Is THE LODGER David Bowie's best record?

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I WILL NOT DENIED HERE!! YOU MUST ARGUE YR DISSENT or RETIRE BY DEF'N BESTED!!

"Boys Keep Swinging" = freaking genius "D.J." = catchy danceable genius "Yassassin" = incredible total genius "Red Sails" = major genius "Look Back in Anger" = ASTONISHING GENIUS

Diamond Dogs is a comparative pittance. Ziggy is a joke. Low is half-finished. Station to Station is close but no cigar. Scary Monsters is a mis-step. Aladdin Sane . . . well, almost. But Lodger is just untouchable.

It is also unfairly overlooked billy dods, but I think the production/guitar sound on SM is v. extremely brittle and monochromatic and hard to get past. And the sleeve is INCREDIBLY UTTERLY TERRIBLE SURELY?

Hmm...the one I listen to most often remains "Heroes" -- "Sons of the Silent Age," there's yer brilliance right there, that chorus, that queasy sax! Genius. "Joooooooooooooe THE LION!" I could go on.

But Lodger for all the aforementioned reasons is right on up there. Those crazy rhythms, oh yes, the way the guitars whine and buzz through the "Look Back in Anger" arrangement and the way Bowie sings "The speaker was an angel..." How "Red Money" revamps Iggy not Ziggy, how "Red Sails" just seems to immediately call to mind a hyperactive Kate Bush video from four years in the future...I could also go on.

taking sides: george murray vs gail ann dorsey

(*this is not a joke.)

Ned, it's good to know Petey Gabriel is always lurking just below the level of your conscious mind.

I love it to death, although I hear the rot of 'Tonight' and 'Never Let Me Down' setting in with the Iggy re-annexation strategy of 'Red Money', which is far inferior to 'Sister Midnight'.

'Scary Monsters' was a disappointment for me at the time (I now love Side 1) because it seemed calculatedly populist and somewhat anti-modernist. Then we got Chic and 'David Bowie Straight', and everything after that was a disappointment, so you got used to it. I've just read the lyrics to his new single, and it seems like more of the same thing, but I don't really expect much any more, sigh.

He is still the most beautiful, wise and charming man on the planet, muse or no muse.

lodger breaks the morbid depression of side-2-low and the depressed fucked-up mess that is heroes

lodger creeps up on the listener -- no concessions to kiddy rock'n'roll -- instead elimination of lyrical abiguity (finally) and instrumental arrangement to match these real songs -- an adult record

maybe even honest ? what with bowie squeezed behind a shop window on the cover -- i can do without the "i'm an international phenomena" thing, though i guess that is central

scary monsters seemss a stab in the same direction but more attempt to rock and more of the old "hey i'm weird" theatrics -- at least he tries a whole lot of different approaches with different musos, so i approach monsters on a song by song basis whereas lodger stands up as an album

the only decent "concept album" from a guy who supposedly is the concept album guy -- it's as if bowie grew up here -- pity the creative run was so brief -- both monsters and lodger he'd kind of learnt to work with eno and then with others without letting them dominate

yeah, pity about all the rest -- let's face it -- either bowie is a bygone '70s culture thing since the cracks were showing by the '80s, or these few late '70s records were the best a guy with resouces and advice to burn could come up with in his 35 years as rock star

Heh. "BABY BABY BABY I'll never let you go..."

I think "Outside" and "Earthling" are as good as "Lodger." His best album is "Station to Station."

I think I'm w/ mark s. The guitar lover in me will always love Man Who Sold the World, but in my heart of hearts I know Lodger is his best. Many good points made above, mark re DB's singing, dave re "Boys Keep Swinging" (Belew's studio debut! already sounding like Fripp), Momus re the travelogue quality. The imaginative syncretisms really make this one stand out. I like the way he slides in more classicist elements as well - like the way the piano softly, briefly switches to double time on the chorus to "Fantastic Voyage" (probably my favorite Bowie song), or the New Orleans bass line under the chorus of "Boys Keep Swinging".

Awesome record.

where do those of us who like both "secret life" and "african night flight" go to get our "best bowie fan" badges?

i like "yassassin" more than both!

I like Low and Lodger throughout, but Heroes feels like it's trying more often than succeeding. Even my favourite of the instrumentals, "Sense of Doubt" and "Moss Garden", are more like intriguing suggestions than the fully-realized pieces on Low. Many of the songs have Fripp blaring over them to no particular purpose, and even the title track has worn me out by the end - unlike the long songs on Station to Station, which have a similar structure but I find transcendent instead of wearying.

Teenage Wildlife is a better song than most of Heroes.

I've been hiding in the bathroom for 25 years every time he opens his mouth to sing "Teenage Wildlife"

The Scary Monsters is definite step down from The Lodger

The Lodger might be the most consistent of the Berlin trilogy + Scary Monsters, but doesn't match any of the highest highs of those other three albums.

The "'Heroes'" is his worst song, a wanky dirge of a worse than stadium rock journeyman pile of shit

I've always thought that if you took the B-side of Lodger, lopped off "Red Money" - because it's "Sister Midnight" but not as good - and grafted it to the A-side of Scary Monsters and stuck "Teenage Wildlife" on there somewhere the result would be a really good album. I would call it Scary Lodger.

Otherwise if Lodger was a James Bond film it would be Quantum of Solace. It's weird to think that for over a year it was "a thing". It was the most recent David Bowie album. It was David Bowie's most recent album. Now it's a kind of postscript.

I've always thought that if you took the B-side of Lodger, lopped off "Red Money" - because it's "Sister Midnight" but not as good - and grafted it to the A-side of Scary Monsters and stuck "Teenage Wildlife" on there somewhere the result would be a really good album

project canceled

I really love the imposing titanium drum (sound)s on Heroes/Scary Monsters, but also how they flank the (especially startling in comparison) dry drum sound on Lodger where it was like he's rebelling against his "depressed gorilla" creation before it was even widespread.

Really I have a lot of love for all these albums. That said if ever there's an album with a perfect side one and a side two that doesn't quite match its standard then its Scary Monsters.

ahem, sound(s)

I love Bowie. I've been listening to him my entire life. He's the most important artist for me. I even like most of his crap stuff, although I draw the line at Tonight. Blackstar is the most beautiful farewell album anyone's ever done, even if Les Marquises comes close. I am listening to The Lodger right now, and can confirm it is David Bowie's best record. Somewhere, someone's calling me, when the chips are down.

Sorry, when you say Blackstar don't you mean The Blackstar?

Indeed, I do. Sorry Tom (and David).

The David Bowie Albums

everyone's laughing at my "mistake" 23 years later but it's the reason we all keep (a) returning to the question, and (b) answering it more and more correctly (correct ans = yes)

My idea of removing the definite article from the album title - as in The Iggy Pop's "Idiot" - never took off though.

Mark, I also see you gave The Earthling some love. I’ve always felt that and The Black Tie/The White Noise are way underrated.

Earthling irritates me, probably because of Reeves who was a terrible fit and a bad artistic influence on Bowie.

Black Tie/White Noise is way underrated. It, Buddha of Suburbia and Outside are a very good set of albums surrounded by dreck.

I'm the opposite, I like The Earthling quite a bit, but not so sure about The Black Tie, other than Jump They Say.

I've never heard the Tin Machine albums. At some point they'll put out a box set of it all and I'll make myself suffer through it. I've heard some of the singles and it's very much not my thing.

Excuse me, its THE Tin Machine, The Oy Vey Baby

The TIM Machine: are "tim machine" the best thing david bowie ?

i think The Earthling is a bloody brilliant,
but not as good as The Lodger, which was my first proper Bowie album i bought and subsequently fell hard for,
even with the resident scratch during the opening track that was on the multiple vinyl copies i tried out.
thus kickstarting my hatred of the format.
of course i now have various cd editions of The Lodger, but i still hear the scratch.

i still hear the scratch

Is there a thread for this? There are songs where I still anticipate hearing a scratch or pop from the taped version I had and last listened to decades ago.

Alternate entry point for The Earthling--this acoustic performance of "Dead Man Walking"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26WEz91PP2U

My favourite post-70s Bowie album is the 'athen

Re: The Earthling, I think "Little Wonder" was my first exposure to drum and bass, and as a kid growing up in the American Midwest, away from the city, I had zero inkling of that world. Bowie's album wasn't even a hit here, I just checked it out because it was the new Bowie album and I had just started listening to his music.

Actually, no "the," it's just Earthling

The Earthling was the first Bowie album in years that The College Kids listened to, in my experience.

The Dead Man Walking from The Earthling The is a great tune!

There is always a the, bird

The Earthling had a lot of promo muscle behind it, including the 50th Birthday Pay-Per-View event, and I know for a fact a lot of fans first Bowie purchase was "I'm Afraid of Americans" single because of the Reznor remix.

Actually, The...hours also got a pretty big push too. Virgin really must have dropped some coin on his contract.

They all have their moments, but the first new Bowie album I enjoyed end-to-end in my lifetime was The The Next Day.

the the rise and fall of ziggy stardust and the the spiders from mars

Always need to reveal myself whenever someone says the black tie white noise is underrated. it's my most listened to bowie album.

There isn't a post-tin machine bowie album I think is anything less than at least pretty great except ...hours, which i still like fine

i've been reivisiting this several times over the last few days. i think its brevity is a virtue -- a tight 34 minutes. i'm pretty obsessed with "D.J." and "Red Money." however, the album is a land of contrasts. i think "Yassassin" is probably one of the most annoying things he's ever done

sorry, that should be "The Yassassin"

Post Tin Machine album rankings? Sure, why not.

Blackstar
1. Outside
Heathen
Black Tie White Noise
Earthing
The Next Day
Buddha of Suburbia
Reality
Hours

Always need to reveal myself whenever someone says the black tie white noise is underrated. it's my most listened to bowie album.

"I really love the imposing titanium drum (sound)s on Heroes/Scary Monsters, but also how they flank the (especially startling in comparison) dry drum sound on Lodger where it was like he's rebelling against his "depressed gorilla" creation before it was even widespread."

The evolution of the drum sound on those records is fascinating. Low has a prototype of the 1980s big drum sound, made with a pitch-shifting delay and some natural reverb. And Heroes has a similar but more polished thing that appears to be just delay and reverb.

And then suddenly Lodger has the kind of flat, mixed-as-if-it-was-in-a-packed-dance-club drum sound I associate with the very early 1980s, e.g. Adam Ant, Queen, Talking Heads and so forth. I mentally associate with The Kenny Everett Video Show. And then Scary Monsters goes back to the big booming drum sound again.

If I didn't know it was part of the Berlin trilogy, or recorded in Paris, or wherever, I would geographically place Lodger as a New York No-Wave record. He tried that capture that kind of give-no-fucks sound with Tin Machine but it didn't work because it was too polished.

1. Outside

I hate the number at the beginning of this album title. It reminds me of bands that put out "Greatest Hits, Vol. 1" compilations, then immediately break up (or lose their record contract), ensuring that there will never be a Vol. 2. I recently Photoshopped "Volume One" off the cover of an album I was uploading to Bandcamp because there was no Volume Two, and I already know I'm gonna do it to another release in a couple of months.

Never cottoned to Outside, though I have tried. Its appeal always eludes me.

Sorry, The 1. Outside

We all will occasionally feel like The 1. Outside

There’s really good stuff on Outside, when it came out I was too hung up on the dopey story but if I put that out of my head It’s not bad.

1. Outside

I hate the number at the beginning of this album title.

You'll eat your words when Bowie releases The 2. Contamination