The Berlin Trilogy POLL: Low vs. "Heroes" vs. Lodger

"low" is one of my favourite artefacts in the world, so this is hardly troubling.

i don't actually like "lodger" very much, although when was the last time i heard it? hmm: perhaps i should revisit.

anyway. yeh. "low". which i think will win (© 2008 grimly's almost-certainly-wrong ILX predictions inc).

Lodger will win.

cos he got round to putting songs on both sides.

At the moment, Lodger. For some reason I avoiding getting a copy for ages, even after I'd had Low and Heroes for years. Then last year I got Lodger so it's my favourite out of the three right now. Also because "Heroes" and Low are kind of the soundtracks to two difficult periods in my past.

it's SO OBVIOUSLY low, but lodger is going to win because this is ilm. 'heroes' might be the best song on all three of the of the albums, but the rest of the tracks are *meh* for the most part.

right. i need to be listening to "lodger".

Hate "Heroes" the song, but feel free to tell me what's completely obvious and how contrary I'm being for liking something different.

"Heroes" is just some lighters-in-the-air football terrace bullshit. Quite like the dolphin line tho.

(xpost) I like the "get me to the doctor's I've been told, someone's back in town the chips are down blah blah blah blah blah Japanese influence and my honour's at stake" bit, but even the title track of "Heroes" wears me down, French version is funny though. And "Sons of the Silent Age" = my fear of old age, specifically being found alone in my bachelor apartment after having been dead for three years.
Low has it's lol moments, but it's Lodger because right from the start of the opening track, Bowie sounds like a human being again, instead of a coked out alien rock star.

it's Lodger because right from the start of the opening track, Bowie sounds like a human being again, instead of a coked out alien rock star.

i guess in my book coked out alien rock star >>> human being

Bowie as alien rock star 1972-1974 >>> Bowie as human being >>> Bowie as coked out alien rock star 1975-??? >>> Bowie in 1983 >>> bloody Tin Machine

oh! i forgot lodger started with 'fantastic voyage!' ... oh man. that's a great song. . . better just give this whole thing a listen.

i guess in my book coked out alien rock star >>> human being

Same here, which is why I went with Low.

'heroes' might be the best song on all three of the of the albums, but the rest of the tracks are *meh* for the most part.

oh man. ban me. it's been so long since i've listened to these all the way through! 'sons of the silent age,' 'dj,' 'yassassin,' 'look back in anger,' 'blackout.' these are incredible!

Low means a lot to me, but Lodger's grown on me in the last 15 years: it's the first time the chameleon shtick feels natural instead of received, thanks to the international jetset motif running through the album.

Voting "Low". "Heroes" is also ace while "Lodger" is - well - good, but not quite up there with the two 1977 ones.

Lodger's fabulous and my current trilogy favorite for so many reasons, but Low gets the vote here.

Love Low, don't love Heroes but seem to remember it being pretty good - should I bother with Lodger, which I've as yet never heard?

As with most Bowie, there is a logic and a gradual development. Musically, like chronologically, "Lodger" is a cross-in-between "Heroes" and "Scary Monsters".

Love'em all, but am going with Lodger.

Lodger has the most songs I love on.

I thought this would be such a "Low, duh" thread.

why is "Heroes" the only one with quotes around it?

Cos the album is called "Heroes"

http://www.connollyco.com/discography/david_bowie/heroes_hi.jpg

o

still like what came outta this thread

Just what is David Bowie doing on the "Heroes" LP cover?

In what world does what Bowie is singing on "African Night Flight" sound anything other than humanoid?

Oh, and I can't even decide.

"Heroes"

Anyone read the recently published "Bowie In Berlin" by the picturesquely named Thomas Jerome Seabrook?

i'm listening to "lodger" now. it's a very good album. but it's no low.

I like the second side of "Heroes" better than the second side of "Low" I think.

warzsawa is tough to beat.

(xpost) Out of all the instrumentals on those two albums, "V2 Schneider" is probably my favourite.

OK, even though it has vocals I don't think that "V2 Schneider" repeated over and over counts, so it's still an instrumental of sorts.

I went with Low. I pretty much agree with what poortheatre said at the outset.

here is a big thread we did about the lodger

Is THE LODGER David Bowie's best record?

I forgot about that thread – there's some good writin'.

I like Low better than Heroes, though I like Heroes. I've not heard The Lodger, and am suspicious of it... I once read Stephen Morris from New Order saying it was no good, and am very impressionable.

I like Low and Heroes (and Scary Monsters) more than Lodger.

Stephen Morris thinks the last 2 New Order albums are good, so what does he know

xpost

Lodger's not bad but I fear suffers from Eno having transplanted his pop heart into Talking Heads, thus Fear Of Music sounds like he put a lot more work into it than he did Lodger. Still - Boys Keep Swinging, DJ, Fantastic Voyage, Look Back In Anger; cannae argue with any of those.

Low

bu <sumbliminal message: vote for low> mp.

"yes yes both those records are good but THE LODGER has Simon House formerly fiddler in hawkwind, Bowie's BEST EVAH SINGING easy (he is not billy mackenzie but it's BLADDY CLOSE), eno on "cricket menace", the unexampled couplet "the hinterland, the hinterland/we're gonna sail to the hinterland", terrific pell-mell rhythm on every cut, and just generally a conceptual integrity in re the misery of (undrugged) sleb success which suggests he is the only star to understand the true dilemma of punk (except me obv)"

This dude is never not right

Low, flat-out. Others are good, but Low is a fantastic whole piece.

I voted Low, and like Lodger and Scary Monsters more than Heroes.

I still have my old Rykodisc versions of those. At least they have some worthy bonus tracks. I won't go with the Virgin remasters until I find out whether they'll ever do double deluxe reissues like the early albums.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

oh good lord

For shame.

the earlier reports suggesting a Lodger win reminded me of the exit polls favoring Kerry in '04.

I hate it when statistics disprove my lazy assumptions.

Also when people are rong.

:)

second side of 'low' = WHY NOT WRITE SOME SONGS MATE EH? ambient more like crap.

^^^ Talk that is real

WHY NOT WRITE SOME SONGS MATE EH? = ripped to the tits on drugs

The result is just about fair except "Heroes" should have been closer to "Low" and more ahead of "Lodger".

second side of 'low' = WHY NOT WRITE SOME SONGS MATE EH? ambient more like crap.

They're not really ambient though, are they? They're structured pieces with melody lines etc. The "Heroes" pieces are more in the ambient vien.

Why not write some lyrics mate then

I didn't vote in this poll but, yes, "Low" deserved to win. I definitely listen to "Lodger" more than either "Heroes" or "Low" but that doesn't mean it's the best album or nuffink.

I wouldn't call the pieces in "Low" ambient, really. The melodies are strange and harmonically different at times, but not really ambient.

Why not write some lyrics mate then

Do you really want those from Bowie?

it appears that most of the voters here read Pitchfork faithfully

which one did you vote for finally?

"Listen to tracks by Sam Therapy and King Dice" - from Sons of the Silent Age.

Are Sam Therapy and King Dice real artists, or did Bowie just make the names up? I suspect the latter, as googling just leads to this song's lyrics.

I think Bowie made the names up, and then bands borrowed the names later. A bit like A Clockwork Orange and Heaven 17. A quick Google search shows that there's a King Dice in New York, and one in the UK, and several Sam Therapys, including a recording studio in London.

Anyone read the recently published "Bowie In Berlin" by the picturesquely named Thomas Jerome Seabrook?

Just finished that book last night. Awesome details about the recording of these three records (he does kind of slip past Lodger a bit). But all the weird Bowie stuff when he was in L.A. is in there (living on a diet of cocaine and ice cream, scared to death of Jimmy Page) to all the musicians getting fed up with Eno because he pulls shit like not letting the band know which chord comes next until he points it out on a big piece of posterboard with a graph on it.

It'd make for a great movie. Love to see who they'd cast for Iggy Pop or Bing Crosby. Maybe Tim from "The Office" could play Robert Fripp.

Is this the only ILM thread about Low? I came here to post about that but have now put on Lodger and am about to read the Lodger thread instead.

Was in Union Square for a little while this afternoon and Tony Visconti walked by. I'm glad i was with someone capable of recognizing Tony Visconti. There are not that many music ppl who I love so much that the mere sight of them fills my heart with joy but tony fucking Visconti aieeeee!

nice catch, jon. in terms of this poll, i think that Low is the best one but it's closer than many people assume. Lodger is a great album too. "i don't want to live with somebody's depression" is one of bowie's most insightful lyrics.

My favorite of all might be All Saints which collects all the instrumentals on one disc.

*bump*

Anyone listening to the WNYC New Sounds broadcast of the 2018 live Berlin trilogy performances led by Shearwater's Jonathan Meiburg?

https://www.newsounds.org/story/david-bowies-berlin-trilogy-new-sounds-live-2018-brookfield-place

Damn, they did a great job covering Lodger. Hearing Jamie Stewart sing "Repetition" is weird — it's obviously a very disturbing song but in an entirely different way from how Xiu Xiu songs are disturbing.

Posted about this on some other Lodger thread but there was little interest, unsurprisingly. FWIW I prefer the live-in-the-studio version Shearwater did a couple of years ago.

the recording of the trilogy shows dropped on bandcamp. i had happened to listen to the original low this am- today has been much better for all this arriving. glad it's out, i was so sad to miss it.

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0324300289_16.jpg

sound + vision duet is infinite hot fires to me right now.

also this secret life of arabia is the best mor rnb recall shit going, it is fucking beautiful amazing.