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The original column was published on December 29th, 2018 and can be found below.

In the eventthat this fantastic voyageShould turn to erosion and we never get oldRemember it's true, dignity is valuableBut our lives are valuable too

Here we go! We're at the end of Bowie's Berlin trilogy. We started with Low, continued with "Heroes," and now we're finishing up with Lodger. I'll be back to monthly after this, so I'm excited to see where I end up in January.

Full disclosure, right up front. I don't have nearly as much of an attachment to Lodger as I do Low and "Heroes." Don't get me wrong, it's a good album. For sure. It just doesn't have as grandiose of a thesis as the last two. It kind of wanders and is a bit all over the place. But that's why it works for me. When you're going through a transitional period, you can't always end up in a clear, concise, and obvious place of growth. You usually just end up "here." And you usually can't tell where here is until you're already... somewhere else. But it's important to remember how you got "here." Even when that trip was a rough one, it's still, as Bowie calls it, a "Fantastic Voyage."

But any sudden movement I've got to write it downThey wipe out an entire race and I've got to write it downBut I'm still getting educated but I've got to write it downAnd it won't be forgotten'Cause I'll never say anything nice again, how can I?

We're learning to live with somebody's depressionAnd I don't want to live with somebody's depressionWe'll get by, I suppose

There's a lot of interesting directions Bowie and Eno choose to take on their final (for now) collaboration. Songs like "African Night Flight" and "Yassassin" pick up where the final song on "Heroes," "The Secret Life Of Arabia" left off, with Bowie and Eno experimenting with world music. These serve as the most diverse songs on the record, which doesn't feature any of the ambitious atmospheric instrumental pieces the last two albums featured. I don't have a whole lot to say about them, but these serve to define the eclectic and meandering style of the record. Coupled with the German influenced "Red Sails," this record really feels like Bowie wandering around the world trying to find the next musical outlet to call "here." In case the diverse styles aren't enough to convince us of this, here's Bowie on "Move On."

Sometimes I feel the need to move onSo I pack a bag and move onWell I might take a train or sail at dawnMight take a girl when I move on

Somewhere, someone's calling meAnd when the chips are downI stumble like a blind manCan't forget you

The second side of the album is more focused and thematically driven. After establishing that Bowie can do whatever he wants on Side A, Side B is all about expectations and what those restrictions can do to people. Now that Bowie has broken out of the standards he's set on his own records, it's time to explore just what that kind of pressure can do when you *can't* break free of it, in four different acts.

First, in "Look Back In Anger," we see the set up. No matter where the pressure is coming from, we can so often only get mad and just wait for it to reach a tipping point.

Then "Boys Keep Swinging." What about privilege? Can these societal pressures benefit some of us? Is it fair? What's the downside to that?

Heaven loves ya, The clouds part for ya, Nothing stands in your wayWhen you're a boyClothes always fit ya, Life is a pop of the cherryWhen you're a boyUncage the colors, Unfurl the flag, Luck just kissed you helloWhen you're a boyLearn to drive and everything, You'll get your shareWhen you're a boy

Well, the downside is for the people that tell those boys no. Nothing's ever their fault, everyone else is just getting in their way. When someone is expected to be handed everything, over and over again, how does that person confront people that say no? Usually pretty poorly, as he lays out in "Repetition."

He'll get home around seven'Cause the chevy's real oldAnd he could have had a cadillacIf the school had taught him rightAnd he could have married Anne with the blue silk blouseAnd the food is on the tableBut 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 manAnd he's bigger than herI guess the bruises won't show If she wears long sleevesBut the space in her eyes shows throughAnd he could have married Anne with the blue silk blouseShows through

And finally, he concludes the album, and this theme with "Red Money."

Oh, can you feel it in the wayThat a man is not a man?Can you see it in the skyThat the landscape is too high?Like a nervous diseaseAnd it's been there all alongIt will tumble from the skyIt's been there all alongProject cancelledTumbling centralRed moneyCan you hear it fallCan you hear it wellCan you hear it at all  

Lodger is a complicated album. Sure, it's use of world music, and hooks helped influence so many musicians for decades to come, but at the time it was met with a pretty middle of the road response. But I think that's fitting. After the masterpieces of Low and "Heroes," expectations couldn't be higher for a listener going in to Lodger. And what do you find? Wandering through different styles, grasping to see what works or what resonates with an artist in limbo. I've heard it described as a thesis-less album, but what if that's the point? Aren't we all unfocused, thesis-less people until we move on and someone decides what our "defining" thesis was? Sometimes we get the honor of deciding, but more often than not, it's just the imprint that we left on someone else that actually matters. We're all just different stages of put together as we fall sloppily through someone else's idea of a narrative. If Lodger is about anything, it's about the struggle of finding the balance of who you are, how society helped create that person, and how hard it is to overcome those expectations. There's no clear answer, within the record or within ourselves, but at least the record ends with a hopeful: