Rating:  -
A few lps can leave such an impression that the day of it's release can be recalled 25 years later (damn!). Me and Robin listening to the feature spot on the FSU radio station at 2am. Went to the nearest record store the next day to get a copy. There will never be another "African Night Flight"
I read an interview with Tony Visconti that all they could find while recording was white wine. I also read that the Adrian Belew parts were recorded with Adrian arriving at the studio and being directed to a room to set up his epuipment. A light came on when he was set up and a voice said "Play your guitar, Adrian" over a speaker. Music started and he played. After the track, the voice said "That's not good enough. Try again." He never saw anyone throughout the entire session. Even if it's not true, it's a great story.
Rating:  -
The 1970s saw David Bowie in one of the most extraordinary peaks of creativity ever achieved by any Rock'n'Roll artist. Whole albums, such as Ziggy Stardust and Station to Station are perfect from the first moment to the last. Other masterpieces, though flawed, contain such an overload of brilliance that it overshadows whatever weak track exist on the albums ('Hunky Dory' is a perfect example for that).
Lodger, in a sense, is different in the sense that it foreshadows most of Bowie's later albums: it's a mixed bag. At times experimental ('Red Money'), Anthemic ('DJ'), silly ('Yassassin'), and sometimes just utterly brilliant ('Boys Keep Swinging' and 'Look Back in Anger') - Lodger is as good a candidate for a 'typical' Bowie album as it gets.
The weaker tracks, such as 'Yassassin' and 'African Night Flight' are not so much bad as miscalculated - Bowie's rock music talents gone wrong. Some tracks, such as opener 'Fantastic Voyage' and 'Move On' are solid rock tracks, not spectacular but with interesting lyrics ('I'll never say anything nice again' Bowie mysteriously declares on 'Voyage').
The two highlights are the majestic, dark and hard rockin' "Look Back in Anger", which has been a frequent show opener for Bowie. With rifts that anticipate the leaner, meaner sound of "Scary Monsters", "Look Back in Anger", as opaque as it may appear (the video suggests an allusion to a deformed artist, and maybe to Oscar Wilde's 'The Picture of Durian Grey'), it's a deserved classic.
Rarely played live, "Boys Keep Swinging" an ironic tribute to youth and masculinity. It seems like a stylistic throw back to the 1950s or even 30s, but the music is patently Bowie, with a hard beat beneath the pretty melody. It's yet another classic.
For most artists, Lodger would have been a career highlight. Only in comparison to Bowie's remarkable career can an album as strong as this one seem so mundane.
Rating:  -
Lodger has no innovative instrumentals and despite being touted as a concept album of a traveler, there seems to be no thematic connection between the songs. It retains most of the musicians from the Low and Heroes sessions, plus and minus some, i.e. exit Robert Fripp, enter Adrian Belew. Yet the music isn't as bad as all that, thanks to three hit singles.
Soundwise, "Fantastic Voyage" can be a slower version of "Heroes" but there are overtones of "Word On A Wing" from Station To Station. Some attempts to include statements about the times are there: "It's a modern world, but nobody is perfect/.../but that's no reason to shoot some of those missiles."
"African Night Flight" is a hodgepodge of a track with "cricket menace" by Eno, weird jungle sounds, quickly-sung vocals, and some African tribal sounds. The words "asanti habari" and "asanti nabana" is Swahili for "hello" and "goodbye" respectively.
"Move On" sports a drum and guitar that brings into mind a cowboy on a galloping horse. The places he mentions such as Africa and Cyprus are where he might his ideal girl. The weird midsection came from some tape in a Revox machine that got twisted. Bowie thought it was cool and played it backwards, adding harmony vocals. It goes "Waiyah hoo" and the source is "All The Young Dudes" from Diamond Dogs. Nice guitarwork by Carlos Alomar, Tony Visconti, and Adrian Belew.
A mixture of Jamaican and Middle Eastern music is the best way to describe "Yassassin," which is Turkish for "long live." Nice electric violin from ex-Hawkwind alumnus Simon House, adding to the exotic sound.
"Red Sails" has a sound similar to incidental music one might hear in a Chinese restaurant, with a percussive beat trying to emulate the punk sound coming out at that time.
Then come the three singles for which Bowie promoted with music videos two years before MTV was plugged in. The frantic life of a "DJ" is the story in this catchy song. "I am a DJ/I am a play/I can't turn around," he sings, in reference to the role of the DJ in the disco era, where spinning records nonstop to keep the party going was crucial.
The angel of death coming for someone, telling him, "It's time we should be going" is what "Look Back In Anger" is about. The galloping rhythm guitar and drums continue throughout the song, and a worthy guitar solo in the middle. The best of the three singles and probably the best song on the album.
"Boys Keep Swinging" has been praised or panned due to its clumsy instrumentation. That's because as a lark, the band members switched instruments, guitarist Carlos Alomar on drums, drummer Dennis Davis on bass, and Bowie himself doing the guitar solo. The chauvinist idea that boys have more fun is the theme here, getting a uniform, buying a house, learn how to drive, getting a girl, etc. And hey, Susanna Hoffs thought enough of it to not only cover it on her debut album, but taking a line from it, "when you're a boy" for its title. I like this single, but also because of the video, which had Bowie in drag.
Despite the constant tone, "Repetition" is a song on spousal abuse, where Johnny hits his wife because she can't cook. Regrets of his lack of proper education and not marrying a girl named Anne come through. Some chilling lyrics: "I guess the bruises won't show if she wears long sleeves."
Bowie claimed the drum and synth-laden "Red Money" was about responsibility, with the title possibly meaning debt entries in a ledger.
Bowie wasn't afraid to experiment and this noteworthy album proves it. I've only listened to this a few times, liking it more with each listen, and further listenings will tell whether I'll bump this up to 5-star status in the future.
Rating: -
David Bowie has made many fine albums and I own most of them. However, I am always a little surprised that this one seems to get overlooked. My friend loaned me the vinyl when we were in high school in the early 80's (his purchase no doubt prompted by the cool "DJ" video then in heavy rotation on MTV) and I have always returned to it over the years.
To me, Lodger is right up there with Station to Station, Scary Monsters, etc. I have always thought that the late 70's marked the apogee of Bowie's career, where he was at once leading and transcending the New Wave then in vogue by inventing new sounds and new ways to rock out. The rocking out part is key here; you want to crank this record up. Boys Keep Swinging, DJ and Look Back in Anger are take-no-prisoners workouts. I can't tell you how many mix tapes I have made that included Red Sails.
Rating: -
Like most of the reviewers here, I always avoided this album. However I put it on again a few weeks ago to try it again, and I haven't been able to take it off. This album is outstanding and shows an artist at the height of his powers. Listen to the innovation here, these tunes are serious. To me this is the album that ended his run of great albums in the 70s. Try it again folks, and again and again !
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