Lodger
	Produced by David Bowie and Tony Visconti
	Released on May 1979
	UK CHART POSITION #4 . . . US CHART POSITION #20
	Find it at GEMM
RCD 10146 cover

A harrowing album that chews up the listener and spits them out shaken and confused. At least that’s always been my experience with Lodger -- some have actually found this a friendlier record than Heroes or Low. To my ears this music represents a brutal revisionism of rock music, ripping the supple melodies apart and rebuilding them with wire and metal. Calling it punk rock misses the point, since Bowie was working independent of external influences; more than likely this was just a natural evolution from cutting and pasting lyrics to cutting and pasting music. Lodger must have been a bracing slap to some, especially anyone who saw early videos created for “Boys Keep Swinging” and “D.J.” This was intentionally confrontational art, like Scary Monsters an album anticipating a revolution that never came. David Bowie wisely suspends us in the warm and tender “Fantastic Voyage” before immersing us in the roiling waters of his irritable world. What follows is unyielding music, totalitarian in its unwillingness to compromise. The swirling ghosts of Eno’s synthesizers, Simon House’s luminescent strands of violin and Adrian Belew’s bestiary of guitar sounds do battle with the more traditional rhythm section of Dennis Davis, Carlos Alomar and George Murray. In the middle stands Bowie, vacillating between outrage and ennui. It’s a disturbing album because Bowie has intentionally disturbed the music-making process, inverting the songs so that the original attractive exterior is wrapped in the ugly interior (Eno had apparently tried something similar with Before And After Science). Scary Monsters was just as dark (in some cases, darker) but also sugar-coated in spots with dance sensibilities. Heroes and Low might have seemed cold, but they weren’t as violent as Lodger. The EMI/Rykodisc remaster includes two bonus tracks: the unreleased “I Pray, Ole” (which looks forward to his next album) and a new version of “Look Back In Anger” recorded in 1988. They’re not unwelcome guests, but add little to the original Lodger.

AYL1-4234 front cover [high resolution photo]	AYL1-4234 back cover

TRACK LISTING

1. FANTASTIC VOYAGE    (Lyrics by David Bowie/Music by David Bowie/Brian Eno)    2:55
2. AFRICAN NIGHT FLIGHT    (Lyrics by David Bowie/Music by David Bowie/Brian Eno)    2:54
3. MOVE ONE    (David Bowie)    3:16
4. YASSASSIN (Turkish for: Long Live)    (David Bowie)    4:10
5. RED SAILS    (Lyrics by David Bowie/Music by David Bowie/Brian Eno)    3:43
6. D.J.    (Lyrics by David Bowie/Music by David Bowie/Brian Eno/Carlos Alomar)    3:59
7. LOOK BACK IN ANGER    (Lyrics by David Bowie/Music by David Bowie/Brian Eno)    3:08
8. BOYS KEEP SWINGING    (Lyrics by David Bowie/Music by David Bowie/Brian Eno)    3:17
9. REPETITION    (David Bowie)    2:59
10. RED MONEY    (Lyrics by David Bowie/Music by David Bowie/Carlos Alomar)    4:17
    
    CD reissue bonus tracks
    
11. I PRAY, OLE    (David Bowie)    3:59
12. LOOK BACK IN ANGER (NEW VERSION RECORDED 1988)    (Lyrics by David Bowie/Music by David Bowie/Brian Eno)    6:59

CREDITS

DAVID BOWIE -- vocals, backing vocals, piano, synthesizer, chamberlain, guitars, mixing
CARLOS ALOMAR -- guitar, rhythm guitar, backing vocals
ADRIAN BELEW -- guitar, mandolin, rhythm guitar
DENNIS DAVIS -- drums, percussion, backing vocals
BRIAN ENO -- ambient drone, prepared piano and cricket menace, synthesizers, guitar treatments, horse trumpet, Eroica horn, piano
SIMON HOUSE -- violin, mandolin, backing vocals
SEAN MAYES -- piano
GEORGE MURRAY -- bass, bcaking vocals
TONY VISCONTI -- mandolin, backing vocals, rhythm guitar, guitar, bass, engineer, mixing engineer
Reeves Gabrels -- guitar (12)
Erdal Kizilcay -- drums & bass (12)
Roger Powell -- synthesizers (9,10)
Stan -- saxophone (5)
Rod O'Brien -- mixing engineer
David Richards -- engineer, mixing (11,12)
Duffy -- cover photography
Reiner Design Consultants, Inc -- Rykodisc package design

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