David Bowie – Lodger (180g)

180-gram vinyl

After the release of 2017's acclaimed A New Career In A New Town (1977-1982) box set, breakouts of five selected albums from the set as stand-alone releases are now available. The five — Low, Heroes, Stage (2017 version 3LP), Lodger, and Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) — haven't been available on vinyl officially for more than a quarter of a century.

A New Career In A New Town (1977-1982) is the third in a series of box sets spanning Bowie's career, following Five Years (1969-1973) and Who Can I Be Now (1974-1976).

The last of Bowie's so-called "Berlin Trilogy," Lodger was released in May 1979 by RCA Records. It was, by Bowie standards, understated — an anxious, humble album. No creation myth, no alter ego, no 10-minute-long song-suites or spooky instrumentals or pretentious backstories about George Orwell and the squashed remains of ethnic music as it survives in the age of Muzak rock. In its review, Pitchfork wrote that "Actually, Lodger might be the first David Bowie album marketed as nothing more than an album of recorded music by David Bowie."

The music is punky and dramatic and a little odd, with detours into reggae and near-Eastern tonalities ("Yassassin") and nebulously exotic "world" sounds ("African Night Flight"), all filtered through the ears of a British guy with plenty of money and the imperial leeway to appropriate whatever he felt like. All this didn't just humanize Bowie, it made him whole.