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Wonderful recording of quirky and interesting pop music. Many disregard it for it's pop appeal and many others disregard it for it's experimental reach, and there are those who think it sounds dated. Man, Chuck Berry sounds dated, Hank Williams sounds dated, Early Clash sounds dated,, The Kinks sound dated, The Stooges sound dated and they all sound magical and magnificent. Lodger is how a lot of music sounded in the late 70's, but better and for me this particular recording echoes Iggy and Bowies collaborations on "The Idiot and "Lust For Life from the late 70's. Same vibe at times, same sound. It is both experimental and pop, much of it is not that different from the first half of Low, really. Great band, great songs, great production, great vision of smart pop for yesterday people.
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whatever bowie album you happen to be listening to is just the best bowie album for all time - that law of bowie-physics-and-magic just happens to be true for this album too - you can listen to, feel, get off on, drape yourself with, imbibe and suffocate by, as you must, the stuff of this album as if it's just, at the very least, the finest of bowie's berlin days - how? - just listen to how each piece starts - each bit of texture and each move of tone is like nothing you've ever really heard before, yet it doesn't draw attention to itself; it seems, sounds, well - anyway, you just go along, not realizing - by way of ears or other sense or source of knowledge - that your experience right now is extra special. as for specific emotions, this album could easily twist you in many far out ways - a sense of loss here, a pulse of hope there, a twitch of lost hope and a scratch of hopeful loss here and there; urgency; angst; despair; glory; ecstasy. do you need anything else? a tidbit: the musicians on this album often played the instruments they didn't usually play - like the lead played the bass, or the bass played the drums, or something like that. so you never get what you expect, and you don't even realize the surprise. anyway, lodger has many of my own bowie faves on it: the shattering look back in anger, the demanding fantastic voyage, the cantering and sneering d.j.. probably the nearest of bowie's later work that this sounds like is "dreamers" and "new angels of promise" on his "hours ..." album. unpassable.
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First of all, I want to say I will NOT be listening to these late 70's David Bowie albums very often (Heroes, Low, and Lodger) because for some reason, they give me incredibly severe nightmares.
But, when I don't mind having nightmares and find the courage to give them a shot, I find myself preferring Lodger over the other two. Yeah yeah, unpopular opinion. I'm no stranger to going against the norm!
The opening song is probably the prettiest and saddest song Bowie ever wrote. That's one fine little moment of brilliance there. But then quite possibly my favorite song from the album "African Night Flight" is next. I LOVE this song! The verse melody, the way Bowie sounds drunk and sings "ahhhh trapped on islan-in Hawaii" over and over (actually that's not what he says at all, in fact I don't think he's actually putting words together there, but when you play the song enough times you begin to think he IS saying something!) and just everything about the extremely strong vocal melody... a classic!
"Yassassin" rules a lot. It's like reggae almost, but with extremely catchy vocals. "Red Sails" is another really spectacular song. I like how diverse David Bowie is. All these experiments work really well on Lodger.
"DJ" took me YEARS to appreciate, because for a long time I thought it was just a Talking Heads rip-off without any of the charm that makes the Talking Heads so great. I was wrong though, don't worry. I love the song now. "Repetition" is PROOF that David Bowie has a lot of talent, because not anyone can write a song like this and make it good. In fact, less than 5% of the musicians out there wouldn't have a clue how to make this song as great as it turned out to be for Mr. Bowie.
The rest of the songs are just really really good.
Rating:  -
The "Berlin" trilogy - and David Bowie's collaboration with Brian Eno - was a penniless and weary traveler by the time of this May 1979 release.
Gone was the experimental edginess and creative power of Low and Heroes, which was replaced by a bland pop framework. Only the excellent Red Money dares to venture into a unique soundscape.
The first single - Boys Keep Swinging - is as bland as DJ - the follow-up 45 rpm - is energetic. The solid Look Back In Anger remains a Bowie gem that gets lost in the shuffle of his vast discography.
This was grand potential probably lost by a lack of new studio ideas and boredom. Too bad the rent came due much too soon for Bowieno.
Rating: -
This is the last of 3 albums Bowie did with Eno (his "Berlin" period, although this one was not recorded in Berlin. This is my favorite one of the three, and possibly my favorite Bowie album period. This one has no instrumental pieces, like on "Low" and "Heroes". The first half of the album has a vague "travel" theme to it. In several songs Bowie mixes in bits of African drumming or arabesque sounding string synthesizer sounds. These are all rock or pop songs, but they are all "deconstructed" pop songs, because everything from the instrument sounds to the songs' construction is turned on its head, at least that's how it seemed in 1979. This album features Adrian Belew on guitar making sounds that were basically unheard of at the time. "DJ" and "Boys.." are highlights - absolutely brilliant, and Belew truly uses his guitar like a weapon on his solos. The only really weak song is "Red Money", which is the music from Iggy Pop's "Sister Midnight" set to different (inferior) lyrics. Fortunately it's at the end, so it's easy to skip that tune, but the rest is highly recommended.
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