The theme that unites these songs is one of "psychotic withdrawl". Bowie fled his rock stardom and holed up in Berlin, spending a lot of time in his room. And the songs are portraits of a man immersing himself and wallowing in his own alienation. There was always a schizophrenia at work in Bowies personality. perhaps most obviously on Aladdin Sane where he seems to be addressing it in the song Cracked Actor. And he obviously had a problem or a love hate relationship with Fame. So it isn't that surprising I suppose that he was always on the brink of reaching his breaking point. Low's string of songs feel like broken fragments of songs. One song is literally about broken shards, "Breaking Glass...in my room again". "Always Crashing in the Same Car", the same idea expressed a little differently. "Sound and Vision" is an attractive song as is "Speed of Life" and "Be My Wife". All show Bowie searching among the ruin for something to build from.  The wreckage of the first portion of the disc gives way to the very heavy atmospheres of the instrumentals. "Warsawa" sounds like a monastic chant but a space age one. The instrumentals are accomplished and Bowies wailing in some of them sounds like a kind of scream therapy among Enos post war European soundscapes. Spiritual searching and longing in stark atmospheres elaborates the alienation theme without the use of words. It is powerful. Interesting choice of cover art and the second cover in a row borrowed from movie stills. In The Man Who Fell To Earth the  Bowie character goes into a record store at one point and listens to a recording on ear phones. I think it is possible that is the moment this disc was born.