63: LOW | DAVID BOWIE

Low is the eleventh studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released on 14 January 1977 through RCA Records. It is the first of three albums that Bowie made with producer Tony Visconti and musician Brian Eno, known as the Berlin Trilogy. The album was influenced by Bowie's move to West Berlin in 1976 with his friend Iggy Pop, who he helped produce his debut album The Idiot. Low features a mix of art rock, avant-pop, electronic, ambient and experimental rock styles, reflecting Bowie's interest in German bands such as Kraftwerk, Neu! and Harmonia. The album is divided into two sides: the first one consists of short, catchy songs with mostly bleak lyrics about Bowie's personal struggles, while the second one is mostly instrumental and explores musical themes of Berlin. The album was recorded in two studios: Château d'Hérouville in France and Hansa Studios in West Berlin. Visconti used an Eventide H910 Harmonizer to create a distinctive drum sound that became influential in later music. The album cover, a profile of Bowie from the film The Man Who Fell to Earth, was meant to suggest a low profile. RCA Records delayed the release of Low for three months, fearing it would not sell well. The album received mixed reviews from critics and little promotion from Bowie or RCA. However, it reached number 2 in the UK and number 11 in the US, and spawned two singles: "Sound and Vision" and "Be My Wife". The album also inspired Pop's follow-up album Lust for Life, which Bowie co-wrote and played on. In mid-1977, Bowie recorded his next album "Heroes", which continued the musical direction of Low and featured a similar song-instrumental structure. Low is now widely regarded as one of Bowie's best and most influential albums, and has been ranked among the greatest albums of all time by several publications. It also influenced many post-punk, post-rock and electronic artists, and its drum sound has been widely imitated.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine @ AllMusic: Following through with the avant-garde inclinations of Station to Station, yet explicitly breaking with David Bowie's past, Low is a dense, challenging album that confirmed his place at rock's cutting edge. Driven by dissonant synthesizers and electronics, Low is divided between brief, angular songs and atmospheric instrumentals. Throughout the record's first half, the guitars are jagged and the synthesizers drone with a menacing robotic pulse, while Bowie's vocals are unnaturally layered and overdubbed. During the instrumental half, the electronics turn cool, which is a relief after the intensity of the preceding avant pop. Half the credit for Low's success goes to Brian Eno, who explored similar ambient territory on his own releases. Eno functioned as a conduit for Bowie's ideas, and in turn Bowie made the experimentalism of not only Eno but of the German synth group Kraftwerk and the post-punk group Wire respectable, if not quite mainstream. Though a handful of the vocal pieces on Low are accessible -- "Sound and Vision" has a shimmering guitar hook, and "Be My Wife" subverts soul structure in a surprisingly catchy fashion -- the record is defiantly experimental and dense with detail, providing a new direction for the avant-garde in rock & roll.