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Epicurus.com - Low
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List Price: $16.98
Our Price: $10.97
Your Save: $ 6.01 ( 35% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Virgin Records Us
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0724352190706
Format: Enhanced
Label: Virgin Records Us
Manufacturer: Virgin Records Us
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Virgin Records Us
Release Date: 1999-09-28
Studio: Virgin Records Us
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Editorial Reviews:
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Always up for messing with the formal expectations of rock, Bowie teamed up with Brian Eno for three frustrating but compelling albums, starting with Low. Treated instruments are claustrophobically crowded together, and Bowie's voice leaps in and out of the mix seemingly at will. Where it seems like it might show up, it's replaced by wailing synths or nothing at all, and it vanishes altogether from most of the second half-- a series of long, menacing, barely mobile synth explorations. To prove that they could make pop out of these herky-jerky mix tricks, they pull off "Sound And Vision" in the middle of the disc, but the essence of Low is that the "star" is either absent or alarmingly in your face. --Douglas Wolk
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: The most original album of the 70's
Comment: David Bowie is quoted as saying "Cut me and I bleed Low," which is a very ironic statement considering the fact that Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars is considered his most famous album. Bowie is one of the most often quoted and bewildering figures this side of Madonna in all of pop and this quote is truly a head-scratcher. What could he mean by that? I think it is because of all his albums, Low is probably the one Bowie album that is most ahead of its time. At the time it was made, Bowie was recovering from his cocaine addiction and the title Low is very fitting since low is the opposite feeling a person gets when they snort cocaine. Low is the sound of a man struggling with his demons. Back in the late 70's, artists sometimes recorded side one of a vinyl or 8-track for their hits and side two for their more adventurous songs (or filler). On Low, Bowie somewhat gives in to the formula, except that side one is considered more accessible than hit-friendly and side two is just completely non-commercial altogether. This is Bowie's artiest album by far. You could even say this is his "Anti-Let's Dance", since although "Sound and Vision" got radio play, (but not a big hit by any means) it was intentionally not supposed to be heard across the airwaves. Bowie was recovering from his cocaine habit, so I am guessing that album sales were the furthest thing from his mind at the time. I think Bowie was attempting an album of catharsis, an album that could prove to the world that cocaine wouldn't tear down his artistic integrity and in turn, making the album would help him on his path to sobriety. I am guessing that working on an album of this magnitude would be one of the most rewarding challenges possible during his attempt at redemption. The challenge paid off. Side 1 consists not of songs, but song fragments and contains Bowie at his most personal. If Lodger is considered Bowie's most personal and revealing album, than Low is his album that implies. "Always Crashing in the Same Car" and "Weeping Wall" are great examples of his implications. The first song implies his problems with eroticism; "crashing" being a less controversial way of saying "orgasm", but the way Bowie sings the song, it sounds as if the sex isn't doing anything for him at all since cocaine is ruining his life. "Weeping Wall" from side 2 is pure schizophrenia. It sounds like a man experiencing a withdrawal from drugs-all at once anxious and fidgety. The best song on the album, however, is "A New Career in a New Town", which closes side 1. Amidst the turmoil and chaos of the other songs on the album, the musically upbeat song offers the possibility of hope and getting through it all. At nearly three minutes, the song is perfect in both structure and melody and the hypnotic nature of it captivates from beginning to end. There really is no other song in rock quite like it. The Brian Eno touches on Low are apparent throughout, but this is clearly a Bowie album all the way since Side 1 is so personal. I am not going to get into side 2's instrumental soundscapes too much. I will just say that the tone of the last four songs on Low is very brooding and sounds like a man struggling with his personal demons, which reiterates this being a Bowie album, but having said that, it is far more riveting than depressing. Elton John was the 70's most popular solo artist, but Bowie was the best and Low is further testimony to that argument. Low is perhaps the best example of electronics incorporated into rock and roll ever recorded and based on that alone it shares its place alongside the other great albums of the 70's. Add the element of catharsis to that synthesis and you have a one-of-a-kind work of art that will amaze listeners for years to come. A
Customer Rating:
Summary: A classic that has been largely forgotten.
Comment: LOW is an album that is a "must have", especially for those unfamiliar with the "Berlin" period of David Bowie's career. This album confidently straddles a number of music genres (most of which hadn't been identified yet at the time of the original recording's release) like electronica and techno and even one schlocky genre I can't stand like New Age (I'm specifcally referring to the track "Warszawa".
There are some instrumentals on this CD that will challenge many listeners but like all of his work, it merits close listening. Enjoy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Bowie's Cool Masterpiece
Comment: David Bowie's "Low", his first collaboration with Brian Eno and also the first of his famous so-called "Berlin Trilogy" is probably the apex of Bowie's career. The album is one of the most successful fusions of popular music a major artist has ever attempted.
The album is a fusion of many musical genres: rock, jazz, electronica, ambient, pop, funk, etc. but it remains as cohesive and clear and pristine as possible while at the same time being a truly avant-garde work that was ahead of its time that influenced many artists, from Talking Heads to Radiohead's most adventurous phase (Kid A, Amnesiac) and most importantly, a truly sublime musical experience that envelops the power, diversity and reach of pop music in a way that's truly remarkable.
A true landmark, masterpiece of an album.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Eastern Euro Chill!
Comment: David Bowie has had various watershed albums, I think 'Low' is one of them. It has to be said that at the time of release it was not received as well as previous works - his label being disinterested in sufficiently marketing it must have definitely contributed to the situation, forcing him to change contracts. It was a difficult period for Bowie, living a year in LA, alienated, troubled with drugs. 'Low' is a powerful result of that mid 70's era finding Bowie as always, willing to experiment with new ideas, to twist the expected. Together with Brian Eno he produced a David Bowie masterpiece which I for one still find exasperating considering the period it was done in and its context amongst other contemporaneous music being produced and retailed by major artists and labels. It still stands up well today. The chill of Eastern Europe dominates.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best of a career
Comment: Fascinating and unique album that topped Pitchfork's list of the greatest albums of the 70's. I don't rate it quite that highly, but it remains Bowie's masterpiece, even as marked a departure from the sound, texture, and attitude of much of his earlier work. Bowie shows a largeness of spirit in his ability to work with and through Brian Eno, and Eno shows that he is comfortable in a supporting role; the album could not have been made without Eno, but the credit belongs to Bowie. The vocal tracks are uniformly strong, and two of them, the shimmering "Sound and Vision" and the warped, disembodied "Always Crashing in the Same Car" are truly classic. The four instrumentals that close the record are various shades of Eastern block grey, all interesting, and influential for the likes of Nine Inch Nails. The standout from this part of the record is the spooky "Warszawa", but the best instrumental track is the first, the propusive, driven "Speed of Life." In "Always Crashing in the Same Car," Bowie manages to get his whole being into a single phrase, the way he enunciates "the hotel garage" ("I was going round the hotel garage/ must have been touching close to 94/ Oh, but I'm always crashing/ in the same car") encompasses an entire existence--boredom and satiation, routine and acceptance, passivity and fame. Awesome, awesome song.
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