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About this episode

David Bowie and Brian Eno ended the Berlin trilogy (two years after "Heroes") with Lodger, the musical odd-man-out. Where Low and "Heroes" ranged from gnarly avant-garde rock compositions to inorganic soundscapes and moods, Lodger took more of a conventional, fully written pop song direction with none of the loss of musical quality (not even counting the murky mixing), enjoyability, creativity, or listenability I think he really lost somewhat the next year. At the same time, where Bowie previously experimented with synthesizers, instrumentals and last-minute songwriting, his focused changed to experimenting with world music. No matter what, he recorded his arguably most underappreciated work, and it's deserves as much a place as one of his best works as the previous two records.That being said, many elements of the previous two records perservered. Bowie's Krautrock influences reach their most-blatant, having drummer Dennis Davis directly perform Neu's motorik rhythm in the nicely executed swashbuckling tale of "Red Sails". The guitars are even reminiscent of Neu's timeless song "Hallogallo", although Michael Rother never recorded himself missing a note like Carlos Alomar embarrassingly does here. It only happens once, but that's enough to make me laugh; it was right in an instrumental section where I could hear him miss it very clearly.Little bits of experimentation in song composition present themselves: Bowie uses the same chord structure and pitch in "Fantastic Voyage" and "Boys Keep Swinging", but I doubt anybody notices this without paying attention; the songs are otherwise executed very differently, (one more appealingly than the other). Bowie also remakes the music of his early recording for Mott the Hoople, "All the Young Dudes", and plays it in reverse for "Move On", with properly frenetic results. Also the aforementioned "Boys Keep Swinging" has guitarist Carlos Alomar switching to drums and Dennis Davis playing bass. The result is actually a well-played, bouncy satire of chauvinism, with only one real flaw: the lead guitars throughout Lodger were improvised, having King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew record them without any backing tracks or knowledge of the song he was recording for. And let me tell you; it shows. My rating of Lodger would be lower if the solos were longer and there was more of them, because Adrian's sections are the only parts I have a real gripe with. While a lot of his work is listenable, his solo on "Boys Keep Swinging" is an atrocious guitar rape scream, and he only seems to know what he's doing on "DJ" because Bowie chopped up bits of him soloing and threw them back together. Why the hell didn't Bowie keep Robert Fripp? He actually did great.Synths are downplayed this time around. While more organic instruments are used more often, synthesizers still feature well from the lovely and powerfully-sung opener "Fantastic Voyage", to the Middle Eastern-tinged reggae of "Yassassin", and the semi-cover of a song Bowie wrote for Iggy Pop, "Red Money". World Music comes into play mostly in the first half of the record (if you don't count krautrock, which you would if you were as snarky as me). The aptly titled "African Night Flight", tribute to the music of southern Africa plays a strong African-tribal percussion loop throughout, punctuated by spazzy synth shots and a frenetic and amusing vocal by Bowie. It's some of his most fun singing on the record.There is also the previously mentioned, up-tempo, and similarly aptly-titled, "Yassassin" (because of the language of the title, not the word itself). "Yassassin" is just one of many songs to prominently feature the violin, which could be considered the synthesizer's replacement for Lodger. There's not a single moment where the violin is played badly or feels out of place; it meshes quite nicely, like the saxophone did in "Heroes" for every song except "Neukoln". The most conventional Bowie and gang get in Lodger is the middle of the record, "DJ" and "Look Back in Anger", the albums two biggest singles. (Doesn't say much, I know, but they're still strong tracks.) They're both musically bombastic, background piano-driven, and practically geared for airplay ("DJ", get it?). The latter in particular is an engrossing, boisterous piece, and features Alomar as the guitar soloist instead of Belew. Surprise surprise! It actually sounds good. Carlos keeps it simple but quick, and that's the reason I think he should have had lead-guitar duties if Robert Fripp wasn't available. Fripp's work on "Heroes" was awesome.But even despite their relative commerciality, Bowie still keeps it bizarre enough; he brings out this obnoxious Chamberlin organ for the former. and an effective, resonant drone permeates the latter. "Repetition" is musically straightforward, though punctuated by an unnerving, wavy bass and David singing of spousal abuse in a very emotionless voice. It doesn't miss any mark, but it's outshined by the album closer. Bowie and team wrap Lodger up on a very high note with David's own rendition of "Sister Midnight", a song he wrote for Iggy Pop's The Idiot, rewritten and retitled "Red Money". From what I've heard so far of the original (still need to get The Idiot), "Red Money" actually sounds much better, at least as far as the background percussion and the multi-layered siren guitars.Recording it was an almost profound decision on Bowie's part; it essentially brings the whole Berlin era full-circle. One could say the Berlin Trilogy really started when he helped Iggy Pop make the Idiot, in which "Sister Midnight" was track one. Where "Sister Midnight" kicked the era off, "Red Money" brings it to a close, and if "Sister Midnight" is anything as good as "Red Money", it left just as strongly as it arrived.It's safe to say Lodger doesn't have much musically in-common with the previous Berlin records (it was recorded two years after the Low and "Heroes", and Bowie and Eno were losing their cooperative spark by this point), and it has very little in-common with the records that follow, but that just asserts its status as a hidden treasure. Whether Bowie is experimenting with World Music, recycling his own music in new and creative ways, or making singles that his record company were too chickenshit to make hits, Lodger has much more to offer than its underrated status would dictate. It's the third and final piece of evidence that the Berlin Trilogy is three of Bowie's best albums.[5/5, A-]

• Release Date

  Oct 11, 2009

• Runtime

  06:03