https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsELFp6s-lo Punk in the United Kingdom circa 1977 was as prominent as any cultural movement. It was so of-the-moment that Bowie's avant-garde release bewildered fans and critics alike. It is true to say that side one contains punk sensibilities (most notably in 'Breaking Glass'), but the aesthetic is far more progressive and prismatic. Rather than acting as an ode to punk, 'Low' questions the movement by gradually transforming its sensibilities into something most of Bowie's audience had never heard before. Side one is at its most experimental between 'Sound and Vision' and 'Always Crashing in the Same Car' as guitar and synth are beautifully woven together by producer Tony Visconti. The cavernous snare sound was revolutionary, and its presence becomes crucial at moodier moments, of which there are plenty. Music rarely reaches moments so stirring as Bowie's pained cries, or Ricky Gardiner's ensuing guitar solo at the end of 'Always Crashing in the Same Car'. Side two draws ostensible influence from Krautrock and Brian Eno's ambient music, but Bowie's genius has always been in his eclecticism and willingness to run with sideways-thinking fledgling ideas. The instrumental half of the album is a journey in itself, meandering from the curious optimism of 'A New Career in a New Town', through the bleakness of 'Warszawa', to the disorientating lament of 'Weeping Wall'. The album draws to a longing and desperate end with Bowie's evocative saxophone in 'Subterraneans'. Despite the album's aesthetic shifts, 'Low' holds together perfectly as an individual entity, and represents perhaps Bowie's sharpest and most important turn from the mainstream.