Low by David Bowie

Low

David Bowie

3.55
Rating
22406
Votes
1
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5
Distribution

Album Summary

Low is the 11th studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released on 14 January 1977 through RCA Records. After years of drug addiction when living in Los Angeles, Bowie moved to France in 1976 with his friend Iggy Pop to sober up. There, Bowie produced and co-wrote Pop's debut studio album, The Idiot, featuring sounds Bowie would explore on his next record. After completing The Idiot, Bowie began recording the first of three collaborations that became known as the Berlin Trilogy with American producer Tony Visconti and English musician Brian Eno. Sessions began at Hérouville's Château d'Hérouville in September 1976 and ended in October at Hansa Studios in West Berlin, where Bowie and Pop had relocated. Grounded in art rock and experimental rock and influenced by German bands such as Tangerine Dream, Neu!, Harmonia and Kraftwerk, Low features Bowie's first explorations in electronic and ambient styles. Side one consists primarily of short, direct avant-pop song-fragments, with mostly downbeat lyrics reflecting Bowie's state of mind, and side two comprises longer, mostly instrumental tracks, conveying musical observations of Berlin. Visconti created the distinctive drum sound using an Eventide H910 Harmonizer, a pitch-shifting device. The cover artwork, a profile of Bowie from the film The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), was intended as a visual pun, meaning "low profile". RCA refused to issue Low for three months, fearing it would be a commercial failure. Upon release, it divided critical opinion and received little promotion from RCA or Bowie, who opted to tour as Pop's keyboardist. Nevertheless, it reached number two on the UK Albums Chart and number 11 on the US Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart. Two singles were released: "Sound and Vision", which peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart, and "Be My Wife". The success prompted RCA to release The Idiot in March 1977. In mid-1977, Bowie played on Pop's follow-up album Lust for Life before recording his album "Heroes", which expanded on Low's musical approach and features a similar mix of songs and instrumentals. In later decades, critics have rated Low one of Bowie's best works, and it has appeared on several lists of the greatest albums of all time. It influenced numerous post-punk bands such as Joy Division, and its drum sound has been widely imitated. A forerunner in the development of the post-rock genre of the 1990s, Low has been reissued several times and was remastered in 2017 as part of the A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982) box set.

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Reviews

Sort by: Top Date
May 06 2021 Author
5
I've again deferred to my cat named Bowie on this review. When I told him that Low was today's album, he legged it from room to room around our apartment, bouncing off every wall and surface like he was off his tits on catnip. When he finally came down off his Low induced high, he told me "this is Big Dave's finest hour". So there's your review.
Apr 06 2022 Author
2
"All hail the Berlin trilogy!" I think they should be called Low, parts 1, 2 and 3. This is music that only sold because of his name. I wonder how many praise these albums because they don't want to admit that they wasted their money. I've learned a frightening word since I started listening to 1001 albums: AMBIENT. It is code for plain boring, weird boring, or monotonous pretentious twaddle. This album is just boring because I've heard it before. Back in the day it was weird boring. I assume Lodger is also in the list. I hope not. Yesterday I had Paranoid, more of that ilk, thank you.
Jul 21 2022 Author
5
This album woke up at 5:45 pm to a house party happening downstairs, and quickly got sick of it, deciding to bar hop and scuttle around town. Never finding what it was looking for, it finally decided to walk the city streets alone through the night, stuck in its own head, until passing out in an alley behind a dingy jazz club. 10/10.
Oct 06 2020 Author
5
Bowie! It's hard to dislike anything Bowie has done, honestly. He was so alien and ahead of his time that there's always something new and strange to learn when listening to his albums. This was one that I hadn't spent any time with in the past so I hit the wikipedia article for context which was helpful. It's electronic and pop and undeliably Bowie. Is it dated? Yes. But it also feels like it's a decade younger than it actually is. While the rest of the world was making disco pop, Bowie was making electro bangers and synthetic, cinematic dreamscapes.
Jun 04 2021 Author
5
6/6 First half is avant-garde, second is alien civilization. Standout Tracks: Speed of Life, Sound and Vision, Warszawa, Art Decade, Weeping Wall, Subterraneans
Feb 11 2021 Author
2
I love Bowie but for me this was too dramatic and artsy with too many random sounds and instruments. It's risky, I just didn't like it that much.
May 02 2023 Author
2
Okay. Often good, never all that great. The second half is mostly instrumental, concept album kind of thing. Interesting. I wouldn’t go back for it.
Jul 30 2021 Author
5
I am a massive, massive Bowie fan, and I think even amongst his pretty great catalogue that the Berlin trilogy is quite near the top. Bowie and Eno. What a dream team. Every one of these songs slaps, but Sound and Vision and Be My Wife are the big standouts. Perfection. We didn't deserve Bowie.
Dec 11 2023 Author
3
Takes the listener to a new world. Neat.
Jul 28 2021 Author
5
Anything Eno touches is electronic gold, and this collaboration with Bowie is one of his best works I've seen. I admit it hardly even feels like a Bowie album. It's a series of avant-garde pop rock tracks that knows how to control the unusual noises it's dealing it. The first side is absolutely perfect and if the whole album were like it I would have no doubt awarded the full score. But I'm mixed about the 2nd side. I've tried looking at what people had to say about it. Some say people only now started to appreciate it while others say it feels dated now... Ok? To me, it's a series of carefully crafted melancholic ambient pieces that are long enough for appreciation with enough variation to prevent us from growing tired of them. They apparently reflect geographic locations like Warsaw and West Berlin. They're excellent pieces that bring a calming feeling to the album, but how should I rate this album? Does it detract from the perfect score I should give? Well it's different and amazing as well but doesn't fit with the other side yet doesn't distract from it either. Maybe I'm hesitant because I already awarded 2 5-stars in the past couple days, and an avant album seems like the perfect excuse for me to break that. But I admit this is a perfect album that I commend Bowie and Eno on. In the end, they deserve the perfect score of this random listener.
Feb 16 2021 Author
1
The feeling of exited trepidation I feel before refreshing the page each day to reveal my next musical journey was very much dampened on this occasion when I discovered a David Bowie lp. Not being a huge fan I was still interested to hear what is supposedly one of his best pieces of work. If this is considered one of his best albums then it kinda confirms my long held opinion of Bowie’s music...blandish and boring’ish. David Bowie was universally acknowledged for sounding different, looking different and pushing boundaries in general yet I still find his songs fatiguing and uninspiring. Quit frankly the last three tracks on this album all sounded like instrumental lullabies aiming to set you off to sleep...which was a hazard in itself as I was driving at the time. It’s no coincidence that the only Bowie material I own is a Greatest Hits on vinyl. After listening to this album, that’s not going to change any time soon. 1 Star!
May 14 2021 Author
4
When initially listening to Low, you get the sense of it being very David Bowieesque. It seems to have influence from free form jazz in the way that the instrumentation is arranged. The production definitely is the center of each song, as the lyrics are sometimes drowned out by the repetition of the production. There are long pauses in the spoken word, so this album almost becomes an instrumental album. At just 39 minutes in runtime it is an easy listen, an album you throw on a turntable as background music.
Oct 30 2024 Author
5
in May of 2020, when I listened to the entire Bowie solo discography, I ranked this album his second best. it's a decision I still stand by! sorry, I just really love Blackstar, but in terms of "classic" Bowie, this is the album I reach for first. it's just such a succinct and perfect encapsulation of this artist (artists, if we take Brian Eno and Tony Visconti into account) at the peak of his powers! it may not have legendary, generationally anthemic songs with roof-tearing vocal performances like Hunky Dory or Ziggy Stardust or Station to Station, but so much of what makes this album special is its understatedness and brevity. the A-side is 7 flawless rock miniatures, all clocking in around 3 minutes or less, all replete with brilliant details in their pristinely engineered instrumentation, with heavy layers of Eno synths masterfully woven into the fabric for good measure. in many ways these songs (and others from the Berlin years) feel the bedrock of new wave and post-punk. even the instrumental songs are full of intrigue! the stakes on these tracks are much lower than they've been on previous Bowie albums, but there's a straightforwardness to the songwriting on this A-side, particularly in the lyrics, which I find really compelling. "Sound and Vision" might be the most "perfect" song in the entire Bowie catalog, and there's quite a few contenders there! then side B transports you somewhere else entirely. Eno takes center stage, with Bowie acting more as an object in the musical scene than a central figure across 4 grandiose slabs of ambient goodness. fuzzy string patches, Steve Reich-esque marimbas, thundering bass tones, droning vocals, and a ton of electronic pads all come together in various flavors. the connection these tracks have to the 7 rock songs that came before them isn't immediately obvious, but they just make sense together. with the rock side, you get terse reflections on David Bowie's state of mind as he tried to kick his various vices to the curb, and with the ambient side, that focus shifts outwardly to his immediate surroundings in West Berlin and the quiet horror of the Cold War. I can't imagine one without the other! this is one of the most transcendent listening experiences you can find in the entire rock music canon. 10/10.
May 21 2024 Author
5
First half is marvellous, second half is sublime. Alongside the classic Kraftwerk run, this is one of the strongest statements of and for post-war European culture, pop or otherwise.
Dec 27 2022 Author
5
A little shook I gotta come on here and defend Low! Not sure I have the credentials to do so. But this album is groundbreaking! One of the world's biggest rock stars assuredly planting is feet at the edge of the genre's avant garde. This album is so dense with collage. Such an unusual and introspective use of rock and roll; exploring all the ways it might collide with electronic, kraut, ambient, and so on. I can honestly say I've never heard an album from before or after Low that sounds quite like it. Even Heroes, which is, I think, his best album, and was released the same year (!!!), finds Bowie taking his experiments in a tonally different direction. I think it's stunning and inspiring to hear someone who had just released their first "greatest hits" album whipping around and doing something like this. The influence this album had on New Wave, Post-Punk, Indie, and everything after Rock's golden age is evident and essential. Hard to imagine many of our most beloved rock groups up to and including Radiohead existing as they do without Bowie's experimental period and without this album. All that, AND the first half of this album totally bops! "Sound and Vision" is one Bowie's best pop songs!
Oct 29 2022 Author
5
Split between a side of jittery experimental rock and a side of avant-garde/ambient music, Low is probably Bowie’s most drastic reinvention of his art. Brian Eno joins Bowie on Low and deserves much credit for shaping this album’s sound and style. Recorded in Berlin, the influence of Eno’s ambient work and the German experimental rock scene of the time is fully evident on Low. The A side of the record is more typical of Bowie’s sound at the time: the plastic soul of Station to Station became even more synthetic and angular, with percolating analog synths driving the songs. Think of it as a precursor to Eno’s work producing the Talking Heads a few years later. On the B-Side, Bowie and Eno delve deep into the experimental side of the pool, producing four moody avant-garde soundscapes influenced by Cluster, Kraftwerk, Steve Reich’s minimalism, World music and Brian Eno’s own ambient experiments. Few, if any, of Bowie’s megastar contemporaries were even attempting music like this in the late 70’s. Low and the ensuing two records Bowie recorded with Eno in Berlin are ground-breaking achievements, which successfully introduced the avant-garde and experimental into popular music. For both Bowie and Eno, Low is a high water mark.
Jan 25 2022 Author
5
Bowie introduces some electronic sounds! I'm a Bowie fan but have never listened to this one, so this was a treat. I enjoyed the exploration of new sounds, and you can definitely see the influence this had on subsequent artists. The second side was particularly interesting and unexpected. My top pick is 'Sound and Vision', but I also really liked 'Be My Wife' and 'A New Career in a New Town'.
Sep 15 2021 Author
5
It's hard to imagine what modern music would sound like without this album. Bowie and Brian Eno create an album with a satisfying rock front half, and a ethereal, dreamlike, and somewhat menacing back half. The experimental and ambient elements here are crucial to the development of post-punk. I remember when I first heard Blackstar, I thought that it was coming out of nowhere because I had not explored this period of Bowie. This album has given much such a deeper appreciation of this artist and of the history of music in general.
Jul 31 2021 Author
5
5.0 + I've listened to this album many times over the years. My first listen left me utterly confused. However, being a huge fan of Bowie's more pop-oriented music, I hung in and with subsequent listens that confusion turned to distaste, to understanding, and finally to absolute reverence. My journey to love this album in turn has made me appreciate experimental music and the artists that successfully struggle to present truly original sounds to my ears. I'm grateful for this album, for the supernova forces behind Bowie and Eno that briefly collided, as well as for my being able to finally appreciate the fruits of that collision.
Nov 26 2025 Author
4
I am a big Bowie fan, and will happily listen to any album from Hunky Dory through Let's Dance. I have favourites, but there is always something interesting and worthwhile and usually a couple of really strong songs. In my record collecting in the 90s, I bought a lot of Bowie albums. Many, many albums. Because they were cheap and around. People were dumping their collections and I was happy to pick them up. I particularly like Bowie from about 1975 through 1980, and so particularly hunted those. But sometimes weird things happen, especially when your collection reaches a certain size and you start losing track of what you own. I could have sworn up and down that I owned all of the Berlin trilogy, because of course I did! I live that period of Bowie! But, it turned out, I didn't own Low. I did, however, own four copies of Lodger, but not Low. How did this happen? I still can't explain it. As a result, Low is the Bowie album I am least familiar with from his late 70s period. That makes it an enjoyable listen for me because it sounds fresh to me. I like the rough and ready production which gives it an energy and immediacy. The more ambient tracks at the end of the record are more structured than the equivalent tracks on Heroes, and it's an enjoyable and interesting listen. Probably doesn't make my Top Five Bowie albums, but still pretty damn great. I told my wife the story about not owning Low, and she bought me a coloured vinyl reissue as a Christmas gift. That's real love.
Jun 25 2024 Author
2
Wow, what a yawner! Amazing he ever became a star.
Jun 17 2025 Author
5
Левиафан из глубины поп- музыки.
May 13 2025 Author
5
Coked up and influenced by German bands and his friendship with Iggy Pop Bowie changes directions once again and gives the world The Thin White Duke the MC of all tomorrow's parties. Low is a spacey, electronic epic poem that is often too beautiful for words hence all the instrumentals. It's superior to anything Kraftwerk and Neu! would ever release the two bands who most influenced Low and that's not taking a dig at either band both are essential bands with ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ albums of their own that I absolutely adore but such was Bowies at his prime, surpassing his influences became the order of the day. Low would go on to influence every post punk band worth a second listen as well as the rest of the 20th century - everything from art to music to fashion to you name it. In conclusion, I liked it and think that you will too.
Jan 09 2025 Author
5
# Album Name: Low # Artist: David Bowie # Rating: 5/5 # Comments: I love a bit of bowie, but i have to admit, i havent heard much of the berlin trilogy era before. My first listen of this album was, well, underwhelming. I think thats the best way to put it. Its a tale of two halves. First part of the album is vocal driven and the second half more electronic experimental/ambient. I decided to give it another listen. The first half has some good songs on it like Speed of life, breaking glass, sound & vision and be my wife. It was a good first half! Real grower. The latter half has Eno written all over it. It should be a Eno album almost. Pretty much from track 7 onwards. And Eno isnt someone who has struck me that well musically. You can feel the german influence. Im sure the electronics were well ahead of its time back in the day, and i can appreciate that, but its hard for me to grab on to. It doesnt connect with me musically. Its not how i know bowie either. However, patience is a virtue. It turns out a few of the tracks on the second half were pretty damn good. I could see how it inspired lots of other artists despite it not being my favourite version of bowie. Sound of vision and Be my wife are the standouts for me. Its a low 5 for me. # Top Tunes: First 6 tracks. Career in a new town, Warswaza and subterraneans. # Would I listen to it again? Yes
Nov 19 2024 Author
5
Best Song: Sound and Vision Worst Song: Weeping Wall
Aug 29 2024 Author
5
Its so good oh my god I'm crying listening to Subterraneans. Crying. This is the third time I'm listening to the ambient closer and I'm crying. OMG. Side A - avant-garde pop Side B - ambient
May 21 2024 Author
5
Busy day, brief review - this is great!
Jul 05 2023 Author
5
One of the great Berlin period albums of David Bowie and Brian Eno. The first half consists of eclectic rock songs and the other half is electronica. When comparing it with the Heroes album, the rock songs are more accessible and the electronic songs are fantastic as a whole, but have some weaker parts. The ultimate achievement is having all time classics like "Breaking Glass", "What in the World", "Sound and Vision", "Always Crashing in the Same Car" and "Be My Wife" on one album side. Astonishing!
Jan 05 2023 Author
5
I’ve always wondered what impression this album made to the Bowie fans at the time it was released. At the time it was only 5 years but 8 albums between this and Ziggy Stardust. Bowie had already reinvented himself a few times since then, but this still had to be a shock to listeners after Station to Station. The songs on side one seem more like ideas than songs. The crazy thing though, is that they work as songs as well and flow seamlessly into each other. As soon as one song is over, the listener is left wanting a little more but then they get hooked into the next song which then starts the cycle all over again until “A New Career in a New Town” brings the listener out of out. Side two , all of which reflects impressions of various locations musically, opens with what is Bowie’s most ambitious track at the time. “Warszawa” is both bleak and beautiful. The track is meant to capture his impressions of a previous visit of his to Warsaw. The final track, “Subterraneans”, is the oldest on the album. It was previously recorded shortly after Station to Station and like the track that came before reflects the mood in Germany surrounding the separation of the country during the cold war. Although this is not my favorite Bowie album it is up there and truly worthy of the 5 star rating.
Jan 13 2021 Author
5
Had a great time listening to remastered versions of Bowie’s classics plus some new ones that I’d not heard before. It has a psychedelic electro soul which puts me in mind of “war of the worlds musical”. Blooming brilliant
Aug 30 2025 Author
4
So good. I’m not usually down with the experimental especially with no vocals. This just lived in me today. Maybe it’s my mood. I just jammed out to it all day. Also bonus hearing Iggy Pop version of China Girl. I was today years old when I learned he recorded it first. Thanks Spotify! 7.3
Aug 30 2025 Author
4
9/10
Mar 23 2025 Author
4
Immediate replay for me. Initial listen while I was getting ready to go out, loved it immediately but I feel it’s an album that needs multiple listens. It’s Bowie being Bowie in the weirdest and best way. I can’t believe I’ve never heard a single track off this record. This was more of a 4.5 for me. Really wnjoyed, definitely will listen again in the future. This is a good one to find on vinyl.
Jan 28 2025 Author
4
"This is a LOOWWWWWWWWWWW, And it will hurt YOU-OOO-OOO"
Sep 11 2024 Author
4
Cigs for breakfast vibes Sound and vision Eno good?
May 14 2024 Author
4
4.5 Kind of a weird coincidence that we went from having two instrumental albums to the closest Bowie’s ever come to writing one, but what better way to send off the trio of like-minded works than with the beginning of Bowie’s own famous musical trilogy. Obviously I’m using “like-minded” loosely here, as this is miles ahead of Barry Adamson and Zappa in every way imaginable - I mean, come on, it’s David Bowie. As someone who just claimed not to be the biggest fan of instrumental music in my review prior, this album is an exemplification of how to do it and make it compelling. I mean, right off the bat you’re greeted with probably the sexiest blast of jazz to ever open an album - you know, the kind of thing only Bowie could pull off. It’s such a captivating, groovy, and inviting way to kick things off, and it transitions into a series of slightly more conventional tunes from there that I really think are among Bowie’s best. I absolutely love the synthesizer on Breaking Glass, the clanging piano on Be My Wife, and the simple, catchy charm of Sound and Vision - these are seriously all tracks that I think need more love within the larger Bowie catalog. The back half is where you get into the meat of the instrumental work, and while I can see how it could lose some people, I really find Bowie’s take on it to be some of the most atmospheric I’ve heard. There’s an incredible ambience established immediately as Warszawa kicks in, and it really doesn’t let up until the album concludes. Supposedly the songs were inspired by Bowie’s time in Berlin, but for me, they’ve always given off this sense of “final level” in a video game (which, to be fair, Berlin was in a sense at a time) They’re all great, but to date, I honestly think Warszawa is my most-listened to instrumental track ever. David Bowie is a legend among musicians and men for a lot of reasons, but I think one of the biggest reasons was his ability to consistently innovate and reinvent himself, and I think this album, denoting the beginning of his next musical chapter, may represent that spirit the best. The Thin White Duke and Ziggy were out - David was back and changing the game again. Bonus points for why Bowie is the man: Instead of promoting this album, he chose to support his friend Iggy Pop on tour as his keyboardist.
May 26 2021 Author
4
Bowie will always be great. I think this was my first time listening to this one though. It's quite haunting.
Jan 20 2021 Author
4
My favorite of the "Berlin Trilogy" albums. -- At least I think. I need to relisten to Lodger The instrumental tracks are sublime. Especially Warszawa.
Jan 13 2021 Author
4
I really liked this. Atmospheric and cool. I would not have listened to this before. Glad I did.
Oct 04 2025 Author
3
I can definitely say I celebrate the entire David Bowie catalog, and after he died I listened to his entire discography. But when this album popped up, I didn't remember much of it, so it obviously didn't stay that memorable after the first listen. Listening again, I was excited for the experimental synth pop era of David Bowie ... especially with Brian Eno and Iggy Pop ... but there is not a whole lot of experimenting going on. Its a good album, but tend to lose interest with the soundtrack like instrumentals on the second side.
Oct 02 2025 Author
3
No es de mis favoritos. Demasiada música instrumental.
Sep 01 2025 Author
3
Like walking through a gallery full of different pieces of art, each song is different but shares a theme. I liked hearing a couple of instrumental pieces though they weren't my favorite. This album is decidedly funky, with an assortment of music forming a colorful bridge between the 70s and 80s and beyond.
Aug 29 2025 Author
3
I’m am pretty much entirely unfamiliar with Bowie’s music and had zero expectations for this. Started off kinda meh, not offensive but unimpressive. There were a few moments of conventional songwriting that were pretty accessible. The shift halfway through to ambient, experimental sounds is where it really started to grow on me. The later tracks were did more for me than the first half. I appreciate how nothing on this album stayed past its welcome—every idea was direct and then it moved on. No chance for boredom. I could see this growing more on me with repeat listens. 6/10 Standouts: Be My Wife Warszawa Subterraneans
Jun 24 2024 Author
3
# Playlist track - Sound and Vision # Notes - Never heard this album before, even though "sound and vision" is one of my favorite Bowie tracks, ever. - Album starts out pretty great. Excellent opening. Fun, energetic, but it something does sideways halfway around. A set of weird experimental tracks takes over and they just feel out of place.
Jun 21 2024 Author
3
Can't believe I'd never heard Be My Wife before... it sounds so 80s. The ambient sections I find a bit tedious. Didn't hate it but I probably won't revisit the second half of the record. 3 overall, but a 5 for sound and vision
Jun 21 2024 Author
3
Some moments of genius
Jun 21 2024 Author
3
Mostly ambient and experimental music. Interestingly odd.
Jun 21 2024 Author
3
Szerintem olyan közepesen jó volt. Semmi földet indító nem volt benne, de hallgatható.
Apr 22 2025 Author
2
Боуи подтвердил этим альбомом, что он внатуре инопланетное ебанько
Nov 06 2024 Author
2
Not my cup of tea
Nov 06 2024 Author
2
Weird
Jul 30 2024 Author
2
Sorry. Just can’t get on with Bowie. Much over hyped, the tunes themselves are pretty good but his voice is awful and puts me off listening
Jul 29 2024 Author
2
#296. I don't know why there's so much Bowie on here when so much of it is trash. I've learned though that Bowie, like Dylan, should have quit while they were ahead in the early 70s, because there's not really anything particularly good going on after that. It's hard to pick a favorite song here, because none of them were even a little bit interesting. 2/5: please stop.
Jul 18 2024 Author
2
Unique in the way that I didn't know one could use such experimental instrumentation and still bore me. 2/5
Jun 26 2024 Author
2
Idk it felt like half the album was missing. Good beats otherwise
Jun 19 2024 Author
2
Points for trying something different, but never really came together.
Jun 11 2024 Author
2
This album received higher score because of two tolerable instrumental songs. The other songs were not worth listening to.
Nov 22 2025 Author
5
Great great album
Nov 19 2025 Author
5
Favorite track(s): Breaking Glass, Sound and Vision, Warszawa Heard before Previous rating: 9/10
Nov 18 2025 Author
5
9.5/10
Nov 18 2025 Author
5
141/1001 :: David Bowie - Low Heard before? ✅ Would I revisit? ✅ Rating: 9 Listen before you die: Yes David Bowie, widely considered one of the greatest artists of all time and this is why. You compare this album to Ziggy Stardust or The Man Who Sold the World and this album feels so out of left field. But leave it up to disco era Bowie to create something so engaging and frankly so damn cool. The fact that Sound & Vision was “the big single” says it all. This album is special.
Nov 18 2025 Author
5
One of Bowie’s most artistic statements. An album of two halves. One side light and poppy and one side instrumental and hugely downbeat. For me, it wasn’t just an album I had to hear multiple times to appreciate, but had to live with for many years. Totally worth your attention though and I think it has the best sound of the Berlin trilogy.
Nov 13 2025 Author
5
All-timer of a record 🖤
Nov 11 2025 Author
5
I’m always so impressed at how much I love every iteration and evolution of Bowie. Another incredible album - less poppy than others I’ve gotten but still fantastic and interesting song writing that never feels experimental for the sake of it.
Nov 07 2025 Author
5
I’ve listened to this album multiple times in the past. I wavered on whether I should label this a masterpiece but I think i have to. A complete departure of Bowie’s normal sound. But one that I’m totally invested and love. It took me a while to uncover its brilliance but now I fully embrace it. 5/5
Nov 07 2025 Author
5
A lot more atmospheric than expected
Nov 05 2025 Author
5
What else there to say. Listens like an album of samples with elongated intros. It’s great
Nov 05 2025 Author
5
Meni njegov najdraži album i možda platonski ideal albuma
Nov 04 2025 Author
5
Every album by Bowie is legendary. This one is unique, and didn't spawn as many singles... but still legendary. Every album by Bowie is a must-listen.
Nov 04 2025 Author
5
I go back and forth between this and Station To Station as my favorite Bowie album. You can really hear how much he was influenced by krautrock, but took those sounds in a poppier direction. Great stuff
Nov 01 2025 Author
5
Come on, this is Low by David Bowie.
Nov 01 2025 Author
5
Heard it before. Probably my favourite from the Berlin trilogy. Most importantly the album contains Warszawa, inspired by Poland and Polish folk music <3 5/5
Oct 31 2025 Author
5
I remember the first time I heard Low, I was so amazed that music could be as weird and wonderful as this. Easily my favourite of Bowie's Berlin Trilogy, I just adore how this divides its runtime between the avant-pop of Side A and the more instrumental, experimental work of Side B. Those two halves also feel like they went on to be hugely influential - I don't see how you get Talking Heads, LCD Soundsystem, or a whole bunch of alt-pop / avant-pop acts without this album.
Oct 27 2025 Author
5
one of the best albums of all time
Oct 16 2025 Author
5
Brian Eno’s contribution is very noticeable. I love the weird synth. Weeping Wall Sound and vision - LCD Soundsystem Overall, loved it. Even the weird songs
Oct 16 2025 Author
5
So cool how Bowie kept tabs on what was new in music and found a way to incorporate it into his work without pandering or sacrificing a shred of his unique style. The first side is Bowie’s take on krautrock, blending in the funk i fluences inherent to the genre and which he dabbled in on previous releases (Young Americans, Station to Station). The second is Bowie-fied Brian Eno ambience. While my personal favorite of the Berlin trilogy is probably Lodger, and my favorite overall is Ziggy Stardust, it is undeniable how influential, cutting edge, and all around “great” this album is.
Oct 14 2025 Author
5
9/10 Favs: Warszawa; Always Crashing in the Same Car; A new Career in a New Town; Sound and Vision; Subterraneans
Oct 14 2025 Author
5
Wow, really love A New Career in a New Town. Feels so fresh. Warszawa is so pretty. Weeping Wall, so trippy Subterraneans almost reminds me of Moby and Massive Attack. Then moving into Beauty and the Beast after that melodic journey? So cool!
Oct 12 2025 Author
5
Just perfection. I love it so so much. A new career in a new town is maybe my favourite song of all time, the album art is immaculate. 5 stars
Oct 12 2025 Author
5
My favorite Bowie, captures everything I like about him - cold and alien (what the fuck is that noise on Breaking Glass?) while also strangely relaxing (Sound and Vision gets replayed like 6 times on each listen).
Oct 10 2025 Author
5
Low is easily my favorite of the Berlin Trilogy. Side A is back to back to back bangers, and the B side is moody and introspective. A++ , highly recommended.
Oct 07 2025 Author
5
Side one is crazy amazing
Oct 06 2025 Author
5
Please sir, may I have some more? Celestial ethereal theramin vibes on a melancholy soundtrack
Oct 01 2025 Author
5
2nd Best Bowie Album. Best Songs: All of em Worst Songs: It’s Low… 10/10.
Sep 28 2025 Author
5
This is my kinda album. I do wish Scary Monsters was on this list though
Sep 27 2025 Author
5
I love how it sounds almost funky, but melancolic and rock'n'roll altogether... maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, but seriously, Bowie always delivers
Sep 26 2025 Author
5
Great album!
Sep 26 2025 Author
5
A bold brave brilliant statement from one of the greats. It doesn’t quite rise to the occasion but it is interesting to see him truly experiment and fold that into his sound.
Sep 23 2025 Author
5
2 parts, both of them masterpieces.
Sep 23 2025 Author
5
Even though Bowie has the most entries on this list, there's a very good chance Brian Eno is associated with more albums than anyone else. With that being said, what a wonderful collaboration of these two on David Bowie's Low.
Sep 17 2025 Author
5
what a beautiful trip
Sep 16 2025 Author
5
Such a cool album, so funky and trippy and weird. This is the peak of his cocaine powers, when he was eating 1 red pepper and drinking 1 glass of milk a day and grams of cocaine. Bands still want to sound like this so bad. Best song: Sound and Vision, my favourite Bowie song.
Sep 13 2025 Author
5
Love Bowie
Sep 11 2025 Author
5
🗯 In a world without Hunky Dory, this might be my favourite Bowie. Side A rocks, Side B floats. After the excess and near-collapse of mid-’70s LA, Bowie fled to Europe to clean up, recalibrate, and reinvent himself. Low was the first chapter of the Berlin Trilogy — recorded partly in France, partly in West Berlin — and it sounds like someone rebuilding from the ground up. The hedonism of Ziggy and Diamond Dogs is gone; in its place, fractured pop songs on one side and expansive ambient instrumentals on the other. Side A is jagged, twitchy brilliance (Sound and Vision, Breaking Glass, Be My Wife), miniature bursts that distil Bowie’s art-rock instincts into sharp shocks. Side B dissolves into widescreen soundscapes (Warszawa, Subterraneans) — abstract, melancholy, cinematic. It’s not just Bowie experimenting, it’s Bowie rediscovering possibility, with Brian Eno at his side. You can hear its influence everywhere: post-punk, synth-pop, industrial, Radiohead’s Kid A. Low isn’t just an album — it’s Bowie detonating the past and sketching out whole new futures. Verdict: Essential (the reinvention that kept Bowie immortal) For fans of: Brian Eno, Joy Division, Radiohead, drifting through alien cities at 3 a.m.
Sep 09 2025 Author
5
As the first if the "Berlin" trilogy albums this is one of my favorites. I love how it starts with the instrumental "Speed Of Life" this is one of those albums where you just know it's going to be great when you look at the cover. I know that a lot of people don't like 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' but it's a great movie and the cover of this album is a very alien way to represent the music that, I think at that time might have been quiet alien. Bowie always gets max.
Sep 08 2025 Author
5
I've never listened to this album before and I enjoyed every song.
Sep 06 2025 Author
5
Fantastic, experimental as hell, this is not your Hunky Dory, Changes Bowie.
Jun 02 2025 Author
5
One of my favorite albums of all time and my favorite Bowie album. Insanely beautiful yet desolate atmosphere. Even features some of my favorite sax playing by him too.
Sep 03 2025 Author
5
Really good stuff. Probably better than Ziggy Stardust in my opinion. 4.5/5.0: Excellent
Sep 03 2025 Author
5
really great instrumentals. i was surprised how spare the vocals are