Lodger – DAVID BOWIE***

Fantastic Voyage/African Night Flight/Move On/Yassassin/Red Sails/DJ/ Look Back In Anger/Boys Keep Swinging/Repetition/Red Money

Lodger was the final album of David Bowie’s Berlin trilogy collaboration with Brian Eno. Unfortunately it contains too much experimentalism from the latter, redeemed only by the UK No. 7 hit Boys Keep Swinging. (US:20 UK:4)

“Lodger is strong throughout. It opens with one of Bowie's most underrated songs, Fantastic Voyage, and is followed by the fantastically quirky African Night Flight (a song only Bowie and Brian Eno could come up with). These two songs are a lot to live up to for the rest of the album, which for the most part succeeds. The over-the-top histrionics of DJ and the tongue-in-cheek misogyny of Boys Keep Swinging are a couple of other highlights. Some experimentation was done, such as having musicians play unfamiliar instruments.”

“Considered part of the Berlin trilogy, it's Bowie at his most experimental and non-tuneful. This no doubt will put many people off. Add to that a shift in style with every song, weird electronic production and baffling multi-tracked vocals, means that you've got one of the least commercial of his albums.”

“Boys Keep Swinging is the one thing that keeps this from being a complete waste of time. I'll never understand the praise Brian Eno gets for his work.”

“A different kind of experimentation from the other Berlin albums, with more in common with new wave than ambient or krautrock. It’s a wacky record, which must have reasonably fun to make and is definitely fun to listen to, but with no real classic songs it lacks the aura of some of his other albums, not least the two before.”

“The final piece of the so-called Berlin trilogy, Lodger presents a wide range of styles and approaches that David Bowie effortlessly makes his own. Not only does the pop sensibility shine strongly, but the use of world-influenced styles and experimental production is brilliantly applied with help from Brian Eno.”

“Lodger is definitely not the kind or record that hits you from the beginning. It starts with songs inspired by African and Middle East influences, with Bowie again reacting to what was going on in pop music. As the album continues, it sounds more and more in line with the art rock he'd been recording in the previous years. Lodger is a quirky collection of songs that don't have longevity written across them.”