# Lodger (album)
**Lodger** is the thirteenth studio album by the English singer-songwriter [David Bowie](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-bowie), released in May 1979 on the RCA label and produced by Bowie with [Tony Visconti](https://www.edgepedia.org/tony-visconti). It is generally regarded as the concluding installment of the "Berlin Trilogy" that began with *Low* and *"Heroes"* in 1977, although it was recorded in Switzerland and New York rather than Berlin.[1](https://www.davidbowie.com/lodger) • [2](https://albumism.com/features/david-bowie-lodger-album-anniversary)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | May 1979 (May 25, 1979), RCA Records[1](https://www.davidbowie.com/lodger) • [2](https://albumism.com/features/david-bowie-lodger-album-anniversary) |
| Producers | David Bowie and Tony Visconti, with Brian Eno contributing synthesizers, tape loops, and creative direction[1](https://www.davidbowie.com/lodger) • [3](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/International-Musician-%26-Recording-World/International-Musician-1979-06.pdf) |
| Recording | Mountain Studios, Montreux, Switzerland, from August 1978 during the Isolar II tour; final sessions in New York by March 1979[2](https://albumism.com/features/david-bowie-lodger-album-anniversary) • [4](https://www.allmusic.com/album/MW0000251982) |
| Format | Ten vocal tracks of roughly three to four minutes each; no instrumentals, unlike *Low* and *"Heroes"*[5](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21476-lodger/) |
| Chart positions | Number 4 in the United Kingdom, number 20 in the United States, below both predecessor albums[6](https://bowie.wiki/en/albums/lodger-1979) |
| Working method | Eno's Oblique Strategies cards, musicians swapping instruments, and improvised or deliberately mistaken playing[2](https://albumism.com/features/david-bowie-lodger-album-anniversary) • [7](https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/44931/David-Bowie-Lodger/) |
| Later standing | Mixed reviews on release; subsequently reassessed as an undervalued album anticipating world music, post-punk, and new wave[6](https://bowie.wiki/en/albums/lodger-1979) |
## Place in the Berlin Trilogy
*Lodger* followed *Low* (January 1977) and *"Heroes"* (October 1977), the two albums Bowie made in Berlin with [Brian Eno](https://www.edgepedia.org/brian-eno) and Tony Visconti. Both predecessors shared a format of songs on one side and mostly instrumental pieces on the other. *Lodger* arrived almost two years after *"Heroes"*, the longest gap between Bowie studio releases since *Space Oddity*, and abandoned the half-instrumental format entirely.[8](https://ultimateclassicrock.com/david-bowie-lodger/) Bowie himself later noted that the lack of instrumentals gave the impression the process had changed when it had not; the sessions were, in his words, "a lot more mischievous."
The album's title track list runs: "Fantastic Voyage," "African Night Flight," "Move On," "Yassassin," "Red Sails," "D.J.," "Look Back in Anger," "Boys Keep Swinging," "Repetition," and "Red Money."[1](https://www.davidbowie.com/lodger) Most songs are credited to Bowie and Eno, with exceptions including "Move On," "Repetition," "D.J." (with Carlos Alomar), and "Red Money" (Bowie/Alomar).[1](https://www.davidbowie.com/lodger)
## Recording and method
Most of the recording took place in September 1978 at Mountain Studios in Montreux, between the European and [Far East](https://www.edgepedia.org/far-east) legs of Bowie's 1978 Isolar II world tour, with final sessions completed in New York in March 1979.[3](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/International-Musician-%26-Recording-World/International-Musician-1979-06.pdf) • [2](https://albumism.com/features/david-bowie-lodger-album-anniversary) The musicians were all members of Bowie's stage band: Carlos Alomar on rhythm guitar, [Adrian Belew](https://www.edgepedia.org/adrian-belew) on lead guitar, Dennis Davis on drums, Simon House on violin, George Murray on bass, and Sean Mayes on piano, with Eno on synthesizers and tape loops.[3](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/International-Musician-%26-Recording-World/International-Musician-1979-06.pdf)
**Experimental techniques.** Bowie assembled songs without words from fragments of instrumental music and electronic sounds, and the musicians often did not know what they were playing or what it was destined for.[3](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/International-Musician-%26-Recording-World/International-Musician-1979-06.pdf) Production under Eno's supervision incorporated [Oblique Strategies](https://www.edgepedia.org/oblique-strategies), the card-based creativity method Eno had developed with the artist [Peter Schmidt](https://www.edgepedia.org/peter-schmidt) in 1975.[2](https://albumism.com/features/david-bowie-lodger-album-anniversary) Bowie and Eno also staged what Bowie called "art pranks": musicians were told to play accidentally, without a backing track or vocals, and on "Move On" the studio musicians were instructed to swap instruments with each other.[7](https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/44931/David-Bowie-Lodger/) • [2](https://albumism.com/features/david-bowie-lodger-album-anniversary) Bowie later recalled that the backward tape of "All the Young Dudes" used on "Move On" came from playing a reel-to-reel tape backwards by mistake; he liked the melody it produced and tried several more tapes that way, with "Dudes" the only one to make the album.[9](https://www.davidbowie.com/blog/2017/9/13/anciant-album-focus-lodger)
## Music and themes
The album blends punk, funk, world-music textures, and avant-garde experimentation into a set of concise songs, a musical travelogue reflecting themes of travel, displacement, and cultural dislocation.[2](https://albumism.com/features/david-bowie-lodger-album-anniversary) "Yassassin" moves into reggae and near-Eastern tonalities, and "African Night Flight" carries nebulously exotic "world" sounds; Bowie said that song was inspired by a trip to Kenya, where he met old German pilots who spent most of their time drinking and the rest committing profitable crime in the bush.[5](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21476-lodger/) "Red Sails" channels the motorik (steady, driving 4/4 beat of German rock) rhythms of German Krautrock, while "Look Back in Anger," taking its title from [John Osborne](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-osborne)'s play, is one of the album's most conventionally structured rock performances.[6](https://bowie.wiki/en/albums/lodger-1979)
Several songs drew on contemporary reference points. "D.J." is a vocal impression of David Byrne of Talking Heads, carrying Bowie's cynical thoughts about disco, and is elevated by an Adrian Belew guitar solo.[5](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21476-lodger/) • [2](https://albumism.com/features/david-bowie-lodger-album-anniversary) "Boys Keep Swinging," which Bowie wrote after listening to the [Village People](https://www.edgepedia.org/village-people), sounds a little like that group but less secure in its sexuality.[5](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21476-lodger/) "Red Money" adapted the instrumental backing from an [Iggy Pop](https://www.edgepedia.org/iggy-pop) composition that Bowie had co-written and produced.[6](https://bowie.wiki/en/albums/lodger-1979) The album's one moment of darkness, in one retrospective account, is "Repetition," a song about domestic abuse.[4](https://www.allmusic.com/album/MW0000251982)
## Reception and reassessment
On release, *Lodger* received a mixed critical response. Reviewers struggled to place it in the narrative arc of its predecessors, finding it less immediately striking than *Low*'s formal innovations or *"Heroes"*'s emotional grandeur, and its more diffuse, eclectic character resisted the dramatic reading audiences expected.[6](https://bowie.wiki/en/albums/lodger-1979) Commercially it reached number 4 in the UK and number 20 in the US, respectable figures that nonetheless placed it below both trilogy albums.[6](https://bowie.wiki/en/albums/lodger-1979) It has often been painted as the weakest installment of the [Berlin Trilogy](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-trilogy), though some critics and artists have warmed to it over time.[8](https://ultimateclassicrock.com/david-bowie-lodger/)
**Later reassessment.** Musicians and critics of later generations came to view *Lodger* as a forward-looking, underrated work, one that foreshadowed trends in world music, post-punk, and new wave long before those genres reached the mainstream.[6](https://bowie.wiki/en/albums/lodger-1979) AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine calls it the most accessible of the three Berlin-era records, since it contains no instrumentals and several concise pop songs, yet remains gnarled avant pop that incorporates experimental tendencies into genuine songs.[4](https://www.allmusic.com/album/MW0000251982) Eno's influence carried forward from the album: the LP served as a launching pad for his later work, including his collaboration with [David Byrne](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-byrne) on *My Life in the Bush of Ghosts* (1981), and its influence can be heard in his production of [Talking Heads](https://www.edgepedia.org/talking-heads)' *Remain in Light* (1980).[2](https://albumism.com/features/david-bowie-lodger-album-anniversary)
Bowie himself acknowledged the album's shortcomings in mixing while defending its ideas. In an unpublished interview with *UNCUT*, he said that he and Visconti "didn't take enough care mixing," partly because he was distracted by personal events, but maintained that "there are a number of really important ideas on Lodger."[9](https://www.davidbowie.com/blog/2017/9/13/anciant-album-focus-lodger) Visconti, the only collaborator to call the third part of the trilogy the best of the three, remixed the album for a 2017 reissue, aiming to bring out more harmonies and percussion; he began the work while he and Bowie were making *Blackstar*.[10](https://www.rollingstone.de/david-bowie-lodger-unterschaetzte-alben-2172017/) • [11](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/Pro-Sound/2018/ProSound-2018-05.pdf)
## References
1. [Lodger, David Bowie official site](https://www.davidbowie.com/lodger)
2. [David Bowie's 'Lodger' Turns 45 | Album Anniversary, Albumism](https://albumism.com/features/david-bowie-lodger-album-anniversary)
3. [In the studio with Bowie, by his piano player, Recording World (June 1979)](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/International-Musician-%26-Recording-World/International-Musician-1979-06.pdf)
4. [Lodger, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/album/MW0000251982)
5. [David Bowie: Lodger Album Review, Pitchfork](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21476-lodger/)
6. [Lodger (1979): Bowie's World Music Experiment, Bowie Wiki](https://bowie.wiki/en/albums/lodger-1979)
7. [David Bowie - Lodger, Sputnikmusic review](https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/44931/David-Bowie-Lodger/)
8. [Revisiting David Bowie's Last Berlin Trilogy Album, 'Lodger', Ultimate Classic Rock](https://ultimateclassicrock.com/david-bowie-lodger/)
9. [ANCIANT Album Focus: Lodger, David Bowie official site](https://www.davidbowie.com/blog/2017/9/13/anciant-album-focus-lodger)
10. [Die meistunterschätzten Alben aller Zeiten: David Bowie – „Lodger", Rolling Stone (Germany)](https://www.rollingstone.de/david-bowie-lodger-unterschaetzte-alben-2172017/)
11. [soundRECORDING interview with Tony Visconti, ProSound (May 2018)](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/Pro-Sound/2018/ProSound-2018-05.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical works and recordings › Albums and recorded releases › Studio albums › Progressive and art rock albums › Art rock and art pop albums*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license