Reassessment Twenty Years Gone by: David Bowie’s Low (1977) and Robert Fripp’s Exposure (1979)

Note: Periodically, I plan on posting record reviews here on my blog. Most often, I expect the reviews will focus on my assessment of new records I have recently heard. However, in other instances, I intent to post reviews of records which I think hold up to the test of time. This review is the first in that latter series.

Recently, for some inexplicable reason, I have been drawn back to two records that were released during my mid to late teenage years: Low by David Bowie originally released in 1977, and Exposure by Robert Fripp originally released in 1979. Both of these records are underrated masterpieces. Both records are complex and boldly experimental. Each features both easily accessible, catchy songs as well as more difficult, challenging compositions. Both records share other similarities. Both records feature Brian Eno playing synthesizer, and both seem to be influenced by Eno’s ambient/rock records released during the same time frame such Here Come the Warm Jets, and Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy). Both Low and Exposure are also thought to be part of a trilogy of recordings. For Bowie, Low is thought to be the first in the trilogy completed by the more commercially successful Heroes (also released in 1977) and the Lodger (1979). For Robert Fripp, Exposure was seen as a sister project to projects by other artists in which he was involved: Peter Gabriel’s Second Solo Album (1978) and Daryl Hall’s Sacred Songs. There are differences also. Bowie’s Low is a mix of somber, brooding pieces coupled with more conventional (at least for late 1970 Bowie) danceable rock tunes. While Fripp’s Exposure also has its melancholy moments, it is on the whole much more upbeat. In fact, many of Exposure’s songs are aggressive and angry.

David Bowie’s Low is a split between a rock side and an ambient, largely instrumental side. My comments on the tracks are:

• Speed of Life is an instrumental track that sets tone for rest of the record. The song has a vaguely machine like, detached sound but features a pretty melody and an Eno-esque synthesizer riff.
• Breaking Glass begins with a catchy guitar riff and excellent vocals by Bowie, and features a European electronic dance rhythm track.
• What in the World is another danceable upbeat tune featuring interesting lyrics as well as backing vocals by Iggy Pop.
  
• Sound and Vision is arguably the best track on the album. This track is best listened to with headsets as the stereo mix enhances the syncopation and interplay between the various guitar, bass, drum, saxophone and vocals elements of the song. In fact, my only complaint is track fades out to soon as the band seems to be set to romp on.
• Always Crashing In The Same Car - the mood of lyrics like “desperation, going round and round the hotel garage must have been going 94, but I am always crashing the same car” are matched perfectly by the looping melodies.
• Be My Wife is an excellent track, the beginning reminds me of a Mott the Hoople Tracks, and the lyrics are quite lovely and are coupled by a beautiful guitar solo buried in mix.
• Career In A New Town is another instrumental very catchy pop/ambient music cross entitled . This pop/ambient hybrid serves as an effective bridge to the second half of ambient songs.
• Warszawa is somber and haunting ambient track with sampled and treated vocals used note much as voices but as another instrument pushing the composition to its climax.
• Art Decade picks the mood back up from the gloom of Warszawa, but just barely.
• Weeping Wall continues the upswing in mood. This song features a compelling synthesizer based rhythm track and more electronically treated choral vocals. Normally these features would be elements of a disaster, but, on this track they actually work.
• Subterraneans More Eno-esque synthesizer, treated vocals and chorals used to great effect; the sax solo set is against the treated vocals about two-thirds of the way through the track inject a jazz feel into this broody ambient instrumental song.

Robert Fripp’s Exposure is book ended by two pastiches of found sounds and synthesizers entitled Preface and Postscript. My comments on the remaining tracks are:

• You Burn Me Up I Am Cigarette is a catchy, straight ahead rock & roll song.
• Breathless is the first real hunk of raw meat. It features lush, layered guitar, odd time signatures, looping repeating musical phrases. It is intense and interesting. The bass guitar riffs about halfway through the track really makes this track.
• Disengage is more aggressive rock, this time with excellent vocals. It is as heavy as it comes but it is surprisingly short.
• North Star is a laid back ballad featuring the best vocals performance from Daryl Hall as well as haunting synthesizers and Fripp-tronics treated guitar melody.
• Chicago is a thumping romp with more great Daryl Hall vocals and thundering drum and bass beautifully recorded.
• NY3 is Another great guitar wind up, odd time signatures, jangly, jarring and compelling all at once. Again the drums are beautifully recorded.
• Mary is short poem set to a sweet melody.
  
• Exposure begins with the found sound phrase “It is impossible to achieve the aim without suffering” which is the theme of the song (and perhaps the album). I first heard this song on Peter Gabriel's second album and while Gabriel’s version was good, Robert Fripp's version here is so much better. All the elements of the song work together: the syncopated rhythm, the piercing vocals, and the repeated spelling of Exposure “E”, “X”, “P”. That latter element should suck but instead makes the track by establishing a unifying foundation to the multitude of complex, cyclic melodic patterns.
• Haaden Two is more found sounds and attacking guitar wind-ups. The best quote is “Incredibly unpleasant chord sequence”. Maybe, but it is interesting none the less.
• Urban Landscape is an ambient track, and is not my favorite track on the album. It isn't bad, just seems somewhat uninteresting, but does serve to clean the pallet for what comes next.
• I May Not have Had Enough but I have Had Enough of You is another layered composition featuring attacking guitar and odd time signatures. It also features two vocalists dueling and rifting like two additional guitarists. Experimental and jazz-like, it works. The record needle scratch ending the song is a nice touch.
• Water Music I, Here Comes The Flood, and Water Music II – This suite, really one continuing song, is the another high spot. Like Exposure, I first heard Here Comes The Flood on that second Peter Gabriel record. And again, the version here is vastly superior. The song is simple with just piano, Gabriel’s vocal, and just enough instrumentation to establish the mood with lyrics like “Don't be afraid to cry about what you seen, the actors gone and there is only you and me.” The arrangement is stripped bare like the emotionally raw vocal performance. Exposure in deed!