Station to Station vs. Low

The “detachment” i noted in station to station needs clarification. His singing is more impassioned than in Low but the listener “knows” it’s the Thin White Duke singing, who can just turn it off. It’s got this postmodern theatricality to it that I do not associate with Low, which has always sounded to me like Bowie coming down to Earth.

as I don't really care about side 2 of low this is "Station to Station" for me pretty easy. I love side 1 of "Low" but S2S is damn near perfect, the only one I'd skip is "TVC15" and that's just from burning out on it way back when.

Station to Station: better songs, compelling narrative, some of his best moments (title track of course, but also Stay, TVC15, Word on a Wing, Golden Years, Wild is the Wind... I'm just gonna list the whole record). Low is great but it's fragments, fantastic ones at that, but I never liked side 2 as much.

in other words, what JCLC said

One is the best Bowie album and the other is Low.

Not to knock Low - it’s a stellar record, with a side one I’d put against anything in his catalog. But as jclc said, Station To Station is damn near perfect.

Interesting. I think both records are really fascinating. I agree with the consensus that side 2 of Low does not hold up as well as side 1, but I still like the fact that it exists. It shows that Bowie was willing to take artistic risks, and also that he was starting to let go of the idea that his persona needed to be at the center of his music.

don't get me wrong, I love Low, probably my #3 Bowie record after STS and Ziggy Stardust.

Oh for sure, I just wanted to clarify why Low is so special to me. I do think that, compared to the earlier albums, there is something remarkably down to earth about the lyrics in this album, which sound like the words of someone trying to get a handle on their life, trying to find what’s good for them rather than what’s exciting.

You’re such a wonderful person
But you’ve got problems

they are very matter of fact. I always loved "so deep in your room / you never leave your room." but the Stage version of "What in the World" smokes the recording on Low.

"sound & vision" is my favorite song on either album and i'm going to see LOW tonight so low

Low by a considerable distance.

“I will sit right down waiting for the gift of sound and vision” is a really beautiful line/sentiment. And it’s so in line with what I see as moving about this album—this newfound humility.

don't get me wrong, I love Low, probably my #3 Bowie record after STS and Ziggy Stardust.

Low is my #3, too, after Lodger and STS

Lodger as number one! Excellent pick—I love that album very much but I don’t hear it discussed as much as the other ones mentioned so far.

Lodger is cool because it captures, for me, this experience of being an itinerant wanderer, with all the melancholy and echiliration that brings. Just like how Low feels like the dust settling after you let your life get out of hand. (“What in the world can I do?”) I honestly do find the Berlin albums wiser than the earlier ones, which I also love, if that makes sense

“I will sit right down waiting for the gift of sound and vision” is a really beautiful line/sentiment.

yah and the way it lands right on the tonic there is a feeling of profound arrival. truly spectacular song

there is a newfound spiritual ambition in presuming worthiness for "the gift" of sound and vision

I think seeing sound and vision as a “gift” is an extraordinary paradigm shift in Bowie’s lyrics. It is definitely, like you said, a spiritual attitude.

Lodger as number one! Excellent pick—I love that album very much but I don’t hear it discussed as much as the other ones mentioned so far.

Except on ILM of course.

It’s the kind of humble sense o mf gratitude that’s not accessible when you’re “high” on coke. Being “low” is hard but it’s also an opportunity to become re-aquainted with the world as it really is, without illusion. That’s how I’ve interpreted this album. And why I think the melancholy slog of side 2–albeit with flashes of beauty—might have been important for Bowie, conceptially

*sense of

xp

Blue, blue, electric blue

I've often seen people on here refer to Station as their favourite & I reckon it's going to win by a landslide, but for me it is clearly Low.
I love Station a lot but there's a number of Bowie albums I'd rank over it myself, simply because several other albums include more excellent songs than STS does.
It has to be said that I have most of the Rykodisk reissues with bonus tracks, which means that I cannot imagine Low without 'Some Are' - one of Bowie's very best songs ever; on the other hand I'm mostly used to hearing STS followed by live versions of two of its mere six songs, which are fine renditions but add little to the album except repetition.

fragmented nature of low is part of its appeal, it’s like these discrete spikes of melody that immediately flatline. the stretched-out desolation of the second side feels like a weird sinister comedown from the first, and it still feels unexpected and chilling even having listened to it 100000 times. low for me

Low.
There's a lot of focus on Side A but Subterraneans makes the light in the room change and a chill creep through even in summer. The walls of droning synths and faintly hostile wisps of sax conjure up horror i can half remember. If you're lucky enough not to get that then the ending of the last season of Twin Peaks fits the bill.

Side A though: Speed of Life starts halfway through the conversation like anything really interesting. I can't say anything about Sound and Vision not already said in this thread but that it, like all this album, is a very accurate record of the kind of depression you're not sure you'll get out of. "We'll get by I suppose" - wrong record sorry. Be My Wife seems like light relief but absolutely crushes me.

Then again Station to Station birthed Billy MacKenzie. But even still it's Low.

Station to Station. These are two of my all-time favourite albums, but if I have to choose only one...

Bowie's purported detachment in STS is actually the wail of a man willing himself to feel.

that’s... a truthbomb

in a dream, if bowie albums were living people and i was asked to punch all of them and leave only 2 unpunched, and given zero time to think about it, just punch-punch-punch-punch go go go, these two albums would probably be the last two standing. if i think about it a bit more, i might have wished i had not punched ziggy, or young americans (who in the dream is personified by luther vandross, which just makes the punching even more unacceptable), but in pure instinctive punching mode, i would not be able to punch these two. impossible to pick one over the other.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c2/a9/93/c2a993bb5067e9695d0189050ae610cc.jpg

it's trite to refer to bowie as a genius, but these two albums specifically are a great illustration of why it's true. they were recorded with 12 months of each other (fall '75 for STS, fall '76 for Low), in completely different emotional and physical conditions, and they're wildly different from each other, and both brilliant albums. he had similar personnel on both albums, and yet they sound like they're on different planets. he was on such a creative roll during that period that it seems like everything he touched was warped into something approaching perfection, even when he could barely remember doing it later.

Bowie's purported detachment in STS is actually the wail of a man willing himself to feel.

― I like queer. You like queer, senator? (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, November 11, 2018 3:15 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i agree with this, he's very haunted. but the point still stands--the mask had eaten into the face at this point. i don't think he is wearing a mask in low. he's exploring the terrain of a deeply recognizable emotional landscape.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"wild is the wind" over everything else

Cue someone pointing out that it's shitty and mannered or lifeless or something

it's an incredible recording. my advocacy of Low isn't meant to denigrate Station to Station. this is a clash of the titans.

LOW

love both of these but one of them has wild is the wind

it's low

i feel like this will be competitive

StS for me. Love its decadent sheen and there's a ferocious energy from everyone involved.

Had this been a Heroes vs StS poll, however...

Low.

too low?

(sorry)

Station to Station.

Low

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjCM_X3xpRM

that's still my favorite david bowie video. i'm not sure if he's playing up his misery/apathy for the clip or if that's just what came out of him on that day. if he's acting, it's really hard to tell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FODvjYoVEi8

When the Bowie artist poll was ran several years ago, Low was #1 and Station to Station was #2. More people put the latter at #1, but Low was on more ballots.

The sequencing of the second side of Low has always bothered me. "Weeping Wall" and "Art Decade," the two shorter cuts that at least have a pulse, would have flowed better out of the little pop songs of side one, and then "Subterraneans" and then "Warszawa" to close. That's probably just me though...

While Low is fantastic, STS is quintessence of Bowie. The retromodernist album artwork, the Crowley ravings, the neurotic melodrama, the rnb/krautrock vibes, the thin white duke persona (surely the most Bowie-ish of all his personae), the fantastic cover of Wild Is The Wind (his only truly good cover version), the plea for help in Word On A Wing, cocaine sheen of the whole thing, it's peak Bowie.

It’s the epitome of one era of Bowie. Low is the beginning of a different period in his artistry and outlook.

l o w

Bowi

I disagree. I see Station to Station to Scary Monsters as one five album golden period.

(xxpost)

Interesting. I see Low as a turning point ans Scary Monsters as another turning point.

How is Scary Monsters a "turning point"?

While Low is fantastic, STS is quintessence of Bowie. The retromodernist album artwork, the Crowley ravings, the neurotic melodrama, the rnb/krautrock vibes, the thin white duke persona (surely the most Bowie-ish of all his personae), the fantastic cover of Wild Is The Wind (his only truly good cover version), the plea for help in Word On A Wing, cocaine sheen of the whole thing

Low has better tunes

How is Scary Monsters a "turning point"?

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Tuesday, November 20, 2018 5:44 PM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he was turning away from making classic albums

Album art is a different stye, brian eno is gone, costumes are back (i could be wrong but i think he had taken a break from costumes in the late 70s), ashes to ashes references earlier personas in a way that is different from anything on low, heroes and lodger, xp

Also overall it just seems like a less introspective project.

Ha! Some (not me) would argue that that started to happen with Lodger (which is one of my favourites, as it happens)

Scary Monsters for me is the logical end point of that particular Bowie period, where he attempted to marry the explorations he'd successfully conducted on previous albums to (what would become) more accessible hit singles. Something like 'Fashion' takes what Bowie was doing on Station to Station, applies some guitar textures that wouldn't have sounded out of place on Lodger and welds those things to a more hot single-y type of track.

The fact that Scary Monsters retains the same rhythm section that Bowie had been using since Station to Station (this would change on Let's Dance) helps those albums sound of a piece as a body of work.

(xxpost, obviously)

Plus Eno given the heave-ho.

Man, Scary Monsters is such a great album.

I can poll Lodger vs Scary Monsters next

you should, that's a tough one as well

Really, I love everything the guy did from The Man Who Sold the World up to Scary Monsters, most of Let's Dance and I think his run from Outside to Blackstar (with the exception of hours..., which is shit) is very underrated. I enjoy one or two tracks from each album from 1984-1994 too, just not entire albums.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Lol recount

otm

hahaha wow

results otm

I’m happy with this and I enjoyed the discussion.

Entirely otm

Yup, OTM.

I love it when this happens

otm

hoooooooooly shit lmfao

perfect

Beautiful.

https://youtu.be/9ZsZTxYlloA

Really, I love everything the guy did from The Man Who Sold the World up to Scary Monsters, most of Let's Dance and I think his run from Outside to Blackstar (with the exception of hours..., which is shit) is very underrated. I enjoy one or two tracks from each album from 1984-1994 too, just not entire albums.

This is correct!

I rank Space Oddity so so low in his catalogue, def lower than Pin-Ups and Let's Dance and Earthling, probably the worst of his not-entirely-shit albums

It just occured to me that I hadn't checked for the results of this a month ago. Best poll results ever?

Anyway, regarding at least the previous post I feel the need to step up for Space Oddity. I simply adore that record. It's probably my fourth favourite, after #1 Diamond Dogs #2 Low #3 Outside. It's dreamy and magical, lovely and wonderful. Totally gorgeous if you ask me.

I do love all of Bowie's work and also think that Tonight and especially Never Let Me Down are nowhere near as bad as they are generally made out to be. If I'd rank all of his albums, the lowest charter would likely be the first Tin Machine (second one's pretty great though!) with his debut and Hours somewhat above it - but I can certainly enjoy all of those records too.

I've been marveling anew at Low after picking up an OG US vinyl pressing. I still prefer it to S2S but this has to be the greatest result on any ILX poll.

I know the Eventide Harmonize'd drums on Low are basically ground zero for the 80s Big Drum sound, but as far as I can tell the technique that actually ended up being widely used in the 80s was gated reverb à la Peter Gabriel 3. Whenever I hear big gated-reverb drums I automatically think "80s!" but the drums on Low still sound futuristic to me; they literally hit different. Because in addition to the clipped boom-splash you get with gated reverb, the Low drums have that squelchy pitch-shift thing going on that makes every hit sound unique. So I'm wondering which other records used the Low drums (i.e., running them through an Eventide Harmonizer or some analogous signal processor), because I'm drawing a blank. I know it's used on a couple tracks on The Idiot and on some of Heroes, but Bowie and Visconti definitely toned it down on Heroes, probably because they didn't want to be seen as relying on this novelty effect.

these are perhaps my favourite ever harmonized drums. definitely not toned down -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDluEia22oA

YES, good call! That's why it still sounds outrageously futuristic. I think you could also call some of that flutter echo, which is one of my all-time favorite underused effects.

A couple of days ago, Reverb's YT channel had a good breakdown on how to replicate the Low drum sound

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbQZx892PHE

Lanois and Eno used a similar tuning effect (as This Heat) on the drums for 'Mothers of the Disappeared', which is just a very short delay with moderate feedback adjusted to the same resonant frequency as the song's root.

It's quite well done as the entire kit seems to be processed with none of the dry signal, apart from maybe the kick drum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsDy8nbw-vk

Coolest U2 processed kit could be:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6snI72LGfP4

Which is surely related to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAfsp7AUHNo

Lots of stuff Eno is fussing with on James' "Wah Wah" album, too. But lest one over-romanticize the Eventide Harmonizer as this mystical art rock talisman, it was also key to AC/DC's "Back in Black" snare sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=977Sri5EcCE

Some excellent tight delay/some harmonizing on these drums as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppbi_hzEH4I

I think one key difference about the Visconti usage is the pitch modulation, which you don't hear on the This Heat or 23 Skidoo, or the AMS delays that Hannett used with Joy Division.

Yeah, it's a different effect, you can get the Eno-style one with any simple delay, just close the delay time down tight until it starts to ring and find the note.

The Eventide-based effect is a Pitch Shifter set on a small, incremental downward setting with a bit of a feedback loop, the Reverb video makes a bigger thing out of it but you can recreate it in any DAW.

The eno effect is the pitch shift though, from the H910. The snares from Low and the Idiot are that sound, a quick delay where each echo shifts in pitch a bit.

I have the eventide plug-in and love using it.

I associate that Eventide pitching effect (for snare at least) as more Visconti than Eno, but yeah ymmv. The delay trick as in MotD may not have even been Eno, could have been Lanois.

kundalini is all time too.

I also have the eventide plug-in and love using it and am defintely guilty of not toning it down.

one day i'd love to have the real thing as as that reverb video up above makes clear the plug-in isn't quite right.