David Bowie has made many fine albums and I own most of them. However, I am always a little surprised that this one seems to get overlooked. My friend loaned me the vinyl when we were in high school in the early 80's (his purchase no doubt prompted by the cool "DJ" video then in heavy rotation on MTV) and I have always returned to it over the years.

To me, Lodger is right up there with Station to Station, Scary Monsters, etc. I have always thought that the late 70's marked the apogee of Bowie's career, where he was at once leading and transcending the New Wave then in vogue by inventing new sounds and new ways to rock out. The rocking out part is key here; you want to crank this record up. Boys Keep Swinging, DJ and Look Back in Anger are take-no-prisoners workouts. I can't tell you how many mix tapes I have made that included Red Sails.

This is third and final album in the Eno trilogy. However, Bowie was clearly more in control here. Gone are the instrumentals, and in come ten vocal tracks. Of course, Eno is all over this record. Listen to African Night Flight and Yassasin and Eno quirky influence is easy to hear. Somehow, Bowie managed to weave some songs in between the strange rhythms and clicks, and it really works. I'd listen to African Night Flight just for those crazy crickets.

Apart from the tracks that were singles at the time (Boys Keep Swinging and DJ) there are other Bowie diamonds here. Red Sails is wonderful - and includes an unedited guitar solo where Carlos Alomar badly flubs and then recovers - wonderful!

Red money is also a great track. Actually, after all these years, Repetition becomes a favorite of mine also. Never have I heard a song about domestic violence that so clearly displays the monotonous life of a frustrated man - and his casual disregard of his wife. This is highlighted by a dead-pan delivery from Bowie, and an annoying buzz for a melody. It really works.

Add to that Move On and Look Back in Anger and I find I have mentioned every track on thew album. Which illustrates the high regard I have for this work. Even at the time it was released it was another Bowie effort that refused to comply with the thinking of popular music at the time. It still doesn't.

I can't imagine a Bowie fan won't find a lot to like here.

This album definitely merits more study by people who find it dull. There is no Bowie album which is more art-referential than "Lodger," and a cursory listing of its musical attributes only tells half the story. I've often kept the cover art for the vinyl version on my wall since it was released. It's a unique work of art and never ceases to inspire me.

Unfortunately, many of the graphic elements that made the cover and inner sleeve such a perfect pop koan have not been reproduced in CD form, an omission which is sadly true for virtually all of his CD reissues.

The strange enigma of a cover is a reference to the dadaist Francis Picabia's "Portrait of Cezanne," as well as to Bowie's gatefold image in "Aladdin Sane." Like that album, "Lodger" takes us on a whirlwind tour of landscapes that may or may not exist, but in an inner terrain enabled by Jungian symbolism and dadaist vitriol. It adds up to a form of synthetic modernism that is absolutely unique among Bowie records.

To say that "Lodger" is weak on any level is really to underestimate Bowie's perspective on the future and his own past, to overlook the fact that before Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel, Malcolm McLaren or Paul Simon did their own take on the issue, Bowie was looking to the very foundations of rock to trace the evolution of modern Western consciousness. "Lodger" creates its own language of simulationism which remains unprecedented in pop music. This album is ABSOLUTE genius folks!

Since when is ennui NOT a proper subject for art? I seriously discount the idea that the song "Fantastic Voyage" refers to anything besides Bowie's depression. It's a worthy introduction to a treatise on cultural colonialism (revived in the video for "China Girl" as well as the visual theme for his "Serious Moonlight Tour." "Lodger" also contains Bowie's first major use of angel symbolism, a theme he beat to death in later years.)

In short, in the Seventies, Bowie was more than a musical figure, he was a cultural prophet, and "Lodger" finds him poised as a lonely scout for the human tribe. His art then was as much visual as it was musical, and in the entirety of this album are artfully conceived, enigmatic mysteries that have kept me fascinated for nearly 25 years.

Lodger is the worst Berlin/Eno album by a country mile, but if any album was half as good as Low or Heroes then it would still be a peach. Alas, Lodger isn't even half as good as those two Bowie masterpieces. I bought Lodger with the knowledge that it wasn't supposed to be a very good album, but I was nevertheless very curious about it, as i instantly am with all of Bowie's seventies output, one of those decade-long periods that borders on truly glorious. Plus, i just had to get Look Back in Anger because it's absolutely stunning.

When i first heard Heroes i was amazed by it. The first time i heard Low i thought it was pretty fine, a few more listens later i realised i was listening to a total masterpiece (better than Heroes). The first time i listened to Lodger i thought it was the second worst Bowie album I'd ever heard (the worst being Earthling). I just thought it was so dull, full of half-hearted experimentation, completely dislocated, uninvolved and completely lacking the coherence, beauty, emotional kick and chemistry that made Low and Heroes such addictive albums. I still loved Look Back in Anger though, one of the best Bowie songs ever in my opinion, full of energy and power, at odds with everything else on Lodger, except for the hilarious Boys keep Swinging, more on that later. It did not feel like an album, it felt more like a collection of B-sides.

Over the three years since first experiencing Lodger, I've warmed to it a bit more. That's not to say i don't think it's flawed, because it is. I still think it feels more like an album of songs that were simply dumped along side each other in the vain hope that it would form a coherent whole. This is none more obvious than on the first side, a collection of songs that have no idea where they are going and despite starting off quite interestingly in a couple of cases, cop out towards the end. The two best songs on Side One, Fantastic Voyage and Red Sails, could have been a lot better were they worked on a bit more. The former, which contains some of Bowie's best vocals, fades out a mere three minutes into it, just as one was starting to really enjoy it, cutting short what could have been one of his most epic songs, instead becoming a merely pleasant number. The latter is one of Lodger's more interesting songs, quite funky and full of exciting guitar effects, but after an exhilarating first couple of minutes doesn't seem to know what to do with itself and simply fades into an inconsequential noise.

Side Two is a lot better; DJ is a fine single with a memorable chorus even if it does go on a bit. Not a classic, but quite okay fun.

Look Back in Anger is three minutes of watertight pop brilliance; Bowie sounds extraordinary throughout, the guitars are thrilling, urgent, the only time Bowie and his band sound on top, classic form.

Boys keep Swinging sounds like a faster version of Fantastic Voyage, with great, funny lyrics and some great hooks. However, it does trail off into a weak fade out.

Repetition lays down a repetitive (oddly enough) beat complimenting a story of domestic abuse which is one of Bowie's more direct and stark lyrics. Again though, this song doesn't seem to go anywhere, just the same unremarkable riff for about three minutes. Great string bit about thirty seconds into it though.

Red Money is a reworking of Sister Midnight from Iggy Pop's great Bowie-produced album The Idiot, which isn't as good as Pop's version but does have a good instrumental about a minute into it. But again, it trails off into nothingness and is easily the least effective closing track of any of Bowie's seventies albums.

And then of course, there's "African Night Flight", "Move on" and "Yassassin" on the first side, which have some mildly diverting touches but reek of lethargy and pointlessness, exeperimental without being remotely exciting or interesting.

Still, Lodger is an okay album that I won't get rid of, because there are the odd good touches here and there, and Bowie's vocals are as superb as ever. It's a frustrating work, only Look Back in Anger is astonishing from start to finish, but six of the other songs all have something about them, a flawed, unfinished quality to them that makes them strangely appealing.

Bowie has said that his heart wasn't 100% into this album, and it sounds like it. A relative dissapointment after a rollercoaster ride that spanned eight years of masterly work. His next album Scary Monsters, while no masterpiece, would be a far more successful, confident and powerful work.

This is the final album in which David Bowie and Brain Eno collaborated and it is by far the more accessible of the three. No lingering after-effects of the instrumental heavy Low and "Heroes," Lodger is more pop-oriented and straight-forward. You can hear the experimental overtures throughout, but they work well here. Standouts include Fantastic Voyage, D.J., Look Back In Anger, and my personal favorite Red Sails. Great effort. Refreshing to hear Bowie making strides back to perfection.

Dig it!