Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Musician OCTOBER 1979 - by Chip Stern

DAVID BOWIE: LODGER

Many of the prototypical procedures of the '70s art work, heavy metal, glitter rock, new wave and disco were midwifed or forseen by David Bowie. Lodger is the third and most pop oriented of his collaborations with Brian Eno, the Merlin of modern rock. Every song is marked by a refined kind of aural distortion as electronic textures phase in and out of focus, vying for center stage with Bowie's multi-directional vocalizing (everything from plush theatrical crooning to screeching histrionics). Lodger is one of the most brilliant albums of the year, a vision of rock in the not-too-distant-future. "It's time we should be going," Bowie sings, and changing personnas as often as some people change clothing, the chameleon prince looks down on a world of dislocation and inertia from his Lear Jet in the clouds ("But any sudden movement and I've got to write it down"); and a voyage to the hinterland (as "life stands still and stares"), while side two's situations are stripped of fantasy; everyone feels trapped by relationships (the hauntingly poetic Repetition), self-delusion (Boys Keep Swinging) and their own role games (D.J.). Bowie hears the old structures falling and beckons us to shoulder our responsibility to create new values. All of which reads much heavier than it sounds, and although D.J. might be the only song to really hit on the radio in 1979, the eclectic Lodger will loom larger and larger as we head into the '80s.