David Bowie RETRO ISSUE: Low by: Dean Van Nguyen Mon:08-Oct-07 Label: RCA Year: 1977 WB rating 92 out of 100

The story of rock ‘n’ roll is one so riddled with drugs that it’s questionable if anyone will stay sober enough to tell it. Arguably, the psychedelic sounds of the sixties would not have happened had artists not taken substances that were intended to ‘free their mind’. This was a different kind of musical revolution, and at the heart of it was David Bowie – linked as far back as first hit ‘Space Oddity’, a song interpreted to be about heroin.

Like latter-day Beatles, early Bowie music embraced the mind-bending drugs of the flower power generation; its positivity allowed these artists to escape and move beyond the walls of their own creative centres, leading to spaced out pop creations like ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ and the Ziggy Stardust persona. But as the love generation died out, The Beatles split, and the peace, love and understanding of acid and pot were replaced with the rush of cocaine highs, the musical landscape took on more sinister undertones.

Fittingly Low is the sound of paranoia and insanity; a soundtrack to Bowie’s own self-destructive drug use, one neither supporting nor condemning the substances, but attempting to come to terms with them sonically.

Thankfully the new wonder drug has also rekindled Bowie’s love of art, and at its core Low is an art record. In 1976’s Station To Station Bowie attempted to grow, experimenting with different methods. On Low Bowie takes the next evolutionary step in this direction, aided by returning long-time producer Tony Visconti and Brian Eno. Without them Low probably would of sounded much like Station to Station, but Eno has always dabbled in more untried styles of music than Bowie and his contribution here is remarkable.

The album is essentially a tale of two sides. Side A is Bowie in a more playful mode. Opener ‘Speed Of Life’ is an upbeat instrumental, its heavy use of synthesisers setting the album’s tone. At less than two minutes ‘Breaking Glass’ is a stunning stab at the listener’s senses. “Baby, I've been, breaking glass in your room again. Listen”, the odd lyrics matched by the music, which is pushed along by Bowie’s slow-hand lead guitar.

But despite the experimental nature of the instruments used, Bowie can still produce pop gems. The most typical ‘Bowie’ track most probably being ‘What In The World’, his new incarnation amending the song with telephone bleeps and screeching synths. ‘Be My Wife’ is another of the more conventional songs, mainly due to the lyrics which, as the title suggests, see him vying for a woman’s affections. Sung in a heavily accented voice and featuring a honky tonk piano intro, it blends the Bowie of past and present.

Eno steps to the forefront on the mostly instrumental Side B, which plays like a soundtrack to Bowie’s most recent travels. Credited as co-writer on ‘Warszawa’ (which was inspired by Bowie’s visit to Warsaw) and featuring a Polish children’s choir, Eno fashions a breathtaking piece, one that realises the shock felt at seeing this desolate city trapped in the past, as well as a bleak look at the future.

The slow burning closer to the album ‘Subterranean’ brings back Bowie’s vocals, as he screams in what seems like sheer frustration. It’s the sound of a man/drug abuser/genius yearning to cope with the speed of his life, killing his old persona in every possible way.