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The beginning of Lodger (third album with Eno) is quite unsuspecting: Fantastic Voyage, with romantic mandolins and a somewhat retro nursery rhyme vibe, seems like a subdued introduction and doesn't hint at anything of what is to transpire shortly.
But then African Night Flight immediately arrives to shuffle the deck; under the guise of a possessed tongue twister, the coordinates of a sound teetering between jungle-techno experiments and nervous Western rock are immediately laid out... Meanwhile, Byrne takes notes.
Move On appears almost acoustic with strange choruses and a deep baritone voice for a melody that rises in an emphatic and desperate crescendo in the best Bowie style and is enriched at the end with distortions and a heart-wrenching piano (speaking of experiments and various ambiguities, it seems that Move On was born from playing the tapes of All The Young Dudes backward).
The journey continues with a Yassassin that makes a stop in a parallel universe where reggae is played in Turkey, while in the interdimensional portal of Red Sails, an attempt is made to distill a new wave essence by crossing a lively somewhat Chinese melody with the motoristic rhythm of Neu!
Do you have a conflicted relationship with disco music? There’s nothing better than that indecipherable ambiguity that is D.J. Once the concoction enters your system, there's nothing left for you to do but follow like zombies the ambiguous and disturbed rhythm, Belew's impossible guitar, and Simon House's spoiled mellotron.
David (Jones), I'm only dancing!!!
"You Know Who I Am - he said!" We don't know if the one speaking was truly an angel or a devil or some other ghost, but we would love for this figure to visit Bowie again and inspire him today to write such absolutely memorable pieces like Look Back In Anger! Torrential percussion, perverse singing, and icy synth blasts for a breathless race from station to station in the company of Cristiane F. and her playmates.
To recover, it would take a nice cheeky and frivolous boogie like the ones they used to make. It would seem like dear old rock'n'roll that of Boys Keep Swinging, if it weren't for the slightly skewed cadence (the guitarist on drums and the drummer on bass, let's see what happens), and for the crosswise dissonances of Belew-House. Almost an acid sweet made with DNA from Heroes (the shoegazers of about fifteen years later thank them).
"An error repeated three times becomes an arrangement", if we then repeat it throughout an entire track, we have Repetition: a semi-apocryphal Devo in an unpublished circular and narcotic atmosphere punctuated by a rubbery hiccup and the off-key notes of the inevitable electric violin.
End of the project and return home: Red Money or returning to one's initial steps and those of someone else (Iggy thanks for Sister Midnight), in the face of those who say that rock is an eternal recycling.
After so much obliqueness, there is nothing left but to take a photo postcard as proof of one's disintegration and send it to oneself or what's left of oneself.
Before Terrifying Monsters come knocking at the door.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Fantastic Voyage (02:58)
In the event that this fantastic voyage
Should turn to erosion and we never get old
Remember it's true, dignity is valuable
But our lives are valuable, too.
We're learning to live with somebody's depression
And I don't want to live with somebody's depression
We'll get by, I suppose
It's a very modern world, but nobody's perfect
It's a moving world, but that's no reason
to shoot some of those missiles
Think of us as fatherless scum
It won't be forgotten
'Cause we'll never say anything nice again, will we?
And the wrong words make you listen
In this criminal world
Remember it's true, a loyalty is valuable
But our lives are valuable, too.
We're learning to live with somebody's depression
And I don't want to live with somebody's depression
We'll get by, I suppose
But any sudden movement and I've got to write it down
They wipe out an entire race and I've got to write it down
But I'm still getting educated but I've got to write it down
And it won't be forgotten
'Cause I'll never say anything nice again, how can I?
06 D.J. (04:02)
Bowie music by David Bowie, Brian Eno and Carlos Alomar
I'm home, lost my job, and incurably ill
You think this is easy, realism
I've got a girl out there, I suppose
I think she's dancing
Feel like Dan Dare lies down
I think she's dancing, what do I know?
I am a D.J., I am what I play
Can't turn around no, can't turn around, no, oh, ooh
I am a D.J., I am what I play
Can't turn around no, can't turn around, no, oh no
I am a D.J., I am what I play
I got believers (kiss-kiss)
Believing me, oh
One more, weekend, of lights and evening faces
Fast food, living nostalgia
Humble pie or bitter fruit
I am a D.J., I am what I play
Can't turn around no, can't turn around no, ooh
I am a D.J., I am what I say
Can't turn around no, can't turn around, ooh
I am a D.J., I am what I play
I've got believers (kiss-kiss)
Believing me
I am a D.J., I am what I play
Can't turn around no, can't turn around
I am a D.J., I am what I play
Can't turn around no, can't turn around
I am a D.J., I am what I play
Can turn around no (kiss-kiss)
Time flies when you're having fun
Break his heart, break her heart
He used to be my boss and millions of puppet dancer
I am a D.J., and I've got believers
I've got believers
I've got believers
I've got believers in me
I've got believers
I am a D.J., I am what I play
I am a D.J.
07 Look Back in Anger (03:10)
You know who I am, he said
The speaker was an angel
He coughed and shook his crumpled wings
Closed his eyes and moved his lips
It's time we should be going
(Waiting so long, I've been waiting so, waiting so)
Look back in anger, driven by the night
Till you come
(Waiting so long, I've been waiting so, waiting so)
Look back in anger, see it in my eyes
Till you come
No one seemed to hear him
So he leafed through a magazine
And, yawning, rubbed the sleep away
Very sane he seemed to me
(Waiting so long, I've been waiting so, waiting so)
Look back in anger, driven by the night
Till you come
(Waiting so long, I've been waiting so, waiting so)
Look back in anger, feel it in my voice
Till you come
(Waiting so long, ahhh...)
(Waiting so long, I've been waiting so, waiting so) (Waiting so long, I've been waiting so, waiting so)
(Waiting so long, ahhh...)
08 Boys Keep Swinging (03:19)
1.2.3.4
Heaven loves ya
The clouds part for ya
Nothing stands in your way
When you're a boy
Clothes always fit ya
Life is a pop of the cherry
When you're a boy
When you're a boy
You can wear a uniform
When you're a boy
Other boys check you out
You get a girl
These are your favourite things
When you're a boy
Boys
Boys
Boys keep swinging
Boys always work it out
Uncage the colours
Unfurl the flag
Luck just kissed you hello
When you're a boy
They'll never clone ya
You're always first on the line
When you're a boy
When you're a boy
You can buy a home of your own
When you're a boy
Learn to drive and everything
You'll get your share
When you're a boy
Boys
Boys
Boys keep swinging
Boys always work it out
09 Repetition (03:01)
Johnny is a man
And he's bigger than you
But his overheads are high
And he looks straight through when you ask him how the kids are
He'll get home around seven
'Cause the chevy's real old
And he could have had a cadillac
If the school had taught him right
And he could have married Anne with the blue silk blouse
He could have married Anne with the blue silk blouse
And the food is on the table
But the food is cold
Don't hit her
"Can't you even cook?
What's the good of me working when you can't damn cook?"
Well Johnny is a man
And he's bigger than her
I guess the bruises won't show
If she wears long sleeves
But the space in her eyes shows through
And he could have married Anne with the blue silk blouse
He could have married Anne with the blue silk blouse
Shows through
Shows through
Shows through
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Other reviews
By Dune Buggy
Lodger is a new turning point, another escape, even more extreme than Heroes.
This CD is a fantastic journey because among the ethnic insertions we find the nocturnal and extremely fast exotic delirium of African Night Flight or the Turkish reggae of Yassassin.
