Stephen Holland - Multimedia Journalist

The Bowie Project #14 – Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980) David Bowie’s 14 th studio album, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) was released on September 12 1980 and would be his final album for RCA Records, the label who had released all of his albums since Hunky Dory in 1971. Over the last number of years Bowie had achieved major artistic success with the release of his Berlin Trilogy, however those albums were less successful commercially and by 1980 Bowie had found himself in the precarious position where bands and artists who were inspired by that trilogy were actually out selling him. Low and “Heroes” , both released in 1977, were seen as precursors to post-punk and influenced artists like Joy Division and the Human League, while 1979’s Lodger’ s use of world music is credited for inspiring artists like Paul Simon and the Talking Heads. Those albums were made in collaboration with self-described “non-musician” ambient pioneer Brian Eno and were incredibly experimental an...

The Bowie Project #13 – Lodger (1979) Lodger is David Bowie’s 13 th studio album. It was released on May 25 th , 1979 and was the final instalment in his Berlin Trilogy after Low and “Heroes” which were both released in 1977. The trilogy comes out of a period when Bowie had moved from Los Angeles to Europe in an effort to rid himself of his drug addiction and was a very prolific time for the artist. The previous two records were highly influenced by German krautrock and the recent ambient releases of Brian Eno, who he collaborated with on all three of the albums. Lodger however moves away from the more minimal ambient sounds of those albums and moves into a more varied array of musical styles and genres including new wave and reggae. It features more accessible songs throughout and the album is split into two parts thematically through its lyrics rather than its music. Side one is primarily devoted to the theme of travel and side two focuses on critiques of Western civilization. Wh...

  The Bowie Project #12 - "Heroes" “Heroes” is David Bowie’s 12 th studio album; it was released on 14 October 1977 by RCA Records just nine months after his previous album Low . Under no obligation from his record label to promote his last album due to their perception it would be a guaranteed flop Bowie instead took a back seat and spent much of that year as touring keyboardist with his friend the singer Iggy Pop. After that tour Bowie worked with Pop to record his second studio album Lust for Life before then regrouping with his collaborator Brian Eno and producer Tony Visconti to get to work on “Heroes”. This album was the second instalment of the Berlin trilogy, an experimental trio of records that was preceded by Low would be followed by Lodger in 1979. Out of the three albums, “Heroes” is the only one to be recorded entirely in West Berlin. This album follows on from the experimental, art rock, and ambitious style that Bowie was exploring at this time. The major...

The Bowie Project #11 – Low (1977) David Bowie’s 11 th studio album, Low , was released on January 14 th , 1977, by RCA Records. After years of worsening cocaine addition Bowie needed to get out of Los Angeles and get clean. Along with proto-punk icon Iggy Pop he relocated to Europe, and it is in this fragile emotional state that Bowie starts work on the experimental art rock trio of album’s that would eventually become known as the “Berlin” trilogy. The first of these albums was Low , an avant-garde pop-rock record that was highly influenced by German bands like Kraftwerk, Neu!, Tangerine Dream and CAN as well as the ambient work of former Roxy Music pianist Brian Eno, who collaborated with Bowie on this album as well as the rest of the trilogy. The first half the album features short, direct, avant-pop song fragments with lyrics that reflect Bowie’s brittle state of mind, and side-two is mostly instrumental tracks inspired by a European sensibility. For the first time Bowie was trea...