This is the album that could have been but wasn't. In the late 70s, Bowie moved to Berlin to change everything about his life. This would very much include his music. Holing up in the studio for a series of albums with Eno as co-conspirator, great things seemed possible (in retrospect, anyway). However, on this album, Bowie doesn't deliver the goods. Famous in the 70s for entering the studio with just ideas, then crafting songs on the spot with the musicians brought in for the sessions, Bowie's quality control (which to this point had been excellent) failed on Low. There is just no quality material for Eno to work with here (check out the lyrics on "Be My Wife"....Bowie previsously would never had released such trite stuff). Eno certainly did his part--all the refreshing and unique production and synth techniques that made his "Here Come the Warm Jets" such a fantastic album years earlier are present all over Low. But, where on "Here Come the Warm Jets" these techniques were coupled with equally interesting musical ideas and lyrics, on Low it's all sauce and no entree. Eno can't be blamed for this....the "artist" needs to come in with something, and side one of this album clearly shows that Bowie had nothing more than a desire to do something radically different from his previous work. That is a noble idea, but then you've got to back it up. He failed to do that here. By side two, Eno is left to carry the ball on an album that is supposed to be Bowie's--no doubt an uncomfortable position to be in (though these side two "Eno tracks" are pretty good electronic music). It may be that the Low sessions were an invaluable experience for Bowie to go through, because they gave him ideas that coalesced in later works, but that doesn't make the album itself any better.