David Bowie: The Berlin Trilogy (An Imaginary Album)
Both 1977's Low and its follow-up from later the same year, Heroes, paired vocal rock tracks and more ambient-leaning electronic-oriented instrumentals. The latter undoubtedly derived from Bowie's partnership with Eno, who was at the same time wrapping up his own run of 4 relatively straight rock albums and pivoting to instrumental work. And while I absolutely adore Eno's ambient music, and his own combination of vocal/instrumental tracks yielded one of my favorite albums ever (1975's Another Green World), the non-vocal stretches on Low/Heroes kinda kill the momentum of otherwise great rock albums peppered with peak songs like "Sound & Vision," "Heroes," "What In The World," etc.
So I culled out the instrumental tracks (save for the catchy "Speed of Life," which makes for a nifty introduction to the reconfigured album) and stuck with the vocal numbers.
As for 1979's Lodger, Bowie & Eno refrained from instrumentals, but some of the vocal tracks are a little too odd/experimental and generally have me reaching for the skip button in favor of straightforward rockers like "Look Back In Anger" and "Move On." So I made a few judicious cuts.
I ended up with just under an hour of music, sequenced to blend the three records--and it still sounds like a coherent whole given Visconti's consistent production. I opted to use Visconti's 2017 remix of Lodger, which sounds a little brighter to me than the slightly muddy original; I also subbed in the shorter single versions of "Heroes" and "D.J."
I've spun my new CDR a couple times and have to say, as a unified double LP, it could be Bowie's best record. Anyway, check it out for yourself on Spotify.
Funny, I had the same idea but, since I always gravitated more to the instrumental and ambient songs, mine is very different. Still about an hour of music.
ReplyDeleteYeah, as an Eno fan, that'd be a great package as well.
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