MB Bowie Classics: "Low"
 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...28album%29.jpg

All change! The Berlin Trilogy is born, and enter some guy called ... Eno? :confused: ;) :thumb:

5.

Wouldn't change anything about it.

Absolutely nothing like what he released before.

10/10 unassailable.

Totally agree. The first side is fantastic but the songs are quite short, a few instrumentals like "Speed of Life" and "A New Career in a New Town", but the second side just kills it, totally instrumental and ambient. "Warszawa" is beautiful. Eno's influence really changes the whole game. What an album!

All right, can someone explain this? I set the poll up to show names, and it does, but as soon as I vote, all the names disappear, at least for me. Is that supposed to happen??

I don't mind the length of the songs tbh, they don't out stay their welcome. This is an album that does not waste a second.

It's difficult to even pick one favourite because they're all so good.

Question for anyone who knows: When Dave was in The Man Who Fell To Earth, he started working on the soundtrack to it. One of the tracks on Low (the second side) was meant for that soundtrack and was out on this, but I know that there was other music he made that I don't believe came out. When he found out that he wasn't doing the soundtrack and the guys in charge of the film wanted contributions from numerous artists and said Dave could submit some of his work his response was something like 'you're not getting any of it'. I think he was really angry and upset.

Anyone know any more about all this? What the music for the film was, where it is, did it come out etc.

I might not have remembered it all correctly as it was a long time ago I heard about it but surely he can't have just had the one song.

The forum is being a bit funny I think.

It must being Trollhearting me, cos I ain't laughin'.

Did you click on a number to open the info?

I did not. Thank you, Sir. That works. :thumb:

Be good to see Hawk's analysis of this album.

I think my favourite vocal is Always Crashing in the Same Car.

Finally a Bowie album I can get downright excited about!
Low has a lot of things going for it. I think it follows up on Station to Station very well, going even deeper in attempting to redefine and flesh out Bowie's sound.
Eno adds a lot of character to the sonic side of things, but the songs themselves also feel fresh and like they promise great things on the horizon for Bowie's creative output. I like the mostly slightly odd vocal passages, like in "Breaking Glass" and "What in the World".
The instrumental side of the album is gorgeous and at times quite wonderful to listen to.

The album is varied to the point of being stylistically inconsistent, but I don't mind at all. It's as if Bowie was trying on a range of shoes, attempting to imagine what his next sound and image could be, then just decided to keep all the best results. The album works really well as an "album experience" and I'm not bored a single second. Sometimes even quite moved or taken by the energy present in several of these cuts.

A surprisingly easy 5/5.

An attempt at deciding on my favorite tracks: "Breaking Glass", ""Sound and Vision", "A New Career in a New Town", "Warszawa".

_Previous ratings:__________________

(Rated on a scale relative to only Bowie's own discography, where 1 means the worst he's done and 5 means the best he's done.)
David Bowie: 1/5
Space Oddity: 2/5
The Man Who Sold The World 4/5
Hunky Dory 3/5
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust 3/5
Aladdin Sane 3/5
PinUps 2/5
Diamond Dogs 2/5
Young Americans 1/5
Station to Station 4/5
Low 5/5
Heroes
Lodger
Scary Monsters
Let's Dance
Tonight
Never Let Me Down
Black Tie White Noise
1. Outside
Earthling
Hours
Heathen
Reality
The Next Day
Blackstar

For probably the first time, I didn't put in the lowest score. Who voted 4?

Psy-Fi

Pleased to see Mic's review.

Looking forward to him listening to Heroes.
Maybe Iggy Pop's 'The Idiot'. That's Dave's album imo.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Idiot_(album)

I've been reading up on the history of these album a bit as well, so I know Bowie had a hand in Iggy Pop's album. If Trollheart feels like it's an essential enough part of Bowie's development as an artist, then I wouldn't mind if we included that one.

I've started listening to Heroes as well. One time through so far. It will definitely get a solid score. The question is only how solid.

There is only one flaw on Heroes for me.

First time through, the only thing I thought of was how I wasn't sure I really liked "Moss Garden" that much.

No it's only albums under his name, or his project like Tin Machine. Listen to Iggy by all means but I won't be doing a thread for it here.

It's fine and it makes sense. But what about the soundtracks? Labyrinth for example? Some of those are very much grey area (they're studio recordings, of course, but some people won't think of them as "regular albums"). With an artist like Prince, his soundtracks very much qualify as real studio albums, filled with original songs, but I'm not so sure what people feel about bowie's soundtracks (he's got at least two that I'm aware of). And I guess Outside was even (in a way) a soundtrack for that weird ass PC game, Omikron (at least I remember some people saying that it was).

I think I'll go with, if it's on a discography list of his - be it Wiki, RYM, Discogs, whatever - then it gets in. If not, it doesn't. How do youse guyses feels about the lives albumses? Should I includes thems?
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GGjcn3Wf5XI/hqdefault.jpg

I loved that one.

I'll wait for the next thread before discussing my issue with Heroes.

I'm fine with that and could go either way. As I understand it, he sometimes re-interpreted songs live, so it could be interesting. But it's really a question of whether you guys see them as filler or actually interesting in their own right.

My favorite :) "A new career in a new town" and "subterraneans" are among my fav Bowie tracks overall.

5/5

I'll give this one a 4/5. Almost as good as "Station to Station" but not quite there in my book. I think it might be the way the drums were mixed on side 1 that keeps it from being a 5/5 for me. Every song is good, no covers, Brian Eno lends a hand and Iggy Pop even makes an appearance as a back-up singer on ""What in the World."
This is the best album of Bowie's "Berlin Trilogy."

^I actually really like how the percussion is produced. The sort of loose and messy sound of the snare drum in particular is one of the most unique elements of the album's sound imo.

Ah, the chameleon is back with his Berlin Trilogy. I guess I'll get ripped by joining Psy-Fi with my 4 rating and I won't be as crazy as some you guys are, I suspect, with Heroes.


Of course, this is a very good album and I practically wore the grooves out when I first got this. I didn't know the instrumentals were originally for the Man Who Fell To Earth so that explains some things. It was the instrumentals that brought the album down a little for me. It did make the album a bit inconsistent. But the best tracks rate right up there with the Ziggy period. Favorite songs are What in the World and Sound and Vision (yeah, the hits; so sue me)

8/10 (The Word has spoken :D)

This album competes for the GOAT in my eyes. Love everything about it. For the past ~5 years when someone asks me what my all-time favorite album is I tell them this.

So obviously 5/5

I think only Subterraneans was for the film. Not all of the instrumentals were.

I don't think the album is inconsistent either, side 2 is very different to side 1 but that doesn't make it inconsistent.