David Bowie - Lodger (1979) Japanese Mini LP CD (FLAC)

Lodger is an album by British singer-songwriter David Bowie, released in 1979. The last of the 'Berlin Trilogy' recorded in collaboration with Brian Eno (though in fact produced in Switzerland and New York), it was more accessible than its immediate predecessors Low and "Heroes", having no instrumentals and being somewhat lighter and more pop-oriented. However it was still an experimental record in many ways and was not, by Bowie's standards, a major commercial success. Indifferently received by critics on its initial release, it is now widely considered one of Bowie's most underrated albums.



Originally to be titled either Planned Accidents or Despite Straight Lines, Lodger was largely recorded between legs of Bowie's 1978 world tour and featured the same musicians, along with Brian Eno. Lead guitar was played not by Robert Fripp, as on "Heroes", but by Fripp's future King Crimson bandmate, Adrian Belew, whom Bowie had "poached" while the guitarist was touring with Frank Zappa. Much of Belew's work on the album was composited from multiple takes played against backing tracks of which he had no prior knowledge, not even the key. Other experiments on the album included using old tunes played backwards, employing identical chord sequences for different songs, and having the musicians play unfamiliar instruments.

Eno felt that the trilogy had "petered out" by Lodger, and Belew also observed Eno's and Bowie's working relationship closing down: "They didn't quarrel or anything uncivilised like that; they just didn't seem to have the spark that I imagine they might have had during the "Heroes" album." An early plan to continue the basic pattern of the previous records with one side of songs and the other instrumentals was dropped, Bowie instead adding lyrics that foreshadowed the more worldly concerns of his next album, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps).



Lodger received relatively poor reviews on its original release, Rolling Stone calling it "one of his weakest … scattered, a footnote to "Heroes", an act of marking time", and Melody Maker finding it "slightly faceless". It was also criticised for having a thinner, muddier mix than Bowie's previous albums. Lodger peaked at #4 in the UK charts and #20 in America at a time when the artist was being "out-Bowied" commercially by his New Wave "children" such as Gary Numan.

Soon after its release, NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray predicted that Lodger would "have to 'grow in potency' over a few years, but eventually it will be accepted as one of Bowie's most complex and rewarding projects". While biographer Christopher Sandford calls it a "slick, calculatedly disposable record", author David Buckley contends that "its stature grows with each passing year", and Nicholas Pegg sums up, "undervalued and obscure practically from the moment of its release, its critical re-evaluation is long overdue".

All songs written by David Bowie and Brian Eno except where noted.

"Fantastic Voyage" – 2:55
"African Night Flight" – 2:54
"Move On" (Bowie) – 3:16
"Yassassin (Turkish for Long Live)" (Bowie) – 4:10
"Red Sails" – 3:43
"DJ" (Bowie, Eno, Carlos Alomar) – 3:59
"Look Back in Anger" – 3:08
"Boys Keep Swinging" – 3:17
"Repetition" (Bowie) – 2:59
"Red Money" (Bowie, Alomar) – 4:17