LOW

There is no doubt that Low is a very original and special album. Many things on Low are done in a very unique way, or for the first time. It seems this album has influenced a lot of people, particularly in New Wave and Post Punk, and it has impressed even more; Pitchfork rated this as the best album of the seventies. Certainly Mr Bowie got the timing right for this!

I have made numerous attempts to get into Low and one time after another I failed. The rock oriented first side sounds thin to me, the special sounds and the mix are unorthodox and original but rather annoy than please me. The songs don't have a lot of appeal and are faded out all to quickly and impatiently.The mood is neither heavy nor romantic nor angry, rather emotionally understated and distant, and this doesn't attract me. Bowie was not in his best shape when he did this and one can hear this. It sounds like his attention span was rather short and this is expected of the listener, too, at least on side one.

I like the electronically dominated second side more, some sounds are beautiful and Warszawa is pretty impressive in its atmosphere, although none of these has much compositional substance, it's all about trying out and showcasing this exciting new style. Allusions to electronic Kraut artists are tastefully woven in; Weeping Wall sounds a bit like some of Irmin Schmidt's Soundtracks (most of which came later to be fair) and is rather interesting. Art Decade comes from a similar angle as Warszawa and works fairly well but doesn't have the haunting vocals that Warszawa and Subterraneans offer; the latter would be rather directionless though without the pretty short vocal part. This kind of stuff has been done much better by the proper electronic musicians, except, OK, they don't have Bowie's voice.

All in all side one and side two don't really fit very well together (it seems that nobody denies this but some seem to find this very cool); I can't get much out of side one and side two has its moments but isn't really consistent and mature (Mr Bowie's gotta be innovative for innovation's sake, and leave the place again all too soon).

Side one is a weak 2* and side two a good 3* and because they're not the best match and nobody has rated this low (!) up to now I round it down. Yeah, I see why it's special but still. Essential but not good.