Continued from part ii.

Low (1977)
By the end of his two-year stint in Los Angeles, and having imbibed enough coke to make the Sunset Strip look like A Christmas Carol, the Thin White Duke’s grip on reality – never vicelike at the best of times – was tenuous indeed. So Bowie made the perfectly sensible decision to decamp to West Berlin, a divided city on the frontline of the Cold War, the first candidate for Hiroshima-style nuclear decimation in the event of a military escalation, and at that time the heroin capital of Europe. Just for good measure, he took along Iggy Pop, the very incarnation of Aristotelian moderation. What could go wrong? Nothing, as it turns out, for the result of this noxious arrangement was Low, arguably Bowie’s best-ever album, a sullen and austere contrast to the exuberant Young Americans and the meandering Station to Station. Low’s first half essentially invents post-punk a full year before the Sex Pistols broke up; the guitars are taut and razor-sharp, but the mood is flat, diffident, perturbed, a dour harbinger of Joy Division and the Cure. The second half is stranger still, comprising a succession of eerie instrumentals inspired by Krautrock acts like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream. It goes without saying that Low was ahead of its time and vastly influential, but it’s also an absorbing record in its own right.
Rating: * * * * *
Standout track: “Subterraneans”

 “Heroes” (1977)
“Heroes” is the second of Bowie’s feted Berlin trilogy, and ostensibly, it has much in common with its predecessor; ambient sounds and alien synthesisers are amply integrated with piercing guitars, while around half of the tracks are instrumentals. But the overall mien here is strikingly different from Low; where the latter was solemn, angular, distressed, “Heroes” is flamboyant, chaotic, even wacky, particularly on “Beauty and the Beast”, the album’s saucy, swirling opener. Some of the instrumentals, such as “Neukölln” and “Sense of Doubt”, are undoubtedly doomy, but they are camper, more theatrical than the blood-chilling second half of Low. Indeed, Bowie’s longstanding fascination with vaudevillian dancehall schlock makes a comeback on “Heroes”, specifically on “Sons of the Silent Age”, a tribute to the silent pictures of the inter-war period. Ultimately, though, this album is of course best known for its title track, a majestic, uplifting, good-natured slice of ambient art rock about two lovers kissing by the Berlin Wall. “Heroes” is neither as groundbreaking or as well put together as Low, but it does represent a welcome lifting of the mood and injection of humour after its oppressive predecessor.
Rating: * * * *
Standout track: “Heroes”

Lodger (1979)
Comparing Lodger, Bowie’s final album of the 70s, with The Man Who Sold the World, his first, is striking indeed. The latter was still rooted in the 1960s, with its jangly, folky guitars and romantic, slightly Dungeons and Dragonsy meditations on Camelot and Stonehenge. The latter, however, points the way to the 80s; it sounds like futuristic funk, but packaged for a mass audience. “Heroes” was already heading in this direction, but Lodger renders its predecessor’s sound less shrill, more accessible; less art, more pop; as is immediately apparent from “Fantastic Voyage”, the album’s lush opener. Indeed, Bowie anticipates myriad aspects of 80s new wave music on Lodger; “D.J.” channels the funky, luxuriant snarkiness of Duran Duran; “Red Sails”, the dark, throbbing urgency of the Cure; while album closer “Red Money” sounds a bit like Prince. Bowie is still deploying William Burroughs’ “cut-up technique” to craft his lyrics, but there is at least one recognisable theme, with several songs about travel, and the Thin White Duke’s restless inability to stay in more than one place for very long. Above all, however, Lodger is perhaps the first album I’ve listened to in the course of writing this deep dive that sounds halfway sane. Its sounds is light and playful, its structure relatively conventional, by Bowie’s standards, and the fact that its author isn’t addled with drugs, enduring a catastrophic comedown from them, or embodying some kind of extraterrestrial alter ego is palpable.
Rating: * * *
Standout track: “D.J.”

Overall ranking
1. Low (* * * * *)
2. Hunky Dory (* * * *)
3. Diamond Dogs (* * * *)
4. Aladdin Sane (* * * *)
5. Ziggy Stardust (* * * *)
6. Heroes (* * * *)
7. Station to Station (* * *)
8. Lodger (* * *)
9. Young Americans (* * *)
10. The Man Who Sold the World (* * *)
11. Pin Ups (*)

Selected tracklist
1. Starman
2. Life on Mars
3. Heroes
4. Young Americans
5. Boys Keep Swinging
6. Rebel Rebel
7. The Man Who Sold the World
8. Aladdin Sane
9. Subterraneans
10. Wild is the Wind