Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 09/28/1999
Run Time: 50:08
Following through with the
avant-garde inclinations of
Station to Station, yet explicitly breaking with
David Bowie's past,
Low is a dense, challenging album that confirmed his 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 the credit for
Low's success goes to
Brian Eno, who explored similar
ambient territory on his own releases.
Eno functioned as a conduit for
Bowie's ideas, and in turn
Bowie made the experimentalism of not only
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
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