David Bowie

Low - RCA 1977

Tracks: 1. Speed Of Life / 2. Breaking Glass / 3. What In The World / 4. Sound And Vision / 5. Always Crashing In The Same Car / 6. Be My Wife / 7. A New Career In A New Town / 8. Warszawa / 9. Art Decade / 10. Weeping Wall / 11. Subterraneans

Comments:

"Low" was the first of three David Bowie albums, often referred to as "The Berlin Trilogy". Bowie lived for an extended period in the late 1970s in Berlin; hence the label Throughout his career Bowie was never afraid to take chances by making major musical style changes, and compared with the previous album "Station to Station", the Berlin trilogy is characterized by a more raw and at times ”cold” sound, greatly inspired of German krautrock, ambient and electronic music.

The first half of "Low" is reserved for music with a solid foundation in rock and here you find the most easily accessible and, in my opinion, best songs. The second half ( side 2 of the vinyl version )is almost exclusively instrumental, and we are out here in a mix of ambient and electronic music, where you could easily imagine that you were listening to background music for eg. a documentary. Personally, I find this part of the album quite boring, though there are parts of "Warzawa" that are quite exciting.

"Low" opens nicely with "Speed of Life", a catchy instrumental rocker, with a sound not unlike the "Heroes" single; not so common for an instrumental to be among an album's most tracks. There are two fine singles on "Low", "Sound and Vision" and "Be My Wife". The former is a catchy song, with a funky beat and an unusually long intro. The song became a pretty big hit for Bowie. It went differently for "Be My Wife", which was the first single in five years that failed to break into the UK chart. The song is remarkable with its slightly muted bar piano. "Always Crashing in the Same Car", has a "Stand By Me" feeling about it; a special but quite fine and melodic number. "Breaking Glass" is a bluesy mid-tempo rocker, while "What in the World" has many of the classic Bowie elements in it but also a lot of weird sounds.

On the whole, the first part of "Low" is David Bowie when he is best and most exciting, but for me, unfortunately, the second part is rather disappointing.

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