It's amazing to discover albums written and released such a long time ago that have such a drastic effect on someone many years after. It took about 32 years for me to finally hear David Bowie's "Low"; and I can't help but to express how great the album is and i'll break out of my short tradition of writing reviews about recent releases, to do a review of an old classic album.

 After the glamorous Ziggy Stardust era and the cocaine induced plastic soul era, there came a time where David Bowie decided he needed to get away from the lime light and LA's Manic lifestyle and dive into the some much needed detox in Berlin. What he didn't know was that he was going to create some of his best work in this phase of his life. The work known to everyone as the "Berlin Trilogy". 

 This album was the first meeting of David Bowie and Brian Eno, who by then a ex member a Roxy music, had established himself as the inventor of ambient music, and throughout the mid seventies explored this new musical language. Although quite mismatched in their personas, Bowie the pop star and Eno the minimalist, their synergy proved to excellent which is evident in their 3 albums together. 

 Throughout the recording process Eno would teach Bowie this new musical language and also introduce rather quirky and unusual methods of recording. One method being the use of Eno's Oblique Strategies cards. These cards, which numbered over a hundred, would have written on them an aphorism which suggested possible routes to take if there was creative block. A few examples of these aphorisms are "Emphasize the flaws", "Mute and continue", and "Fill every beat with something". While listening to the album with the knowledge of this unorthodox method of recording we can start to understand the nature of the album and it's unconventionality. 

 The album is split into two sides, the first side being a collection of more conventional pop songs,  and the other being four longer ambient instrumental that according Bowie, he tried to re create a sense of place and scenery,  for example "Warszawa" was created to sound like the Polish countryside and the city of Warsaw. By no means is the first side outright conventional pop music, however, compared to the second side, the first side is accused to sound more like something out of a Bee Gees record. The astonishing "Warszawa" highlights the oddness of the second side, where Bowie starts to sing his own invented language in a quasi-Balkan manner, with many vocal overdubs overlapping each other to sound like the Beach Boys gone tribal.

 In saying that side one's more conventional songs are very intriguing and interesting to listen to. Some of the songs contain a more subdued, quiet, and almost monotone David Bowie vocal delivery  . In "Sound and Vision" after about a minute and a half comes an almost spoken vocal delivery which contains great emotion as he sings, "Don't you wonder sometimes, about sound and vision". The tunes "What in the world", "Breaking glass", and "Sound and Vision"  on side are very up beat and we can see traces of "plastic soul" within the sound waves as if it was still holding on from the previous era, however, creating room for the modern sounds created by synthesizers.  "Always crashing in the sam car" slows the pace of the album down, and Bowie sings about the habit of repeating the same mistakes, possibly his addiction to cocaine and the great task of kicking it. Side one also contains instrumentals, with "Speed of Life" opening the track with it's catchy riff and introduces some of the foreign sounds that the listener is going to hear through out the album, courtesy of Brian Eno. 

 Brian Eno's influence on the album is more than one would think, playing his EMS synthesizer and various keyboards in six of the eleven tracks and writing the base of "Warszawa". The playing on the album is remarkable and is worthy of a mention. The newly recruited Ricky Gardiner applying some bizarre and fuzzed out lead guitar throughout the tracks which compliment the songs so very nicely. Tony Visconti was also a dominant factor in the amazing sound of the album. With the the use of gates, reverbs, harmonizers and his usual lust for the latest studio gadgets, he was able to create one of the most popular snare drum sounds ever. 

 It is funny to think that Bowie's record label RCA begged Bowie to not let the album see the light of the day, however, after some persuasion RCA finally surrendered and released the album on 14 January 1977. To their surprise the album was commercially successful, reaching number 2 without any promotion what so ever. 

 Though not for everyone, this album with it's unique songs, amazing sonic soundscapes, a recovering but still darn creative Bowie, and the presence of Iggy Pop(!), makes it's a timeless listen and further reminds us the genius of David Bowie and what a great team him and Brian Eno made.  

 If you like David Bowie a lot, or if your just getting into him, or if your into the more "out there" kind of music, please listen to this album.