHO. The extended version of "Sound & Vision" of course (I never could get enough of this song) and the beautiful "Some Are". It could have easily fit on the original album.

Did I say masterpiece? Oh yes, this time I have already mentioned it! Thanks a lot to both of you Brian and David. This was (and still is) a great moment in my musical life.

After Station to Station's drug-addled psychotic tunes, Bowie decided he needed time to cool off. He therefore moved to Berlin, where he recorded three albums, known, appropriately as The Berlin Trilogy. Low is the first of this trilogy, and is where David first dips his toes into the world of electronic music. He was inspired by bands such as Kraftwerk, and in turn would make electronic music popular, giving more commercial possibilities to bands such as Kraftwerk. This album is split distinctly into two halves, one focusing on intense groundbreaking electro-pop tunes, and the second on mellower, introspective instrumental. The album's lyrics in general are very confessional, and Bowie has never been so open before.

'Speed of Life' opens the album with an electrified instrumental. If I had to use one word to describe the music on this album it would be orange. I may be influenced by the orange cover, but I can expain this point of view. The music is very intense, but still 'chilled out' and 'cool' enough to not be red. That might not make sense to you, but it does to me. 'Breaking Glass' maybe less than two minutes long, but there's a lot of feeling involved. 'What in the World' is a great song with Bowie once again being very passionate in his vocals. 'Sound and Vision' is an iconic tune with one of the greatest intros ever. Bowie manages to be humourous, yet thoughtful and subdued on this song. 'Be My Wife', instead of being an elctropop song like the previous ones, is a straight forward blues-based rocker. Bowie pleads to his wife to stay with him. She refused to move to Berlin with him, and they ended up divorcing, and even though she had previously been moved a lot by his music, even this song could not save their marriage. The fact that the whole point of this song became futile gives it an appreciable irony. We're back in electronic territory with 'Always Crashing in the Same Car', probably the best of the vocal songs. It mourns the banality of every day life in a way that is more accurate to me than, say, Dark Side of the Moon. The best of the pop songs is followed by the worst of the instrumentals. 'A New Career in a New Town' always leaves me cold, although it has some catchy melodies. 'Warszawa' is more like it. A majestic soundscape, not staying the same for too long, before some nosensical tribal sounding vocals enter. Brilliant. 'Art Decade' and 'Weeping Wall' continue in this direction, each with their own personality. 'Art Decade' grand and full of hope, with 'Weeping Wall' being more mellow and ambient. We finish on a good song called 'Subterraneans', mostly instrumental, but developing into a vocal section which is a string of unrelated English words. Bowie wanted to focus not on the meaning, but the sound of words for this song.

This is a great art rock album. It shows signs of progression (not Prog, mind you), experimenting and creating good music. It leaves me wanting in a few sections however, and Bowie would go on to greater things with his next album.

Recomended to fans of electronic prog, and anyone wiht an ear for good music, unlike most other things. A well deserved four stars.

Albums like this only come out about once or twice a year, yeah ... it's that good. A lot of people probably wouldn't consider this to be progressive rock per se, a better classification might be progressive rock's more urban and urbane half-brother, art rock. In fact this may be the best and most artfully developed art rock album ever. The music on this record has a strong similarity to a lot of Eno's work. At first I assumed Eno helped write a lot of this, but when I looked at the record label I was suprised to find that almost all the writing credits were given to Bowie. If indeed Bowie did write most of this music, then he produced the best Eno album Eno never put out.

In a lot of ways this record is like two seperate albums. On side one you have a great collection of semi-punky art rock songs that sound like a cross between Eno's Warm Jets album, early Roxy and some of David's previous glam meets progressive hard rock songs. When this album came out punk and new wave were breaking in a big way and David is right on time as he captures the essence of this new music and moves it forward into more progressive territory as well. A lot of these songs feature bold upfront, unfiltered and unprocessed synthesizer lines ala the early days of exotic synth records. This use of synth as guitar really adds a lot of character and typically Bowie styled subtle ironic humor to the songs. Another unique feature of these songs is drummer Dennis Davis' big trash can snare sound and the way he and bassist George Murray play just behind the beat.

On side two you have an excellent set of four semi-ambient mostly electronic pieces that almost flow together into one big post-classical tone poem. I would describe these pieces as semi-ambient because this is not just a bunch of repetitive new-age drivel, instead each one of these peices is carefully through-composed and all feature interesting melodic and harmonic changes as well. This is some of the best and most progressive music that has the named David Bowie attached to it.

Tracks one, two and four on this side are sparse and somber, while track three has a driving African/gamelan marimba part. Semi-ambient music was still pretty new when this record came out and I remember being very impressed with this amazingingly forward looking futuristic music when I first heard it.

All the tracks on this album are good to excellent, but there is one that has always struck me as extremely unique; A New Career in a Town, an instrumental that closes out side one. Outside of Giorgio Moroder's work with Donna Summer, this was one of the first songs I ever heard that used a disco beat as a basis for something creative, therefore it pre-dates the huge techno-dance-rave explosion by almost a decade. This song starts with the expected futuristic synths and disco thud when all of a sudden David brings in jangly guitars, a 'lonesome' wailing harmonica and a bouncy yet slightly melancholy melody. The mood is futuristic yet rustic and thouroughly tacky Americana. David knows that in the future there will still be trailer parks, laundramats and bus stations. As the song closes David brings in the pizzacato strings and we are now soaking in the essence of 1950s middle-class American shopping conveniance, sheer genius.

From Ziggy Stardust to the Great White Duke, from folk to industrial electronica, from ugly british teeth to a white smile if there is something David Bowie can do is change, adapt and suceed at it. And maybe, just maybe, might this be the artistic pinnacle of his ever changing persona.

Low is an album marked by everything that surrounds it. Bowie´s high dependecy on drugs and bi-polar state of mind led him to explore the more vanguard sounds of contemporany Germany´s Krautrock bands, such as Can and Neu! and found asylum in electronic experimentation with the help of Brian Eno, who would be his left hand in this and the future Berlin albums. Also the fact that, although not recorded, but mixed just a few steps of the wall in Berlin gave the music a more depressing mood to it. Just listen to Weeping wall to hear what I mean. This is pretty much Bowie´s darkest album and, if this review be so bold, his best.

Armed with a handful of excellent musicians who had already worked with him in the excellent Station to station (which was a subtle indication of where Bowie wanted to go) and some new blood, plus the sounds of Brian Eno, Bowie creates an album that is not glam, nor electronic, nor Kraut but all of the above, played with some funk in the rythm section and sharp melodies in the guitars and synths with Bowie´s calm and expressive vocals on top of it all. All songs are among his most inventive, even though some of them are quite short, mostly instrumental and synth experimentations. For the album is basically divided in two: in Side A we have the shorter, mostly sung more melodic "pop" numbers, from which the beautiful Sounds and visions, the depressing Always crashing in the same car and desperate Be my wife stand out, while on Side B we have the instrumental synth songs which, personally, make the album stand out from the rest of Bowie´s already impressive catalog. And even though Bowie "sings" sounds, more than words, in a personal language and we don´t understand a word of it, we never fail short of feeling and getting everything Bowie wants us to feel and get. Side B is among the most minimalistic and powerful music I have ever heard. And yet, with this clear division "Low" does never lose is´t unity, the whole album, every song after the other are part of a single entity.

This is the first of Bowie´s Berlin trilogy, which would also give us the more succesful "Heroes" (on which Fripp would lay down his famous guitar work) and "Lodger", and although both of them are interesting, and "Heroes" has some clear moments of greatness, they don´t come close to the initial "Low" which I would not only call out as Bowie´s best, but also as album of 1977.

Low is to Bowie what Kid A is to Radiohead. An album like there is no other.

The so-called (inaccurately called) Berlin era is my favorite from David Bowie's extensive discography. He is a singer/musician who truly put the artist's standard in the rock scene through his various interests and stylistic frameworks. The Berlin era found him focused on reconstructing the rough side of glam rock and the pulsating modernistic eclecticism of krautrock, while receiving/anticipating the clever aspects inherent to the new ways of rock'n'roll way back then. All in all, "Low" is my all-time Bowie favorite item ever. The album kicks off on a celebratory note with the up tempo R'n'B-inclined rocker 'Speed of Life', a powerful instrumental whose added funky vibe and synth adornments make it acquire a sophisticated aura. The next two tracks are characteristic of that mixture of punk, krautrock Neu!-style and vintage glam rock that somewhat became the trademark of Bowie-Eno rock'n'roll vignettes; this strategy will be repeated in 'Always Crashing in the Same Car', albeit on a less frantic pace. Stuck in the middle is 'Sound and Vision', a catchy reminder of the 75-76 era that found Bowie refurbishing the glam-rock thing with heavily funk and soul-infected moods. In this case, the overall sound is a bit more Spartan, although the groove is noticeably there - actually, I think this jam would have served better had it been given an extra minute of development, but anyway, it is effective in its catchiness. 'Be My Wife' is arguably one of the most moving love songs ever written by Bowie, in spite of not being a sweet ballad, instead being a mid tempo rocker with a R'n'B stance similar to the opener: the simplistic melody is treated with solid inventiveness and repeated with emotion for the sung parts, while the instrumental passage toward the fade-out brings a pertinent continuation of the lover's desperate hope portrayed in the lyrics. 'A New Career in a New Town' actually sounds like an anticipation of the new wave sound that will take over radio stations all over Europe and the US from 1979 onwards - the magical drive of the drums and percussions, the soaring synth layers and the floating piano chords state a dreamy danceable vibe, while the recurrent harmonica lines hint at image of a lone cowboy wandering in search of new horizons. This is a brilliant ending for the album's first half. The second half has to be one of the greatest Bowie experiences ever, with our hero and Eno perpetrating a series of instrumental journeys in which technology and composition fuse into one single accomplishment. 'Warszawa' is a masterful delivery of textures and ambiences that reflect languidness, anxiety, mystery and loneliness all at once. As the piano, synth and Chamberlin go on developing the main motif through the softly sequenced chord progressions, your eyes can literally see the grayness taking over the sky and earth all around you. The emergence of Bowie's vocalizations emphasizes this grayness powerfully. How can one recover from this? Well, there's still more sonic greatness to enjoy. The closure track 'Subterraneans' brings a slightly similar mood, a bit less dense but equally somber: the sax solos cry the solitude of night owls at the break of dawn, and then, the vocalizations deliver an eerie reconstruction of jazzy chanting - a clever use of jazz tricks in an avant-garde rock framework. Between these solemn pieces are the introspective 'Art Decade' (very much influenced by "Future Days"-era Can) and the ethereal 'Weeping Wall' (heavily featuring tuned percussions): these two pieces show how well Bowie could envision his new musical drive with solid colorfulness, the former bearing a distinguished guise, the latter exploring exotic cadences in a psychedelic ambience. The Rykodisc re-edition includes a remixed version of 'Sound and Vision', plus two unreleased tracks from that era: the cybernetic, aggressively pulsating 'All Saints' and the dreamy ballad 'Some Are'. How come they never made it to this or any other Bowie album from the late 70s? It beats me, because they are great indeed.

As much as I can recognize the influence, the innovation and the importance of a work, the basic function of music is still entertaining, well this doesn't entertain me, as much as this is completely new, as much as it has influenced the whole electronic music world, and as much as it is very interesting to see an artist expand their horizons, this album just doesn't work for me.

This is divided into two parts, the first 7 songs are very short and upbeat while the last 4 of side B are longer and ambient music.

The most annoying in the whole record is the tone of the synthesizers, which I'm not fond at all, they are quite irritating. However, I think this should be heard by any music fan, even if it's just to increase your musical culture, being this one of the most influential albums in the history of electronic music. And the 3 stars are due to that only.

LOW: not quite pop, not quite ambient, not quite art rock. There are traits of each found in the music on this album, but none of these descriptions fit the bill. To start things off, the album is divided into two distinct halves--a collection of strange, processed pop-rock (Side 1 of the LP) and a set of MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS-style instrumental *stuff* (after all, both LOW and MY LIFE... were co-wrote by Brian Eno). To be honest, I'm not a big this half-and-half division on this album, though the idea seems to somehow work a little better on "HEROES." Despite the unevenness of this record, LOW, along with "HEROES," is still a seminal work in Bowie's oeuvre, influencing the sound of many rock and non-rock genres alike (e.g. post-punk, electronica, '80s pop). Highlights include: "Sound & Vision" and "A New Place in New Town." GRADE: B (85%)

Five stars for this? Granted, the dark, moody instrumental tracks go on much longer than on other Bowie albums, like Heroes, and actually sound like more than new age noodling, but the actual songs here sound more like incomplete ideas, fading out before they actually go anywhere.

On the rare event of listening to this, I skip the first half.

By the way, my copy, one of the Ryko releases, has two extra instrumental tracks, extending the moody side much longer, and a lame pseudo hip hop remix of "Sound and Vision", where the producer (was it Bowie himself?) thought adding inappropriate turntable scratches and dorky synth sound effects would make the song modern and edgy. Wrong.

Bowie is one of my heroes in music. Because of his personality, his aura and his specifical voice. And because of music. In plenty of his changes he found new faces, often they are perfect. So, what about "Low"?

Ok, wellknown facts - it's a beginning of his so-called "Berlin era "and collaboration with Brian Eno. I respect Eno for many things, still from his Roxy Music time. But what do we get in this collaboration?

First of all, I think true name of the author of this album should be written as "Brian Eno feat. David Bowie". Because there mainly are instrumental , often quite long tracks with dark Eno ambient mixed with some "New Wave "elements. If you ever listened "Ultravox "albums from that time, you know what I am speaking about. OK, comparing with "UltravoX " ( produced by the same Eno) music there is less commercial, less rhythmic and ... less focused. Some tracks sound just as blueprints for future songs, kind of experimentation with sounds and mixing. Eno is wellknown because of that kind of works, but Bowie? What is Bowie doing there? All in all, he sings one hit "Sound and Vision " and gave some vocal lines for few more faceless songs? Ok, as it is written on album cover, he is musician here as well, but ( to tell true) who is interested in Bowie as in musician, not singer ?

Yes, "Warszawa" ( original, polish name for "Warsaw") is very interesting instrumental with some etno-vocals ( the only strange, that this etno line is more middle-east, not western- slavian). But again, how did it connected with Bowie?

All in all, I am really disappointed with this album. It is not bad music, but often placed as Bowie's one of the top works - are you joking?

"Rock is going down the drain; even Bowie has turned into a machine" was a common complaint when this album came out. Many old-fashioned admirers of Bowie's glam rock period just didn't "get" LOW. They mistook Bowie's depressed, low-key vocals for a lack of passion. They refused to see that instrumentals such as "Warszawa" and "Subterraneans" reflected a state of mind, just as much as "Rock'n'Roll Suicide" or "The Bewlay Brothers" had done. More than three decades after LOW was released, who would now describe the playing of Carlos Alomar, Dennis Davis, Charles Murray, Brian Eno and Bowie himself (to name the most obvious participants) as lacking in wit or passion? You might as well accuse the Spiders from Mars of sounding like a machine; after all, when the Spiders went on tour, they churned out well-oiled rock night after night!

No, LOW is the first album which fully managed to show how Bowie absorbed and reflected the influence of Krautrock and Enoesque avant-garde. You will hear echos of bands like Can and Neu, but thanks to Tony Visconti's hyper-clean production, LOW ended up sounding less messy and much glossier than the best products from Connie Plank's German studios. Although LOW's most inspired tunes are (in my personal view) somewhat less involving than the best material on STATION TO STATION, "HEROES" or SCARY MONSTERS, there's not a single track which lacks interest. Songs like "Be my Wife" and "Always Crashing in the Same Car" may initially seem underwhelming, but they grow on you. "Speed of Life" and "Sound and Vision" are part of the soundtrack of many people's lives without them even being aware of it. And LOW's B-side was beautiful enough to encourage Philip Glass to write a symphony.

LOW's influence on late 1970s and early 1980s pop culture is well-known. Nick Lowe, Joy Division and The Simple Minds were all inspired by the album, while Gary Numan made a career out of copying its idiom. Less familiar is the amazing connection that exists between LOW and Caravan's BETTER BY FAR. Check out my review of the latter if you'd like to know more.

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

Another album in the 'Berlin Trilogy' this is Bowie at his most arty, which of course i love,

This is the second Bowie release ive heard and the first one to get me into him, i just love the concept that centers round these tracks they all blend nicely into each other without any really feeling out of place and make the album stand out just that bit more, although not as strong as the fantastic Station to Station that came a year before, its still a great Bowie album and the most consistant set of Bowie songs, standout tracks include SPEED OF LIGHT, SOUND AND VISION, ALWAYS CRASHING IN THE SAME CAR, and the Bowie/ Brain Eno penned WARSZAWA, no real need to mention any production notes only that it is as fantastic as any David Bowie album can get, and as is the musicmanship;

Speed of Life - 9/10 Breaking Glass - 8/10 What in the World - 8/10 Sound and Vision - 9/10 Always Crashing in the Same Car - 10/10 Be My Wife - 8/10 A New Career in a New Town - 8/10 Warszawa (Bowie, Brian Eno) - 10/10 Art Decade - 9/10 Weeping Wall - 9/10 Subterraneans - 7/10

My Conclusion? a great effort by Mr.Bowie and a fine art - rock album.

Something about this album caught my eye. I'm a big fan of early Bowie, and knew that he was too talented to simply stop making progressive music after his magnum opus, ZSATSFM. After listening to the first few songs of this album, I thought I might be wrong. The first few songs sound like one would expect from David Bowie. Not essential, nor very good. But I stuck it out and luckily, the song Sound And Vision came through the speakers and I proceeded. After this the album seems to take a new direction into the more proggy realms. The synthesizers begin to complement the music, rather than simply add another layer of noise. From then on, Bowie is back to his old self, grabbing your attention and bobbing your head to his beat. The Brian Eno piece gives this album a reason to buy it, if you haven't done so already.

Somewhere around 2004, the music review site Pitchfork polled its various writers/contributors to put together a list of the top 100 albums of the 1970's. I had some issues with some of the results, of course (a shortage of prog rock, rating some albums far lower than I would, rating others far higher than I would), but overall I didn't think it was a terrible list. One result absolutely flabbergasted me at first, though: the #1 album on the list was Low. As I thought about the process of putting together this kind of group list, though, the result actually started to make sense to me; while it was unlikely that Low rated in the top 5 or 10 of very many individual lists, it was probably present in almost all of them, and in group rankings that matters a lot to final placement. Low, ultimately, does not feel like an all-time great album to me; it feels like a, "oh yeah, I don't love it, but it's a really good album with no major flaws, I'd feel pretty stupid if I didn't include it on my list" kind of album.

This album, of course, marks the beginning of Bowie's collaboration with the great Brian Eno, known as the "Berlin Trilogy" due to Bowie's relocation from L.A. to Germany. Eno did not serve as the album's producer (that was Bowie himself and old friend Tony Visconti), nor did he do much songwriting (his only formal cowriting credit here is on "Warszawa"), but his impact was felt nonetheless as a crucial sounding board and guide for Bowie's ideas. The general approach was to take ideas that had previously been introduced by various krautrock bands (not to mention Eno himself) and to try and fuse them with Bowie's more commercialized sensibilities. This isn't to say, of course, that this is anywhere near a commercial-oriented album; to the contrary, the entire second side is basically ambient music, while the first half is bookended by instrumentals and full of, how can I say this, "jagged" instrumental textures. Yet the tracks on the first side are all rather short, showing an attempt to take the ideas that influenced him and chop them up into something easier to digest. For the most part, he definitely succeeded; all of the beeps and boops are fused with an amazing drum sound, and on the first side, when the goal is memorability, the songs tend to be catchy more often than not.

Ultimately, the album consists of 11 tracks that I like, and not a single one that I love or would call a classic. On the first side, what throws me off the most is the perpetual feeling that I'm listening to songs that are only 85% finished, even though I know that every single one has been polished and finished into exactly what Bowie wanted. The "regular" rock instruments all sound simultaneously raw and processed, and while the combination is fun, it's also disconcerting.in a way I don't always like. The melodies, as much as I enjoy them, still leave me with a, "Wait, what? The song's finished already?" feeling when a given song ends; again, it's a neat effect, but this is a case where neatness doesn't leave me feeling entirely satisfied. Plus, I'm not sure I really like Bowie's singing in much of this side; except for when he sounds completely ridiculous ("Breaking Glass" and "Be My Wife," perhaps not coincidentally the ones I enjoy most on side, even if I still don't quite adore them), I find myself almost forgetting I'm listening to songs that actually have vocals. This might have been the intended effect, but again, that doesn't mean I have to love it.

Still, like I said, I like all of the songs on the first side more than not. The opening instrumental "Speed of Life" (featuring the "Hot Blooded" riff) immediately makes it clear what kind of album this will be; "normal" foundations messed up as much as possible in the details by a fascinating drum sound, a bunch of great synth sounds alternately carrying the melody and giving texture, and guitars treated into oblivion. "Breaking Glass" may last less than two minutes, but it has the album's funniest lyric ("Don't look at the carpet/I drew something awful on it"), and the combination of great hard rock (from the guitar and the drums) with goofy synths makes an unforgettable impact. "What in the World" features noises that would later make their way into Pac-man, underpinning a bunch of lyrics that make little sense when read as text but still create an overall sense of paranoia and (possibly, I'm not sure) desires for a girl. The best part of the song, anyway, is the swooping guitar noises that pop up briefly in the second half before heading into a more conventional guitar part.

"Sound and Vision" is often singled out as the album's best track, but I've never really seen why it's especially better than everything else around it. The main guitar lick is a simplistic marvel, and I like the descending synths near the beginning, but the "main" song portion just seems like a typical Low pop song, and nothing more remarkable. "Always Crashing in the Same Car" would probably impact me more if Bowie had been able to better articulate his vocals; as is, I have to rest my enjoyment on the processed guitar playing (almost sounding like Dave Gilmour in a couple of moments) and the melody. I've read the lyrics, and they're plenty emotional (a great look at self-frustration about making mistakes over and over), but some better singing wouldn't have hurt. "Be My Wife" is a standout if only because of the fantastic repeated ascening deep piano line, but the vocal melody is a minor marvel as well, and almost enough to make me single it out as especially great. And finally, "A New Career in a New Town" closes things out with another instrumental, featuring some nice harmonica interplay with a rather moving synth line. It's not superb, but it's pretty nice.

The second half is 4 lengthy ambient drones (with some wordless vocals in the first track and jumbled lyrics at the very end of the last track), and this is where opinions split a lot. I, of course, have no problems with ambient music, so dismissing these tracks is out of the question, but I don't love these as much as I do the best stuff on "Heroes". The one portion that reaches up to no-doubt-about-it greatness is the first two-thirds of "Warszawa," which has to be one of the most depressing and moving themes (and to think it's just based around A-B-C on a keyboard, before changing keys) I've ever heard. So sue me, I'm a sucker for a mellotron/chamberlain flute part over well-arranged synths. I think the track weakens a little bit once the wordless harmonized vocals come in, but not too badly.

The other three tracks are decent enough. "Art Decade" starts off with an effect I remember from Another Green World (on "In Dark Trees" if I remember correctly), and centers around a single theme designed to portray the decaying culture of West Berlin. "Weeping Wall" is a tweaked adaptation of "Scarborough Fair" over busy percussion (I'm pretty sure I hear a lot of xylophones and vibrophones in there) with lots of synth and guitar noises thrown in, and the closing "Subterraneans" depicts the hopelessness of East Berlin through a lot various ambient tricks. None of these, frankly, are among the very best ambient tracks with which Eno would ever involve himself, but they're not among the worst either, and they definitely work as part of an overall suite.

Overall, I'll never quite adore this album, but I still think it's extremely nice, and I'm happy to listen to it from time to time. Don't get it before the albums that bookend it, though.

The first part of the Berlin Trilogy, which is incidentally also considered to be the artistic peak of David Bowie's Art Rock career, is an album that baffled me the first time I heard it and has continued to do so up until today.

Even if Bowie did manage to stabilize his artistic direction after the mixed bag that was offered on Station To Station, this stability came at the price of less interesting collection of performances. Although, apparently both critics and fans liked this album enough to proclaim it to be one of his best efforts! What's not to like when you have great tunes like Speed Of Life and Sound And Vision? Well, that's exactly my point, these songs aren't even remotely representative of Bowie's career, so how can Low get all this credit?

I must admit that starting a David Bowie album with an instrumental was a very daring move on the artist's part but, in a way, it also works as a foreshadowing of the things to come. Side one consists of very short numbers that don't exactly overstay their welcome, but at the same time also lack momentum for me to really get into any of them. Only once we get to Warszawa, track number 8 out of 11(!), the music finally gets the attention it was completely shunned up to this point. This track is also my favorite out of the bunch since it really bring out some interesting new qualities to Bowie's style and, thanks to Brian Eno's careful direction, this style sound very natural in Bowie's repertoire.

The final three tracks are pleasant but they unfortunately fail to shed any new light on the mystery behind this album's great reception. Luckily, things would get a whole lot better with the release of "Heroes". To me, Low is competent album but it falls short whenever I compare it to both its predecessor and especially the next album!

**** star songs: Speed Of Life (2:47) Breaking Glass (1:53) What In The World (2:23) Sound And Vision (3:03) Be My Wife (2:57) Warszawa (6:24) Art Decade (3:47) Weeping Wall (3:28) Subterraneans (5:41)

*** star songs: Always Crashing In The Same Car (3:34) A New Career In A New Town (2:53)

The first of Bowie's classic collaborations with Brian Eno sees Bowie clawing his way out of the cocaine-addled muddle which had led to the folly of Young Americans and added a dangerous edge to Station to Station. How best to celebrate sobriety? Well, if you're David Bowie, you do it by producing a classic, revolutionary art rock album which will serve as a major inspiration to the artier, more progressive of the New Wave, of course! With one side concentrating on bizarre rock songs warped and distorted through an electronic haze and the second side devoted to foreboding, Krautrock-infliuenced instrumentals, the album is probably the proggiest in Bowie's discography, and certainly sounds like nothing that came before and little that came after it. Eccentric, edgy, neurotic and outright weird, Low proved that Bowie wasn't ready to stop innovating just yet.

David Bowie

LOW By 1977 you could possibly think David Bowie has done it all. From a cross dressing glam rocker, Folk musician and poet, attempting blue eyed soul and funk music, being the first rock musician to moonwalk and among other things. But change has always been a large part of Bowie's career, continually reinventing himself and popular music around him. Low is the first part of the so called "Berlin Trilogy" and his collaborations with the master of ambient music Brian Eno, Eno's influence whether in producing or composing is very apparent especially on the second side of the record, but the album's first side is filled with bizarre, synth ridden art rock songs this is Bowie at his most experimental state while still retaining a distinct pop sound, a feat which few musicians are able to achieve. Speed of Life the album opener demonstrates this perfectly while being artsy and experimental it is still incredibly catchy to listen to. The formula is still successful all throughout the first side with songs like Be me Wife and Sound and Vision, and the slightly darker songs like Always Crashing in the Same Car, A New Career in a New Town are definitely highlights. Especially Always Crashing in the Same Car a song possibly about recovering from Bowie's cocaine addiction it contains a highly underrated guitar solo and a fantastic vocal performance by Bowie. A Possible complaint that one could have with this album is the lack of vocals, the whole album has surprisingly little vocals this however lets funky baselines, spacey guitars and dense synthesizers shine through and vocals being not so much of a lead instrument but an addition to the already massive wave of sounds and instruments provided. That is always a bonus in my book.

As A New Career in a New Town comes to a steady close we are introduced to possibly Bowie's greatest achievement, twenty minutes of foreboding Krautrock influenced Ambient music. Images presented here are large desolate futuristic landscapes devoid of life, all vegetation coming to a slow death with the sun setting over the horizon you can't stop watching what is in front of you, it is some how beautiful, it contains warmth and a deep coldness at the same time like the whole Earth taking a collective sigh and going to sleep. Emotions like regret or sadness creep into your brain but you can't stop watching. All these images and emotions are presented in an electronic haze. Each track is a synthesizer symphony with David Bowie's tortured vocals making brief appears here and there to add more emotion and light. Subterraneans is perhaps the best track on the second side with it's almost paranoid sounding saxophone and vocals and densely layered eerie keyboards. The music can almost be classified as scary or disturbing.

Low is a highly influential album, one that continually pushes rock's boundaries in creativity and innovation Low is truly a unique listening experience one that is rarely repeated by any album that was out before or came after.

Another masterpiece by David Bowie, modern music's chameleon who bent and manipulated the course of music once again. Low sees a new mixture of delicious styles, from pop and post punk on "Sound And Vision" to ambient jazz and classical with "Art Decade". Bowie and Eno's touches here are even better in many ways than on the "Heroes" album, especially on the second half. They use multiple synths, layered guitars, colliding vocals and twisted variations of instruments too, such as honky tonk piano on "Be My Wife" and harmonica on "New Town". Their creations definitely lent some inspiration to new wave music as well as some serious credence to exsisting artists too, like Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk. For these reasons alone, this is an excellent album to have and also very rewarding on repeated listens.

An album in two halves, "Low" was one I picked up on vinyl years ago and I know I must have played side two way more than side one. the reason is that side one really did not appeal tome and were nothing more than a bunch of songs similar to the stuff being churned out of the late 70s. Side two is a horse of a different colour. Brian Eno absolutely takes over and the music is spellbinding and downright esoteric. The masterful alien landscape of 'Warszawa' is a prime example followed by the avant 'Art Decade' ad plain weird 'Weeping Wall'. The final track is another strange offering with synthesizers to the wall and saxophone jazz 'Subterraneans' and for these songs alone this is worth picking up. The side two synth soaked soundtracks are highly influential and ushered in the New Romantic movement of the 80s.

Classy. Cool. Stylish. Timeless. The Berlin years were good to Bowie, right from the start.

Low is a tale of two albums in many ways, with a quite sharp divide between the more "standard" art rock fare of the first half, and the decidedly more convoluted and evocative sound of the second. But standard is as ever a deceptive word to use when attributed to David Bowie, being his usual mercurial self.

With a backbone of controlled, groovy (and just a tad funky) rhythmic propulsion, the "songs" found here feel, at core, disciplined. Almost a little bit cold. A bit mechanic. They draw from somewhat the same influences as early Roxy Music and pre-ambient Brian Eno, with an added touch of slight new wave and punk sensibilities, but are altogether Bowie in style and presentation, if that makes sense.

The playing is never mindbogglingly technical, but the structures and melodies are familiar, in a way almost catchy, yet wondrously idiosyncratic, generating a lovely, unsettling sheen of detachment. A fair bit of space is also left in the compositions, perhaps as a side-effect of the previously mentioned discipline or a conscious decision. This serves to unclutter the songs, adding power and focus to what is already there as well as leaving a lot of room for the various electronic sounds and effects. Most of them continue as well as bolster the vague theme of detachment and urban desolation I constantly pick from Low. Sharp disharmonious shrieks, washes of crisp and icy synthesizer, jagged underlying sound carpets and what can be only be described as an assortment of various buzzes, beeps and blip-blops. The Brian Eno influence and contributions are tangible, to say the least. Taken altogether, this generates an atmosphere that tends to be a bit cheeky, slightly wheezy and malfunctioning, at times almost approaching the hysterical or the desperate - the sounds of a long-forgotten steam-powered gaming arcade. The guitars tend to assume almost the same role from time to time making it unclear which instrument is leading the pack underneath the structurally dominating rhythm section. It is effective having it this way, allowing the instruments to freely move between rhythm, melody and harmony, adding well-needed life and movement to some of the compositions.

The second side of the album continues in the same slightly bleak, detached way as the first, but it is presented in a wholly different way. Moving away from the warped art rock into ambient territory mixed up with a touch of Krautrock, this is instead a refined, elegant set of musical panoramas. Sleek and beautiful electronic compositions mixed up with tender contributions from guitar and various other instruments (and Bowie's powerful, if sparse, vocals). For being so few songs they manage to cover a lot of ground; sometimes near the busier and more melodious of Brian Eno's ambient works, straight on to an excellent percussion-laden and synth-rhythmic Kraut ditty, wrap it up with a pseudo-orchestral soundtrack-like track. It makes for a nice, if dramatic, change of pace. Here the tone is markedly less abrasive and a good deal more atmospheric, both in structure and in timbre. The jaggedness is almost completely removed and replaced by sweeping, wave-like and more melodic evolution. The cold urban gleam remains, make no mistake, but it is not confrontational in the same way, but more reflective, almost melancholic, one might say.

It is two albums for the price of one, so it is a bargain. It is also a massive artistic statement. A great achievement. A cryptic, constantly fresh gem of a record.

Mandatory. 4 stars.

//LinusW

This is a landmark recording of experimental rock music. It was conceived and recorded at a time when Bowie was heavily influenced by German giants such as Neu!, Can, and Kraftwerk, and it shows. On top of that, he had the sonic expertise of Brian Eno at his disposal, which gave Bowie the freedom to experiment and not have it come out stilted or awkward; Eno already had plenty of experience making this kind of thing work. Less well-known is the presence of Iggy Pop, whose album The Idiot was being made at the same time in the same studio; it's as if Bowie's work on that project gave him a chance to think outside the box a bit and try out some new things before shaping them into Bowie album material.

The "song" side of the album presents us with seven short songs, some almost fragments, but each of which gives us some interesting new sounds that might have been heard on Krautrock records before, but not on an international pop star's album. Most of the songs were conceived out of jam sessions by the band, with interesting bits excised and re-arranged in unorthodox ways. "Breaking Glass", for example, is one of the best tracks despite being under 2 minutes long and never really turning into a real song -- parts fly in and out, the guitar player (Carlos Alomar) plays some heroic rock fills, synthesizers jump in at surprising moments, drums stop and start, just a strange piece all around. It's not all crazy weird though -- both "Sound and Vision" and "Always Crashing in the Same Car" are emotive, melodic pieces that seem to harness Kraftwerk's knack for detached melancholy; the faint glimmer of sadness seen across the buzzing wires. On the other hand, "Be My Wife" and "What in the World" are almost ecstatically upbeat, bubbling over with electricity and giddy vocals. The side opens and closes with unremarkable instrumentals ("Speed of Life" and "A New Career in a New Town") which are still pretty good despite their repetitiveness.

Side Two is all instrumental (with the exception of some wordless voices), and just as evocative and impressive as Eno's definitive Another Green World album released a couple of years prior. In fact, one could argue that this stuff is even better, as it condenses the best aspects of the latter work (massiveness, timelessness) into about 20 minutes. "Warszawa" is an absolute stunner, a 6-minute howling void of bigness. "Art Decade" scales it down a little, emphasizing a single sad melodic line on the synthesizers. "Weeping Wall" brings some gamelan-like percussion into the mix, and "Subterraneans" brings all these elements together to a quizzical conclusion.

Long my favorite Bowie album, and a must-own for any progressive rock fan.

(Interesting trivia: former Magma member Laurent Thibault actually played some bass and assisted in the recording of this album; but for whatever reason, his name was omitted from the credits. I learned this from an audiobook about the album from the 33 1/3 series, for which Thibault was interviewed.)

So here it is. The first album in the Berlin period. The first full collaboration with Brian Eno, and probably at a time in Bowie's life whenever he had been on the most amount of drugs he could possible be.

After the brief flirts with soul music during the mid 70's, the previous album "Station To Station" flirted with some more art rock sounds and had a lot of interesting experiments throughout. The album was a critical success, so Bowie decided to take the experiments even further, and gave Brian Eno a call.

So with Eno's special music treatments and weird use of synths, him and Bowie's worked on this album like children in a sandbox. Experimenting, noodling and creating...just like children. This being the more experimental side of the Berlin trilogy, there is a lot less focus on songwriting and more focus on the experimental side of things.

Lyrically the album is rather a mess. The lyrics don't really have any real meaning, but it does create an interesting image of what Bowie's life was at this point, especially due to his drug habits and mental health problems.

The intro, "Speed Of Life" starts off the album with a brilliant jolt of electricity. An instrumental track, the song has a lot of weird guitar parts mixed with Eno's weird use of keys.

The albums lead single "Sound & Vision" is a brilliant mixture of experimental rock and standard Bowie pop. Rather disjointed throughout, it does come together very well at the end. There is also a piano version of the song, which is worth giving a listen.

The album's second side is where it really get's slightly odder, and in my opinion better. For those who don't know, the second side of the album mainly comprises of instrumental tracks which where supposedly supposed to be used for Bowie's biggest acting accomplishment, in the film "The Man Who Fell To Earth." Because the music was not used, Bowie decided to use a lot of the material for the album, which in my opinion was a great idea, because these last 4 songs really are the greatest moments on the album.

"Warszawa" in my opinion is one of the strongest tracks on the album. An idea taken from Eno's son, the song is an experimental mainly instrumental track that grows and grows like a beautiful flower. When the vocals finally do come in, they are pretty impressive, with Bowie hitting some impressive highs at times.

The album's closing track "Subterraneans" is definitely one of the best moments on the album, and a brilliant way to end of the album. A beautifully crafted instrumental, it really explodes at the end when the multi layered vocals explode.

In conclusion, this album is more of a mixed bag, especially for a Bowie album. Personally, I think it's something very different for Bowie and it is a brilliant piece of work. Wouldn't be my favourite Bowie album, but there is some brilliant moments on this album. With a lot less focus on songwriting and more focus on sounds and experiments, it definitively is Bowie at his most experimental.

8/10

While "Station to Station" shows Bowie at his Thin White Duke persona, struggling with alchaholism, "Low" Bowie tries to be more artistic and teams up with Brian Eno for his first album of the Berlin Trilogy. Low stands as one of Bowies best albums. The two sides completely differ, the first, being more fun, the second, being more serious.

The album starts with one of Bowie's best tracks. The instermental "Speed of Life". It starts with guitar coming in and kicks into a beutiful piece of music. I love how the song has so much to it yet so little.

The second song is a funny one called "Breaking Glass." After one a verse is a funny synth melody, which is what makes this a cool song.

Then we get another cool one called "What in the World." This has a cool sound in the back as Bowie sings a short love song. It's another highlight. "I'm just a little bit afraid of you" is a nice line.

The next song is well known as one of his most popular. "Sound and Vision." The guitar is cool, and then you get what sounds like ice getting thrown into fire in the beat. After a synth melody, Bowie sings "Ahh." It is a very good song, the lyrics have Bowie switching off to a higher and lower octive.

The next song is a little longer and has a funny title. "Always Crashing in the Same Car," which is actually about heroin. I used to love this one. It's still very strong and has great drumming. I should mention right now that the first side sort of sounds like a suite, but still in different songs. Still they are all about 2 minutes each making it really cool.

"Be My Wife" starts with guitar and insane piano. What's great about it is the wicked piano riff that plays after and before every line. It also has a good guitar solo and good lyrics.

The first side ends with the instermental "A New Career in Town." The beat at the beginning is ahead of it's time. It also has a great use of harmonica in the song. The synths are played by Eno. It is a great ending to the first side, which was fun for everyone! But that will change in side two...

Side two may be more proggier and Eno-dominated, but, to be honest, side one is better. "Warsawaza" starts side two. It isn't too bad. It, obviously, had much German influence. Bowie also sings, but I don't think it is about anything in specific (it might be in German). Watch on YouTube the animated video of Bowie and Eno making this song. It's pretty funny.

"Art Decade" is my personal favorite off the second side. By the title and the sound, I always picture a majestic and strange art gallery. The melodies are amazing and beutiful. As a track, it is an amazing prog rock song.

"Weeping Wall" is heavy on xylophones. As for the title, this is probably making reference to the Berlin Wall. It's a pretty good song, but cannot compete with Art Decade. Oh, did I mention a choir sings?

The album ends with Subteraenians, which is lame in my opinion. It just drags on, the sax is good, and so is the bass, but I feel it's some sort of a reprise of Warsawaza.

So, overall, Low stands as one of Bowie's masterpiece album.

Ranking of Songs:

1. Speed of Life 2. Art Decade 3. Sound and Vision 4. A New Career in Town 5. Always Crashing in the Same Car 6. Be My Wife 7. Warsawaza 8. What in the World 9. Breaking Glass 10. Weeping Wall 11. Subteraenians

Favorite quote from the album - "Your such a wonderful person...but you've got problems" -From "Breaking Glass"

There is no doubt that Low is a very original and special album. Many things on Low are done in a very unique way, or for the first time. It seems this album has influenced a lot of people, particularly in New Wave and Post Punk, and it has impressed even more; Pitchfork rated this as the best album of the seventies. Certainly Mr Bowie got the timing right for this!

I have made numerous attempts to get into Low and one time after another I failed. The rock oriented first side sounds thin to me, the special sounds and the mix are unorthodox and original but rather annoy than please me. The songs don't have a lot of appeal and are faded out all to quickly and impatiently.The mood is neither heavy nor romantic nor angry, rather emotionally understated and distant, and this doesn't attract me. Bowie was not in his best shape when he did this and one can hear this. It sounds like his attention span was rather short and this is expected of the listener, too, at least on side one.

I like the electronically dominated second side more, some sounds are beautiful and Warszawa is pretty impressive in its atmosphere, although none of these has much compositional substance, it's all about trying out and showcasing this exciting new style. Allusions to electronic Kraut artists are tastefully woven in; Weeping Wall sounds a bit like some of Irmin Schmidt's Soundtracks (most of which came later to be fair) and is rather interesting. Art Decade comes from a similar angle as Warszawa and works fairly well but doesn't have the haunting vocals that Warszawa and Subterraneans offer; the latter would be rather directionless though without the pretty short vocal part. This kind of stuff has been done much better by the proper electronic musicians, except, OK, they don't have Bowie's voice.

All in all side one and side two don't really fit very well together (it seems that nobody denies this but some seem to find this very cool); I can't get much out of side one and side two has its moments but isn't really consistent and mature (Mr Bowie's gotta be innovative for innovation's sake, and leave the place again all too soon).

Side one is a weak 2* and side two a good 3* and because they're not the best match and nobody has rated this low (!) up to now I round it down. Yeah, I see why it's special but still. Essential but not good.

One of Bowie's Best.

This is the first of Bowie's so-called 'Berlin triology', which are collaborations with Brian Eno. This album sees Bowie once again break with (his) earlier traditions, and experiment with music in ways few expected. While 'Heroes' would see Bowie extend this experimental approach even further, 'Low' is the more musical of the three (and the third in the trilogy, 'Lodger', is not nearly as musical nor experimental). On Low, most of the tunes have vocals, but a few, like Warszawa, and Weeping Wall, are instrumentals (which would be repeated on Heroes). Speed of Life, Breaking Glass, Sound and Vision, and especially, Be My Wife, are excellent songs, while the instrumentals with Eno are eerie and groundbreaking but also quite musical. Bowie would reinvent himself many times, but this period (and I include Station to Station in this) is my favourite Bowie period. It is when he was most innovative.(Although I still think Hunky Dory is his very best album). I give Low 8.1 out of 10 on my 10-point scale, which translates to 4 PA stars.

The first of the so called "Berlin Trilogy" of albums. This was critically acclaimed at the time although that didn't translate into big sales but "Sound And Vision" was a surprise hit of sorts. Brian Eno really "makes" this record for me, the second half especially. There are a couple of killer tunes on the first side as well. I was impressed with all the instruments Bowie plays on here.

"Speed Of Life" is catchy which isn't surprising but the fact Bowie starts the album off with an instrumental is. We get bass, percussion, piano and synths standing out. "Breaking Glass" is a toe-tapper with guitar, bass and a beat to start as vocals join in. I do prefer the stripped down chorus to the rest. "What In The World" has these strange sounding synths and much more to begin with. So much going on including vocals. This reminds me of "Golden Years" for some reason. The guitar sounds excellent, quite interesting and Iggy Pop adds backing vocals.

"Sound And Vision" is good with the bass and synths bringing me some joy here. Again it's catchy and we get some backing female vocals and Bowie adds sax. He starts singing around 1 1/2 minutes. "Always Crashing In The Same Car" is a top three, yes I really like this for some reason. Check out the treated guitar to start as laid back vocals and more help out. It turns fuller with drums before a minute. Bowie adds some cello and I like how the guitars are used on this one.

"Be My Wife" is another top three. Piano and drums standout to begin with as the vocals join in. Bass and guitar follow. I really enjoy the bass. "A New Career In A New Town" has a beat and spacey sounds before high pitched piano lines join in along with harmonica from Bowie. Back to the opening them as they are contrasted. Nice bass 2 1/2 minutes in. "Warszawa" is pretty much all Eno as he wrote the song and plays everything on it. Love the mellotron-like sounds from the chamberlain and the synths as well. Bowie adds some World music-like vocals that I wish weren't on here but oh well.

"Art Decade" has synths and what sounds like a tambourine and more. It's a laid back tune and quite melancholic with chamberlain, cello, piano and guitar. "Weeping Wall" has some vibes and xylophone which adds a different shade here. Vocal melodies and guitar expressions as well. My favourite(and it's no contest) is "Subterraneans". Spacey synths and bass early then some vocal melodies 2 minutes in. Great sound here! Such a dreamy mood to it. Some relaxed sax after 3 minutes from Bowie then vocals a minute later. Sax is back before 5 minutes.

This is worth 4 stars but I give Eno a ton of credit for this album. And it's one of the rare Bowie albums I have kept after all these years.

Low is the eleventh studio album by David Bowie, released on January 14 1977. Recorded following Bowie's move to West Berlin after a period of drug addiction and personal instability. Low became the first of three collaborations with musician Brian Eno and producer Tony Visconti, later termed as the "Berlin Trilogy". The album was in fact recorded largely in France, and marked a shift in Bowie's musical style toward an electronic approach that would be further explored on subsequent albums "Heroes" and Lodger.

'Speed of Life' opens the album with an instrumental, the music is very intense. Even though the song is rather simple and repetitive, it makes an immediate implication about the content of the album and its heavy use of synthesizers as both effects and instruments. The next one, 'Breaking Glass', is the shortest track on the album. It starts with a pretty chaotic guitar, it fits well with the character it depicts, a person who seems messed-up. The lyrics might suggest that Bowie now wants to distant himself from people that are bad influences (Angela Bowie & Michel Lippman). Another short song follows, 'What in the World', and once again it seems to depict an unusual relationship between two people. As for the music, it feels very frantic. Up Next is the first single from Low 'Sound and Vision' which finds Bowie using his room as a sanctuary while waiting for artistic inspirations to strike him. Undoubtedly one of Bowie's best songs. Following Sound And Vision is 'Always Crashing in the Same Car', a slower and more serious song, outlining the darker things Bowie was writing about during the recovery from his cocaine addiction. The song foreshadows the more solemn, darker mood of side two. The second single from Low 'Be My Wife' sounds like a last-minute plea for Angela Bowie. By this point, their marriage was in ruins. They would divorce in 1980. 'A New Career in a New Town' is about as good of an approximation to what looking ahead to the future with optimism and hope feels like that you'll hear in a song. 'Warszawa' is best described as cold, dark and oppressive, combined with incredible feelings of anxiety, mystery and loneliness all at once. Very Atmospheric. 'Art Decade' contains the most beautiful melodies I've ever heard. It's a laid back tune and quite melancholic. 'Weeping Wall' follows, the xylophone played by Bowie gives the song its unique sound. It also features very chaotic guitar through the song. Low Closes with ''Subterraneans', which is mostly instrumental, but does contain a vocal section which is a string of unrelated English words. Bowie wanted to focus not on the meaning, but the sound of words for this song.

Low is a masterpiece, though it takes some listening to unlock. While much of the first half is surprisingly commercial sounding, the second half is completely overwhelming and is an emotionally draining experience which rewards the listener after repeated and careful listens. Low is a timeless masterpiece to cherish.

One of the most interesting albums for proggers as well as pop/rock listeners and the first one that marks the start of Bowie's exposure to electronic music. Even in this digital outfit, Bowie excels with his craftmanship, showmanship and profesionalism.

Brian Eno makes excellent contribution as helps raise the band as one of Bowie's masterpieces. Keyboards, special drum sound and effects have replaced guitars and traditional rock keyboards. Songs are rather short but fresh.

The atmosphere is rather pessimistic and no wonder if post-rock found something valuable here.

The first instrumental song is the perfect intro to the album's mood. Energetic, powerful. "Breaking glass" is a electro- rock track with bluesy guitar, you could dance to it and equally listen with pleasure. "Sound and vision" shares previous feelings of Bowie for American R&B. "Be my wife" has a powerfully strong piano chords

I like the synth feel of the second half of the album with almost non-existent Bowie's voice.

"Warszawa" is my most favourite track here because it seems to be a solely Eno track, with beautiful dark keyboard textures and melody. Bowie delivers experimental vocal that sounds like Asian inspiration.Excellent stuff!

"Art decade" follows closely with electronic beats and melancholic synth chords - a spacy music. The mastery of Eno!

"Weeping wall" brings more variety with a guitar, pulsating beats and excellent synth sounds. "Subterraneans" is a more reflective piece, two synth leads playing melody and a simple bass synth providing lower support. Bowie's multilayered vocals define melody. Saxophone brings a more human touch in the second half. This is an excellent addition and masterpiece for any music fan.

Review Nº 489

"Low" is the eleventh studio album of David Bowie and was released in 1977. Widely regarded as one of his most influential releases, "Low" is the first studio album that belongs to his famous "Berlin Trilogy", a serious of three albums with the collaboration of Brian Eno. The other two albums of that trilogy are "Heroes", released in the same year and "Lodger", released in 1979. The album represents a very experimental avant-garde musical style, with the use of electronic music, which would be further explored on his next two studio albums of the trilogy, "Heroes" and "Lodger".

"Low" has eleven tracks. All songs were written by David Bowie, except "Breaking Glass" written by David Bowie, Dennis Davis and George Murray and "Warszawa" written by David Bowie and Brian Eno. The first track "Speed Of Life" is the first instrumental by David Bowie and was also released as the B side of the second single taken from the album, "Be My Wife". This is a great song, very well balanced and where we can hear the heavy use of the synthesisers. The second track "Breaking Glass" is a very short song, the shortest song on the album. I always had the feeling this is an unfinished song. Despite that, this is another excellent song that combines perfectly well the classic rock with the sound of synthesizers. The third track "What In The World" shows, like almost the songs on the album, the use of the new techniques. It's a song that makes heavy use of the synthesizers, which shows the great influence of Brian Eno on the album. It also features the participation of Iggy Pop on backing vocals. The fourth track "Sound And Vision" was the song chosen to be released as the first single of the album. The song is notable for juxtaposing an uplifting guitar and synthesizer as lead musical instruments, with Bowie's withdrawn lyrics. It's an excellent and catchy track that reminds us Bowie's times of the glam rock era. The fifth track "Always Crashing In The Same Car" is a song whose lyrics express the frustration of making the same mistake over. The song features the use of synthesizers and treatments to bring Bowie's largely calm vocals over the sound of the band. The song finishes with a long guitar solo. The sixth track "Be My Wife" was the song chosen to be released as the second single of the album. It's the most conventional song on the album, toned down the electronic feel of the rest of it. The song features a piano opening against a backdrop of guitars and drums. It represents one of the finest musical moments on the album. The seventh track "A New Career In A New Town" was released as the B side of the first single of the album "Sound And Vision". It's an instrumental track that reflects Bowie's change from Europe to U.S.A. It's another song with the heavy use of synthesizers by Eno. The use of Bowie's harmonica on the song shows the contrast between the acoustic and the electric sounds. The eighth track "Warszawa" evokes the desolation of Warsaw at the time of Bowie's visit. The song is mostly instrumental and was developed using many of Eno's experimental techniques. The lyrics of the song are based on the Polish folk. This is a brilliant song, one of the best and most beautiful songs ever made by him. The ninth track "Art Decade" is another instrumental track and is named due a street that Bowie encountered in West Berlin. It's a droll, slow and depressing song that reflects the melancholy and decadence of the City. It's another song heavily influenced by Eno, with some reminiscences from Fripp & Eno album, "(No Pussyfooting)". The tenth track "Weeping Wall" is another instrumental track intended to describe the misery and shame of the Berlin Wall. Bowie plays all instruments, including several percussion instruments and synthesizers. It's another depressing and melancholic song in the same line with the two previous tracks. The eleventh and last track "Subterraneans" is mostly instrumental. It has brief and obscure lyrics sung near the end of the song. It was meant to evoke the misery of those who lived in East Berlin during the Cold War. It's the other masterpiece of the album, which closes perfectly well the album, with the same oppressive, depressive and melancholic mood of the B side of "Low". This is one the best and most perfect ends to an album I've ever heard.

Conclusion: "Low" is, in my humble opinion, a great album and one of the best albums ever made by David Bowie. It hasn't any weak point and it's a very uniform and cohesive album. We can say that it has two distinct parts. The first part, the A side of the album, has a great collection of art rock songs in the same vein of Bowie's previous glam rock albums, first Eno's solo albums and the first two Roxy Music albums. The second part, the B side of the album, is more based in ambient and electronic music with melodic and harmonic changes and is also much more progressive too. "Low" represents another radical change in Bowie's musical direction. It's an album where we can clearly see the great influence of Brian Eno on its final sound. However, in terms of popularity, this musical change didn't affect Bowie's image. I even dare to say that "Low" was so important in Bowie' musical career in end of the 70's, like "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars" was, in the begin of the 70's. "Low" represents a new masterpiece.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Bowie was the Beatles of the 1970s, constantly reinventing himself, always one step ahead of the competition and fastening onto emergent trends with such alacrity he appeared to have invented them. From 1972 onwards Bowie was a major pop star but one fuelled by the marginal and esoteric strands of music and culture. He was major league pop star as cult artist, drawing arcane ideas from the periphery to the centre, and making them mainstream. The Beatles had performed a similar role in the mid to late '60s, but they never made an album as radical as Low.

Low was Bowie's first collaboration with Eno and, supposedly, the first part of the Berlin Trilogy. I say supposedly because 'Berlin Trilogy' seems to be something of a misnomer or journalistic construct. Bowie was living in Berlin during this period but only "Heroes" was completely recorded in Berlin (Lodger was recorded in Montreux and New York and most of Low was recorded at the Chateau d'Herouville in France and then completed in Berlin). And while I'm in the mood for tedious nit-picking here's a bit more: Low does not consist of a songs side and an instrumental side (despite the fact we've been told it does countless times). There are two instrumentals on side one, the album starts with one of them, and three of the four tracks on side two feature vocals.

Bowie had been fascinated by Eno's solo albums, including Another Green World, which with its mixture of punchy songs and atmospheric instrumentals, shares a good deal in common with Low. Eno arrived at the Honky Chateau with his trusty portable synthesiser in a briefcase. What else did he bring? A profound knowledge of avant-garde artistic traditions, a love of deconstructing conventional song structures, a non-musician's conceptual approach to music making, an irresistible itch to do things differently for the sheer mischief of seeing what happened. And his pack of cards, naturally: Oblique Strategies, 55 instructional cards - a sort of I Ching set up designed to aid creativity and even constructively disrupt it. Bowie and Eno played card games a great deal while making Low. He may only get one songwriting co-credit on the record (for Warszawa, an Eno tune to which Bowie added vocals), and according to Tony Visconti, who co-produced the album with Bowie, about half of the record was recorded before he even turned up, but Eno's maverick sensibility is nonetheless stamped right through Low like Blackpool through a stick of rock.

Bowie's genius lay in creating something new by fusing apparently disparate elements. Low draws on the German electronic bands of the period and New York Minimalism but is equally indebted to funk and disco (both Bowie and Eno were quick to spot the importance of disco at a time when their less open-minded, not to mention cloth-eared rock contemporaries we're dismissing it as commercial garbage). Like most genuinely original music the album was not universally welcomed on its release. The New Musical Express took the extremely unusual step of printing two reviews of it - one full of praise and the other dismissing it as the self-indulgent ramblings of a man at the end of his tether. Even its admirers tended to describe it as gloomy or depressing. They had a point, of course, Low is not exactly a party album, but listening to it all these years later what strikes the listener is something very different - the almost gleeful sense of risk-taking and adventure. The songs on side one might be about alienation, psychic withdrawal and loneliness, but they are also possessed of a febrile energy, sweeping synthetic strings, a jaw-dropping, revolutionary drum sound and sheer funkiness. Bowie's working title for the album, New Music Night and Day, better captures its innovative and exploratory spirit (mind you, the cover, a profile shot of Bowie under the word Low, should have been clear evidence that his sense of humour was still in full working order).

In The Man Who Fell to Earth, Thomas Jerome Newton, the alien played by Bowie, makes an album but we never get to hear what it sounds like, but then we don't need to - it sounds like side two of Low. These pieces, which feature some of the most startling vocal performances of his career, (but look, Ma, no words! A trick Bowie may have stolen from Meredith Monk), radiate with an otherworldly and glacial beauty. Bowie apparently intended at least some of them for the soundtrack of the film but perhaps it's no bad thing they were turned down. On Low they provide the soundtrack for an infinite number of interior movies, daydreams and nightmares.

Low was released in January 1977, just at the time the punk revolution was gathering steam. The album bypasses punk entirely and, rather astonishingly, creates the sonic template for post-punk. Bowie never went quite this far out again, not even on the excellent follow up "Heroes", but the extraordinary thing is that he had the imagination, and indeed courage, to make an album as creative, and also as challenging to the expectations of his audience, as this one at all. Very few world famous pop stars would have done - not even the Beatles.