Music Banter - View Single Post - Trollheart's Album Discography Reviews: David Bowie

Trollheart · 03-03-2022, 10:24 AM

Okay, time to get serious. Let's look into the famous Berlin Trilogy.

Low (1977)

After a debilitating cocaine habit was destroying him, Bowie decided to leave LA and head back to Europe. He wanted to go somewhere where he would not be recognised and could lead a relatively normal life while he tried to recover, and Berlin turned out to be that place. Thus he lived there for two years with Iggy Pop and Tony Visconti, crafting three albums over that period which would become known as his “Berlin Trilogy”. This was the first of those.

A snarling, punching guitar rocks things up right away as we open with “Speed of Life”, Eno's weird little synth soundscapes already making their presence felt in the background of the melody and Bowie's own sax making an early showing. It's a powerful little upbeat instrumental that gives you the sense of someone just going for it and doing what he wants to do musically, no longer constrained by any preconceptions or expectations. Most of the songs on this album are short, very short, and “Breaking Glass” is no exception, clocking in at less than two minutes with a striding rock beat and the genesis of his take on Krautrock; even his vocal sounds a little robotic here at times. Have to wonder if he's talking autobiographically when he sings ”You're such a wonderful person/ But you got problems!” There's barely time really to acknowledge this track though before we're into more Krautrock (I think: I know very little of the genre and am going a lot here on what others, people who know a lot more about this than I do, have written on the subject) with “What in the World”, another fast uptempo and basically cheerful track.

I definitely get the feeling (probably just me but there you go) of someone taking a deep breath after being underwater for so long that they believed they must drown, coming up for air and realising the world is a place they still want to live in. There's certainly an effort to suppress emotion in the vocal, to make it more inhuman, mechanical and deadpan, despite the boppy music. “Sound and Vision” is one of his great hits, basically mostly driven on the one riff and with a vocal that ranges from the falsetto to the baritone (maybe; I'm not that knowledgeable about vocal ranges either, but it goes from high to low) and there is actually very little to the lyric, making the song not quite an instrumental but not that far from it. Some snarly guitar and growling sax, then Bowie's voice comes in and asks ”Don't you wonder sometimes?” A sort of descending synthline also accompanies the main melody, perhaps representing high to low?

The kind of stabbing keyboard chords that would later characterise new wave and electronic music introduce “Always Crashing in the Same Car” with what sounds like horn accompaniment, but given the amount of weird instruments being used here (and with Eno in attendance) it could be anything. Nice sort of almost dreamy feel to this, following on from the slower “Sound and Vision” and keeping things basically mellow; a very low-key and relaxed vocal from Bowie. Kicking things up a bit more then with “Be My Wife”, some wailing guitar and chunky synth with a relatively simple lyrical idea. Another very new-waveish (as it would become) instrumental, with added harmonica, “Another Career in Another Town” could also be said to be semi-autobiographical, or at least descriptive of Bowie's attempts to kick his habit and make the music he wanted to.

A big, doomy church organ sound opens “Warszawa”, a very dark ambient piece. The album is basically divided into two sections, the first (originally the first side of the record) consisting of short, more or less straight rock pieces and short instrumentals, while the second side is devoted to deeper, longer and more introspective ambient instrumental pieces, mostly. In the fourth minute of “Warszawa” Bowie kind of chants something across the melody but I've no idea what it means, or if it's actually meant to be Polish, or indeed anything at all. It does add to the atmosphere, though I personally think the piece would have served better as a true instrumental. Nevertheless, it's more or less accepted that this is where Low really begins to come into its own, where Bowie, and Eno, stretch their musical muscle and engage their creativity to produce something really special.

“Art Decade” has a kind of ticking percussion, a version of which would surface three years later on Genesis's Duke album, though Collins would use a drum machine to recreate the sound. There's a really nice sort of climbing, rising melody in this, the soft percussion really complementing the melody, with some other odd little Enoesque sounds thrown in too, and a vague feeling of early Yes there too, as well as hints of Vangelis. Xylophone and vibraphone really get utilised in “Wailing Wall”, very soft electronic, again reminds me of Vangelis around his Mask period, and quite oriental in sound too. It's almost an exercise in expressionism in music. The guitar certainly wails in counterpoint, then a synth begins its own deeper moan, and all of this fades out and leads us into the closer.

Originally written as part of his aborted soundtrack for the movie The Man Who Fell to Earth, “Subterraneans” has a dark, eerie and yet quite beautiful feel to it. Driven on what sounds like violin, a high, sighing synth line and a slow, measured bass, it's mournful and moving, with a low vocalise from Bowie occasionally sifting through it, more a kind of hum really. Some rather unexpected sax and a vocal line near the end places the final seal on the piece and brings the whole album to a very satisfying conclusion.

Track Listing

Speed of Life
Breaking Glass
What in the World
Sound and Vision
Always Crashing in the Same Car
Be My Wife
Another Career in Another Town
Warzsawa
Art Decade
Weeping Wall
Subterraneans

I had a few run-ins with this album originally. When much much younger my boss (a huge Bowie fan) lent it to me and I was somewhat underwhelmed. I guess at that time (I would have been maybe 17 or 18) I had no real appreciation of music and I thought of Bowie in terms of his singles, so I liked "Sound and Vision" and that was it. The album mostly bored me. Later, I tried it again for my Classic Albums I Have Never Heard journal and liked, and appreciated and understood it a lot more. Here, I'm sort of backing up the second listen, as it were, but in a more detailed way. Suffice to say, I now see why this is regarded as one of Bowie's most important albums, and I'm glad I took the time to listen to it and experience it as it should be.

Rating: 8.5/10

03-03-2022, 10:24 AM	#15 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Okay, time to get serious. Let's look into the famous Berlin Trilogy. Low (1977) After a debilitating cocaine habit was destroying him, Bowie decided to leave LA and head back to Europe. He wanted to go somewhere where he would not be recognised and could lead a relatively normal life while he tried to recover, and Berlin turned out to be that place. Thus he lived there for two years with Iggy Pop and Tony Visconti, crafting three albums over that period which would become known as his “Berlin Trilogy”. This was the first of those. A snarling, punching guitar rocks things up right away as we open with “Speed of Life”, Eno's weird little synth soundscapes already making their presence felt in the background of the melody and Bowie's own sax making an early showing. It's a powerful little upbeat instrumental that gives you the sense of someone just going for it and doing what he wants to do musically, no longer constrained by any preconceptions or expectations. Most of the songs on this album are short, very short, and “Breaking Glass” is no exception, clocking in at less than two minutes with a striding rock beat and the genesis of his take on Krautrock; even his vocal sounds a little robotic here at times. Have to wonder if he's talking autobiographically when he sings ”You're such a wonderful person/ But you got problems!” There's barely time really to acknowledge this track though before we're into more Krautrock (I think: I know very little of the genre and am going a lot here on what others, people who know a lot more about this than I do, have written on the subject) with “What in the World”, another fast uptempo and basically cheerful track. I definitely get the feeling (probably just me but there you go) of someone taking a deep breath after being underwater for so long that they believed they must drown, coming up for air and realising the world is a place they still want to live in. There's certainly an effort to suppress emotion in the vocal, to make it more inhuman, mechanical and deadpan, despite the boppy music. “Sound and Vision” is one of his great hits, basically mostly driven on the one riff and with a vocal that ranges from the falsetto to the baritone (maybe; I'm not that knowledgeable about vocal ranges either, but it goes from high to low) and there is actually very little to the lyric, making the song not quite an instrumental but not that far from it. Some snarly guitar and growling sax, then Bowie's voice comes in and asks ”Don't you wonder sometimes?” A sort of descending synthline also accompanies the main melody, perhaps representing high to low? The kind of stabbing keyboard chords that would later characterise new wave and electronic music introduce “Always Crashing in the Same Car” with what sounds like horn accompaniment, but given the amount of weird instruments being used here (and with Eno in attendance) it could be anything. Nice sort of almost dreamy feel to this, following on from the slower “Sound and Vision” and keeping things basically mellow; a very low-key and relaxed vocal from Bowie. Kicking things up a bit more then with “Be My Wife”, some wailing guitar and chunky synth with a relatively simple lyrical idea. Another very new-waveish (as it would become) instrumental, with added harmonica, “Another Career in Another Town” could also be said to be semi-autobiographical, or at least descriptive of Bowie's attempts to kick his habit and make the music he wanted to. A big, doomy church organ sound opens “Warszawa”, a very dark ambient piece. The album is basically divided into two sections, the first (originally the first side of the record) consisting of short, more or less straight rock pieces and short instrumentals, while the second side is devoted to deeper, longer and more introspective ambient instrumental pieces, mostly. In the fourth minute of “Warszawa” Bowie kind of chants something across the melody but I've no idea what it means, or if it's actually meant to be Polish, or indeed anything at all. It does add to the atmosphere, though I personally think the piece would have served better as a true instrumental. Nevertheless, it's more or less accepted that this is where Low really begins to come into its own, where Bowie, and Eno, stretch their musical muscle and engage their creativity to produce something really special. “Art Decade” has a kind of ticking percussion, a version of which would surface three years later on Genesis's Duke album, though Collins would use a drum machine to recreate the sound. There's a really nice sort of climbing, rising melody in this, the soft percussion really complementing the melody, with some other odd little Enoesque sounds thrown in too, and a vague feeling of early Yes there too, as well as hints of Vangelis. Xylophone and vibraphone really get utilised in “Wailing Wall”, very soft electronic, again reminds me of Vangelis around his Mask period, and quite oriental in sound too. It's almost an exercise in expressionism in music. The guitar certainly wails in counterpoint, then a synth begins its own deeper moan, and all of this fades out and leads us into the closer. Originally written as part of his aborted soundtrack for the movie The Man Who Fell to Earth, “Subterraneans” has a dark, eerie and yet quite beautiful feel to it. Driven on what sounds like violin, a high, sighing synth line and a slow, measured bass, it's mournful and moving, with a low vocalise from Bowie occasionally sifting through it, more a kind of hum really. Some rather unexpected sax and a vocal line near the end places the final seal on the piece and brings the whole album to a very satisfying conclusion. Track Listing Speed of Life Breaking Glass What in the World Sound and Vision Always Crashing in the Same Car Be My Wife Another Career in Another Town Warzsawa Art Decade Weeping Wall Subterraneans I had a few run-ins with this album originally. When much much younger my boss (a huge Bowie fan) lent it to me and I was somewhat underwhelmed. I guess at that time (I would have been maybe 17 or 18) I had no real appreciation of music and I thought of Bowie in terms of his singles, so I liked "Sound and Vision" and that was it. The album mostly bored me. Later, I tried it again for my Classic Albums I Have Never Heard journal and liked, and appreciated and understood it a lot more. Here, I'm sort of backing up the second listen, as it were, but in a more detailed way. Suffice to say, I now see why this is regarded as one of Bowie's most important albums, and I'm glad I took the time to listen to it and experience it as it should be. Rating: 8.5/10 __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018 Last edited by Trollheart; 04-01-2022 at 06:36 PM.