LOW

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.