Album #70 : David Bowie - Low

David Bowie

Low (1977)

Low, David Bowie's eleventh studio album, was recorded while the artist was in recovery from a rather serious cocaine addiction. While this addiction had resulted in Bowie's last great musical 'character', the Thin White Duke, it had eaten away at Bowie's physical and mental health to the point where Bowie himself would eventually concede that the Duke was no good for him, and he eventually moved himself away from his drug problem (Los Angeles) to the relative safety of Europe.

It was that backdrop, as well as the presence of keyboard wizard and ambient experimenter Brian Eno, that was to result in one of Bowie's most polarising and schizophrenic releases. However, time has also come to regard it as one of his grandest, most influential albums in his long and storied career.

The Album

Upon its release, Low was split into two parts - the more 'standard' rock side, featuring seven shorter, more fragmented songs, and an avant-garde ambient experimental electronic side, featuring four more complete 'portrait pieces' of locations that were immediately familiar to Bowie (as well as, consciously or otherwise, reflecting his own mental battles).

Side A (the 'rock' side) still contains some electronic experimentation, as Eno puts his Moog synthesiser and his EMS Synthi AKS 'suitcase synth' to good use. It's bookended by two fairly happy instrumentals (well, happy, comparatively speaking) in Speed of Life and A New Career In A New Town. The latter is the more musically complete, with a Bowie harmonica solo providing a soulful counterpoint to Eno's synth stylings. In between, there's ample evidence of Bowie's songwriting shift to fragmented, nonsensical ideas. Breaking Glass is half a song but quite a good half, with drug-addled lyrics set to a slow groove and mildly funk-based drumbeat. What In The World is this album's Side A in a three-minute nutshell, with a basic guitar riff completely overshadowed by chaotic synth noises, nonsensical free association poetry and reggae/Latin rhythmic touches. It gives the impression that it's not quite complete yet it probably is. Sound And Vision is another great tune, Bowie's contrasting high/low vocals (delivered in a withdrawn, secluded style to match the lyrics) are themselves set to a guitar motif that provides contrast, as it is quite upbeat. So is Eno's synth motif that later matches the vocal melody.

Elsewhere on Side A, Always Crashing In The Same Car features Bowie, a sea of complete detached calm, in a swirling mix of synthesiser and guitar; a solo from guitarist Ricky Gardiner is methodical and note-perfect, and Bowie's lyrics convey a sense of frustration in repeatedly making the same mistakes over and over again. Be My Wife features no synthesisers, according to the album's liner notes (however I'm sure I can hear some in the mix). It also features a ragtime piano intro for some reason, and despite the personal pleas in the lyrics, it left me a bit cold (though again, Gardiner's solo is methodical, careful and subtle.

That takes care of the 'rock' side. Now for Side B's ambient portrait pieces.

Side B is unlike anything Bowie recorded previously (though he had, in fairness, begun to experiment with electronic sounds and the 'motorik' beat on Station to Station). First track Warszawa is nothing short of spectacular. Written about Bowie's visit to the desolate city of Warsaw in 1973, the song conveys perfectly that bleak desolation, especially in the first minute when it established, through a particularly dark synthesiser motif, that feeling. The second section sees a key change and a mass of synthesised strings, adding wistful melancholy to the dank depression of the early synth lick. Its third section, however, is the sign of things to come on Side B; Bowie, singing lyrics that may be in Polish (research is not conclusive) warbles painfully above a choir of Bowies. There's another key change here, and then the song finally goes back into a reprise of the first section. It is hauntingly beautiful ambient music, yet at the same time, is stunning art.

Art Decade is Bowie's observation of West Berlin as a 'dying' city; its plodding, moody nature, driven slowly by discordant synth rhythms, succeeds in conveying this (though without as much inherent beauty as in Warszawa). Weeping Wall (yep, it's about the Berlin Wall) is the least effective 'portrait piece' as I'm not personally convinced that it conveys its message of the Wall's inherent despair quite as well as other tunes convey their messages. Nevertheless, it's of interest for two reasons; Bowie plays all instruments on the song, and uses insistent stabbing synthesiser notes to form the song's rhythm section. There's even some notes of guitar clearly heard here, and the vibraphone adds a nice touch. As a minimalist piece it's good, but as an art piece it doesn't click.

Final track Subterraneans was written about the residents of East Berlin and their personal misery, pining for a life left behind. This track was one of the most worked-on on the album, with most of the instrument tracks being reversed (the bass line and some prominent synth melodies in particular, multiple layers of synthesiser provided by Eno, and Bowie creating a crescendo of harmonies with his vocals at one point. It's lush for an ambient piece, but again, its melancholy feeling and use of jazz saxophone (to represent the 'old' life of the East Berliners) conveys its intended message to great effect. Bowie's vocals, wordless groans for most of the track (another musical motif designed to evoke the misery of the East) are later briefly replaced by complete nonsense lyrics. It's a suitable ending to Side B, and further stamps Bowie as one of music's greatest risktakers.

The Verdict

It's tough to listen to, but I found Low to be ultimately rewarding. Viewed through the lens of Bowie's personal struggles at the time, and with the reminder that Bowie has always been about pleasing himself, first and foremost, this is a wonderful, wonderful album despite its inaccessibility. It's the sound of a man far from being at ease with himself and trying to express his pain, his feelings and his thoughts not through lyrics (as most songwriters would do) but through music and texture.

Aided by Eno and long-time producer Tony Visconti, Bowie did just that....and his next album would take this avant-garde approach even further.

My rating: ****

Standout Tracks

What In The World

Warszawa

Sound And Vision

Tomorrow, a 90s grunge classic (no, not that one.....not that one either.....the other one by that band.)