This was Bowie's first release after his breakthrough album, "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars". Although Ziggy is a fantastic album, personally I think this is far more accomplished work. It is admittedly more difficult to listen to in parts, such as the bizarre but legendary piano solo by Mike Garson on the title track, but equally rewarding. It was clear with this album that Bowie wasn't playing to the fans, and was determined to follow his own direction, which was further confirmed later that year when he announced that "Ziggy" was "retiring". This is one of his more rocky albums, and with the help of "The Spiders from Mars" et al. he pulls it off beautifully. The great successes of the album are "Cracked Actor", the infamous "Time" and the strangely beautiful "Lady Grinning Soul". This is essential Bowie, but perhaps not the best choice for a newcomer.

This album was made around the time of Bowie's first major acting role, in the film "The Man Who Fell To Earth". In fact, this album was originally going to be a soundtrack for the film, until Bowie found out that he was one of several people who had been asked to create the soundtrack, so that the producers could choose between them. So he put the music he'd created into this album. This was made during the height of Bowie's musical output (from 1969 to 1980 he produced 13 studio albums), and also during the height of Bowie's drug-taking. He spent most of his life at the time being intensely paranoid, but it certainly didn't hurt the music. The diversity on this album is astounding: just listen to the 10 minute, rocky title track, the funk-inspired "Stay" and the velvet "Wild Is the Wind". My personal favourite is "Word on a Wing", which is brilliant musically, but also shows quite a different side of Bowie than normal. There is no other album that serves as a comparison, as is the case with all of Bowie's best.

Low is the first in the "Berlin Triology", three albums that Bowie made with Brian Eno (in Berlin...) during a period of attempting to get clean from drugs. The result was three albums that stand out among Bowie's mostly illustrious career. Low is an unusual mix of electronica, rock and ambient vocals, combined with some of the most perfect song writing possible. "Sound And Vision" is definitely the most well known of all the tracks on the album, quite possibly since it's the most palatable, but personally I think that the real gold lies in tracks such as "A New Career In A New Town", and "Art Decade". The album can be (and was, in the day of records) split in to two parts, with the first half containing songs with a more obvious structure and the second half containing more lengthy, generally instrumental tracks. This album proved that Bowie knew how to do "avant-garde", and how to do it well.