Lodger [Remastered] - David Bowie > Reviews

Advantages: It's Bowie
Disadvantages: The Awful cover artwork.

This is the 1999 reissue of the third consecutive recording to be made with the help of ex-Roxy Music sonic pioneer Brain Eno and new to the process Bowie's then current touring band, by the time of this album being made Bowie was looking to go back to a more narrative song-writing rather than the ambient leanings of the sister albums "Low" & "Heroes". The album was released on the 18th of May 1979 and made to number 4 in the UK album charts; the ... Read review

Advantages: Quietly inventive music that seeps in whilst you're looking away at Heroes
Disadvantages: the final two tracks

...glories of Low and Heroes, Lodger has a tendency to get lost in Bowie’s back catalogue. I’ll admit I bought it at the time because it was cheap and I was a little broke, instead of going the whole hog and buying Heroes. I got home, expecting great things (I’d only recently bought Outside and so was on a real high; if it was Bowie it was gonna be great), got home and: “In the event that this fantastic voyage, should lead to erosion and the never ... Read review

Advantages: Strong set of material
Disadvantages: Suffers by comparison with Low and Heroes

...on form, and even though Lodger let the side down slightly the third chunk in the recreation of Bowie was a wonderful little treasure, just the thing to switch off the alienation and cool electronica to exchange it for rich textures and patterns, global world view and heavy rock guitar ... it was a blissful triumph, with none of the harrowing isolation of its predecessors ... I loved it. The man is a maestro and singularly well equipped to create ... Read review

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On the surface, Lodger is the most accessible of the three Berlin-era records Bowie made with Brian Eno, simply because there are no instrumentals and there are a handful of concise pop songs. Nevertheless, Lodger is still gnarled and twisted avant-pop; what makes it different is how it incorporates such experimental tendencies into genuine songs, something that Low and Heroes purposely avoided. "D.J.," "Look Back in Anger," and "Boys Keep Swinging" ... Read review