MJ1 wrote:philipchevron wrote:MJ1 wrote:Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left
Hmmm, do I need to smoke more weed to appreciate this? 'Day is Done' is moving, apart from that I am struggling? So much made of this album I was expecting it to be a lost gem.
Bowie - Low
Is this Bowie's best? Really? Robert Smith from The Cure reckons it's the best album ever. I...do not agree.
Low was undoubtedly hugely influential in lots of ways, but Bowie made several more interesting albums. Much as I love the sound of it - it's why the Radiators borrowed his producer for our second album - most of the songs are fairly artless which is, I think, the point of them but, y'know, I'm more of a "Bewlay Brothers"/"Life on Mars?"/"Sweet Thing"/"Young Americans" type meself.
Can't help with Nick Drake, he's always eluded me.
It's great that there is a world still to explore in music! I know Bowie's 'key' tracks, but not his albums. OK, so 'Low' is a pass, or maybe a piece in a wider jigsaw, I'll try 'Station to Station' & 'Lodger', from the same era, see how that goes.
With 'Low' I must admit I was expecting something revelatory, like 'Transformer', with Eno & Iggy on the payroll.
Great photos of the 'Thin White Duke' on the sleeve though.
Station is a great album, some consider it his best. However, it ideally has to be in heard in the context of David's 1974 to 1976 "lost weekend", which would require you to listen in this order: Diamond Dogs/David Live/Young Americans/Station to Station after which you might wish to reconsider Low. The "lost weekend" is Bowie's most interesting and fertile creative period but it's fair to say his most wretched as a human. He claims to remember very little of the era. The only time I met Bowie, at the opening night party for the Broadway production of Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman, I found myself gibbering at him about this period, all the while ignoring the still small voice inside going "shut the fuck up Chevron, this man has no idea what you're talking about, he remembers none of it".
