David Bowie – Low
Alejandro De Luna
Text originally published for Gigslutz.co.uk
Just put the savviest vampire in pop music after descending from a mountain of cocaine and an unhealthy obsession with occultism in Los Angeles into a rehab of class A drugs next to Iggy Pop. Send these wackos to Château d’Hérouville in France and Hansa Studios in Berlin with another lunatic called Brian Eno, with Carlos Alomar´s rhythm textures, and with a lustful desire for unconventional instruments and sounds.
Low (1977) is an autobiographical trip full of gloomy atmospheres that tell the story of a man crawling to re-establish his mental and physical health after entering into a downward spiral of decadence and substance abuse. The result? 38 minutes of darkness and proto-industrial claustrophobia. Could ‘Warszawa’ and ‘Subterraneans’ be two of the saddest songs ever made?
READ ‘LOU REED´S “BERLIN” VS IGGY POP´S “ONLY THE LONELY”’
‘Speed of Life’, ‘A New Career in a New Town’ and ‘Weeping Wall’ sound like Kraftwerk at their darkest; tired of quadratic structures and losing their minimalistic plot. ‘Breaking Glass’ shows Bowie´s absorbing Iggy´s monotone vocals while ‘What in the World’ is the only song in the album where you can listen to Iggy´s choirs behind schizophrenic textures. Did I forget to mention that Low includes ‘Be My Wife’ and ‘Sound and Vision’ – two of the finest pop songs in Bowie´s career? Half lyrical, half instrumental and with a non-conventional narrative structure, Low presents Bowie at his darkest, wisest, most thoughtful and avant-garde. From Joy Division to Nine Inch Nails, this is the start of it all.
