Low

Side One

1 Speed Of Life, 2:45

2 Breaking Glass, 1:47

3 What In The World, 2:20

4 Sound And Vision, 3:00

5 Always Crashing In The Same Car, 3:26

6 Be My Wife, 2:55

7 A New Career In A New Town, 2:50

Side Two

8 Warszawa, 6:17

9 Art Decade, 3:43

10 Weeping Wall, 3:25

11 Subterraneans, 5:37

Bonus Tracks

(on RYKO/EMI re-release 1991, EMI 064 7 97719 1 - LP)

12 Some Are (Previously Unreleased), 3:08

13 All Saints (Previously Unreleased), 3:35

14 Sound And Vision (Remixed Version), 4:37

Following through with the avant-garde inclinations of Station to Station, yet explicitly breaking with Bowie's past, Low is a dense, challenging album that confirmed Bowie's 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 of the credit of Low's success is due to Brian Eno, who explored similar ambient territory on his own releases. Eno functions as a conduit for Bowie's ideas and, in turn, Bowie made the experimentalism not only of 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.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine

All-Music Guide

Recorded: Chateau d’Herouville Studios, Pontoise, France

Hansa Studios, Berlin

(September 1976 – November 1976)

Musicians: David Bowie, vocals, ARP, tape horn, bass,-

synthetic strings, saxophone, cellos, tape, guitar,

pump bass, harmonica, piano, percussion, Chamberlain,

vibraphones, xylophones, ambient sounds

Brian Eno, Splinter mini-moog, Report ARP,

Rimmer EMI, guitar treatments, Chamberlain,

vocals on ‘Sound And Vision’

Carlos Alomar, guitar, piano, vocals

Ricky Gardner, guitar

George Murray, bass

Dennis Davis, percussion

Eduard Meyer, cellos on ‘Art Decade’

Iggy Pop, vocals on ‘What In The World’

Mary Visconti, vocals on ‘Sound And Vision’

Roy Young, piano, Farfisa organ

Peter and Paul, pianos and ARP on ‘Subterraneans

Producers: David Bowie, Tony Visconti

Released: 14 January 1977

Label: RCA PL 12030