Low

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Takes the listener to a new world. Neat.

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.

Jesu Christo! I just finished my review of a middling soul album and then we get this beast and I convulsed an LOL because of the enormous intensity gap between the two albums. Maybe it's just me and the role this record played during an exceedingly difficult time in my life but fuck me, this is a heavy album. It's an L-shaped one way ride to and through a place most people should never have to visit if they can get and keep their shit together. For the rest of us, well, songs like Always Crashing In The Same Car can make me cry just from the relief of knowing you're not alone in being a fuckup. I'm not above admitting I paused in the middle of the last sentence for a quick cry. Anyway, and the desperation in Be My Wife? Harrowing. Sound & Vision? Blue, blue. Breaking Glass? Fucked up. I don't even want to know what David did to the carpet. Side two's lack of lyrics gives you a shot a putting Humpty Dumpty back together again. His words on side one brought you to the brink and now you get a few minutes to step back and reflect and try to get it together enough to face the world and hope that maybe this time at least it'll be a different car that you crash in. Maybe.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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'.

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.

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.

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.

# 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

Best Song: Sound and Vision Worst Song: Weeping Wall

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

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.

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

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.

What is this, Bowie album #5 for me? They've been all over the spectrum rating-wise, let's see where this one lands. Low lives in the world of mediocre Bowie. It's a very ok album. Nothing in this album really hooked me and it was a pretty quick in and out adventure. Low lacked the really good lyrical songwriting you see in other Bowie options, and it felt a little phoned in. I get the whole Berlin Trilogy thing, and this is a "piece of art," but it's not doing it for me. It's an album split down the middle and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Standout tracks were "Sound and Vision" and "Weeping Wall" I really don't think this list needs 5+ (because I'm sure there are more) Bowie albums. Damn. It does sound a bit ahead of its time, but that doesn't pull it up from an average 3 for me.

Wow, what a yawner! Amazing he ever became a star.

Never gets old. "Warszawa" still haunts me after all these years

Never listened to a Bowie album front to back. I know Sound and Vision after going through RYM top 100 singles a few years ago. Trying to get back into my late teen years where all I did was listen to music and watch movies. Also trying to get back into reading. Using art as pure escapism is probably not the healthiest way to live life but it's an improvement from the constant doom scrolling.

Heaven knelt and caressed the earth.

On 170/1089, I got my second Bowie album (first one 23, Young Americans)! This was my second listen to Low This album is really different from the others that I have heard from Bowie, it is really relaxing, an escape with lots of instrumentals going on. It's just so fascinating how much different music this man was capable off 5/5 Standout track: speed of life

muy bueeeeeeeno

160-odd albums in and get my first David Bowie. "Low" is a fantastic album - the production, melodies, atmosphere, instrumentation are all great. Has a unique sound, and the instrumentals to close off the album are all real nice and pleasant, without being complex or ornery. Can't go wrong with Bowie.

Левиафан из глубины поп- музыки.

Busy day, brief review - this is great!

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!

Although I *really* (really really) wish there weren't nearly as many Bowie albums in this collection as there are, I'm also glad that this one *is* there, as it's definitely a different sound and feel from what I associate with David Bowie across his very varied career. This is mainly due to the very experimental and soundtrack-oriented second side of the album, and especially the haunting "Warszawa", but even the more song-oriented first side is an interesting collaboration between Bowie and Brian Eno (everywhere) and even apparently a bit of Iggy Pop. It's impressive to read how many people and bands were heavily influenced by this album, from Joy Division's entire lifespan as an homage to "Low", to a huge range of artists finding inspiration from songs on both sides of the album. I can also totally see how and why Philip Glass created a symphony based on "Low".

I was a big Bowie fan back in the day and always avoided this album. I imagine someone played it once and it never stuck with me, except for "Be My Wife" and "Sound and Vision" which I didn't like all that much. I missed out! The 2nd half is mostly instrumental and is nice: strong, romantic-sounding. Respect too for the departure from his other music!

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

9/10

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.

"This is a LOOWWWWWWWWWWW, And it will hurt YOU-OOO-OOO"

Cigs for breakfast vibes Sound and vision Eno good?

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.

Bowie will always be great. I think this was my first time listening to this one though. It's quite haunting.

My favorite of the "Berlin Trilogy" albums. -- At least I think. I need to relisten to Lodger The instrumental tracks are sublime. Especially Warszawa.

I really liked this. Atmospheric and cool. I would not have listened to this before. Glad I did.

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.

No es de mis favoritos. Demasiada música instrumental.

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.

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

# 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.

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

Some moments of genius

Mostly ambient and experimental music. Interestingly odd.

Szerintem olyan közepesen jó volt. Semmi földet indító nem volt benne, de hallgatható.

600 albums in and I’ve realized there are seven phases of waking up to a Bowie album on the generator: excitement; wonder; befuddlement; dismay; indignation; exhaustion; acceptance. I am currently at exhaustion. The Berlin trilogy of albums always sounds to me like what it was - Bowie cleaning up and just playing studio rat with his new friend Brian Eno. The sounds are super interesting. (I LOVE pre-FM synths.) It's just too bad that Bowie, one of the great songwriters of the 20th Century, was taking a break from songwriting during the period. Because imagine if all of these super interesting sounds were packaging Bowie SONGS, instead of just meandering around for the better part of three hours. Or don't imagine, just listen to Heroes - one of the best tracks of his career - buried in the middle of all that cool noise. Alas, I hear nothing here but the cool noise.

2 stars, first few song are ok. The ambient synth shit at the end was crap.

I forgot it was playing. Largely instrumental. I can understand how this was crazy good at the time but now I feel like this is what free tracks from youtube videos sounds like.

Боуи подтвердил этим альбомом, что он внатуре инопланетное ебанько

Not my cup of tea

Weird

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

#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.

Unique in the way that I didn't know one could use such experimental instrumentation and still bore me. 2/5

Idk it felt like half the album was missing. Good beats otherwise

Points for trying something different, but never really came together.

This album received higher score because of two tolerable instrumental songs. The other songs were not worth listening to.

I never understood the appeal of Bowie, vocally he's just ok and lyrically he's fine I guess but overall he's very mediocre this album highlights that a lot

One of his best albums. Can’t be anything less than maximum points for this masterpiece

Bowie was so ahead of his time. He was so in-touch with the artistic scenes that were happening outside of the mainstream, and like a fearless and excitable child, always jumped in head-first to take them on right away. That's how Krautrock and ambient electronica became a staple of three of his albums, the Berlin trilogy, starting with “Low”. This is Bowie, Brian Eno and Berlin. Yes! Let's go! “Speed of Life” kicks things off with that sticky, strange intro. You often think of this album as two halves, day and night, with the big shift happening in the second half, but Bowie actually gets right into the weirdness with the first song. It's absolutely class too. You're slapped in the face by that huge drum sound, pitch-shifted by a device that Tony Visconti described as “fucking with the fabric of time”. The catchy guitar melody is bent out of shape by electronic textures swooping in from all directions. There's no space for vocals in this panic-attack on all the senses. “Breaking Glass” doesn't give us a chance to catch our breath. It's like a funk tune from another dimension. Guitars solo, and bass lines groove, as electronic noises cut through the middle to blast warning sounds at us. The first half of the album is known as the more accessible, but it's still very out-there. There's a manic and frenetic energy to everything, with the nervous restlessness carried by that ridiculously great drum sound. “A New Career in a New Town” acts as a transition, signalling the end of the daytime chaos of side A and the beginning of the more controlled and mesmerising side B: “Night”. I can't imagine the surprise and confusion Bowie fans must have had back in ‘77 after flipping the record over to encounter “Warszawa”. It's quite far from the Bowie of “Station to Station”. Dark, brooding, minimalist, with tribal chanting, it’s mind-blowing stuff. “Art Decade” seals the deal. There's no going back now. But I wouldn't want to. Hypnotic synth and electronic textures swirl around my head until I'm dizzy. “Weeping Wall” uses synthetic vibrato and sustained, distorted guitar tones to convey emotion. “Subterraneans” closes things out with a sweeping cacophony of keys, chanting, synth, distorted vocals and a devastating sax sound. I can't explain it, but somehow the soundscapes of side B paint a picture in my mind of a place I've never been, in a time I wasn't alive for. Eno and Bowie manage to create more emotion through instrumental minimalism than I could ever have imagined possible. “Low” was a huge moment in music, and massively influential. Joy Division almost named themselves after the song Warszawa. Gary Numan, Wire, NIN, Philip Glass and TV on the Radio have all been shaped by the album in one way or another. Decades later “Kid A” would follow its blueprint of the rock album as fractured, atmospheric self-reinvention. I love how Robert Smith put his experience of listening to “Low” for the first time: “My whole perception of sound was changed.” Bowie can have that effect on you.

Mooi

202 / 1089. My favorite Bowie album. And my favorite album to feature Brian Eno in any capacity. I was instantly fascinated by Side 1. But Side 2 is where Bowie's genius goes into above and beyond, and it can take several listens to understand. "Warszawa" keeps amazing me decades after I heard it. 10/10.

Though I really like David Bowie, I don't know this album or any songs on it. I was surprised at the brevity of the songs on the first half of the album. But they're catchy little vignettes with guitar and synths, with some vocals. I really like these -- they feel fresh, and none are long enough to wear out their welcome. The second half contrasts with its longer instrumentals featuring a lot of synths. Though Warszawa gets a little long, I really like the latter three. I can hear influence from Kraftwerk... and I can hear future influence on new wave and synthpop music that I love in the 80s. Overall this was a very enjoyable listen.

A record of 2 excellent halves. Side 1 is pretty great, but side 2 takes the cake.

Top 5 all time favorite albums

Utterly and completely brilliant. My favourite Bowie album by a country mile. Released in the days when vinyl and cassette were the only options, so intentionally split in to two distinct sides. Side one is krautrock perfection. Side two is the best ambient music I've ever heard (not usually a fan). Bowie should have spent more time depressed and locked up in his bedroom room all alone with no friends like 13 year old me 😅

Incredible album.

Side B was amazing. beautiful dreamy synthesizer.

Yes for ever!

They sat down and told me this was the best Bowie album. Yeah, probably it is and it finally took for now to listen to the whole thing. Heck, maybe I did listen to it before but I just don't remember but its quite the experience for a first listen. It was mainstream of obscurity and pretty influential. One popular hit track too. Lovely Berlin Trilogy.

Album #87: Low - David Bowie Genre (W): Art rock, avant-pop, electronic, ambient, experimental rock Singles: Sound and Vision / A New Career in a New Town, Be My Wife / Speed of Life I have not listened to this album before. Thoughts?: I love this album. The first side is weird but conventional, but the second side is absolutely gorgeous. I love Eno’s contributions to this album, along with Bowie’s lyrics. Overall a perfect, bizarre album! Favorite songs: All of it!!

liked it listened during val

I really love how much this album continues to grow on me, even after having been a huge Bowie fan for years now. It's such a fun and dynamic mix of his classic sounding glam adjacent style, but throwing a lot of seemingly really oddball moments going a lot more into ambient. Of course Brian Eno is the genuis behind the production, and in my opinion killed it even more on Heroes, which is definitely my favourite Bowie album. But the Berlin trilogy still started so strong, and was a huge part of laying the groundworks for distancing himself from the style that made him so iconic throughout the 70s.

The myth, the legend. Overall great album. Some songs even fit into Zelda games.

my live reaction to Warszawa: https://tenor.com/view/rodrick-crying-gif-7160379518049051904

Great Bowie record, what an artist. 5.

Can’t believe I hadn’t heard this album before, you can feel the Iggy Pop and Brian Eno influences, movie scores, rockers, and pop stars have all definitely cribbed extensively from this album

The first, and in my opinion, greatest of the Berlin trilogy, Low is David Bowie's first collaboration with Brian Eno. And I will say, it sure sounds like they hit it off well. As with "Heroes", to which this truly feels like a sister album both artists bring something really special out of each other. Eno pushes Bowie's sound in a more textural, avant-garde direction, and Bowie provides a huge, grandiose, cinematic quality to Eno's more cerebral tendencies. And the result is, as with "Heroes", a side of art rock and a side of textural ambient pieces. The former glisten and mutate, threatening to alternatively become hits, or leave orbit, but never really doing either, and capturing this unique tension in amber. I think the two greatest songs on this side may be Sound & Vision, which is *unbelievably* catchy, and A New Career In A New Town, which kind of feels like a reflection of where David Bowie was at the time; he had fallen apart, changed location and re-invented himself. But the skronked out funk of Breaking Glass, and the fascinating textures of What In The World are also worth noting (although frankly, every song on the side is immaculate). Then side two is the ambient pieces; Warszawa, Art Decade, Weeping Wall, and Subterraneans are all *fantastic*, essential explorations into mood and texture. Warszawa and Subterraneans even make room for some incredibly striking vocals. But this whole side seems to effectively hint at the sadness tugging at Europe in the aftermath of World War 2, and the pieces on this side all have a well-realized, deeply centered emotional core. Low is the kind of extremely detailed, complex album that manages to sound so simple while you listen to it. It all just makes sense, it seems so natural. But what's here is completely daring and fascinating, and Low, as it's own weird little package ends up among Bowie's greatest, and most deeply resonant albums.

Déjà écouté avant. Deuxième album de Bowie dans la liste, deuxième chef-d'œuvre. Au funk rock halluciné de Station to Station, Bowie ajoute, avec la complicité de Brian Eno et Tony Visconti, une dimension plus ambient et expérimentale, comme la bande-son d'un film de science-fiction postapocalyptique est-allemand. Fondateur et essentiel. Top : Sound and Vision Flop : Weeping Wall

This album is incredibly strong in it's atmosphere. It doesn't have songwriting as good as Ziggy Stardust or Station to Station, but it makes up for it with it's own strength. Brian Eno and Bowie are a great combination together and the album itself makes a great listen. The first side starts off normal and then gradually the album becomes more and more sprawling and atmospheric. Great and influential piece of work, I can see how Pitchfork called it the best 70's album at one point.

Is Low a high point, probably. Not my favourite album of his, but still a work of genius.

wow! beautiful, just him, his soul, his voice.

Not my favorite from Bowie, but possibly his best. I don’t have much to say, the album just rules and I give it 10 or so listens a year.

a masterpiece, specially in the bass department.

Album 168. Low (https://open.spotify.com/album/2de6LD7eOW8zrlorbS28na?si=7nPh9lhHTj2MBoWZ8wDAKw) — David Bowie (1977) That's why David Bowie matters. You're listening to Warszawa and you can't even imagine it's Bowie's music. (Yeah, I must mention Brian Eno, his work as co-producer is undeniable in the whole Berlin Trilogy.) That's his greatness. Throughout his life, he kept going, kept experimenting with everything. Listening to Bowie, you're not just listening to Bowie, you're listening to everything basically, because he, pain in the ass, stuck his nose everywhere he could. This is the first album of the Berlin Trilogy, sober, clear head and ready for experimentation. His first experiment was with electronic and ambient sounds. Low words, a lot of instrumentals. It's a strange choice, unexpected and very risky, I mean, RCA refused to release it initially, but it was worthwhile. Low definitely isn't my most loved Bowie album, I don't really know where to put it in Bowie's album hierarchy, but it's fucking great. Hope to relisten the whole Berlin Trilogy while exploring the city someday. 5/5 Liked: — Breaking Glass — Sound and Vision — Always Crashing in the Same Car — A New Career in a New Town — Warszawa — Art Decade — Weeping Wall

I loved the album!! Some of these were such an interesting listen. Got me in a daze. Would recommend it.

The first of the Berlin trilogy! Low is a classic that needs no further introduction.