Red Sails - Release and Aftermath

Release and Aftermath

Lodger received relatively poor reviews on its original release, Rolling Stone calling it "one of his weakest... scattered, a footnote to "Heroes", an act of marking time", and Melody Maker finding it "slightly faceless". It was also criticised for having a thinner, muddier mix than Bowie's previous albums. Lodger peaked at #4 in the UK charts and #20 in the US at a time when the artist was being "out-Bowied" commercially by his New Wave "children" such as Gary Numan.

Soon after its release, Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray predicted that Lodger would "have to 'grow in potency' over a few years, but eventually it will be accepted as one of Bowie's most complex and rewarding projects". While biographer Christopher Sandford calls it a "slick, calculatedly disposable record", author David Buckley contends that "its stature grows with each passing year", and Nicholas Pegg sums up, "undervalued and obscure practically from the moment of its release, its critical re-evaluation is long overdue". Electronica/techno artist Moby would later state that the only reason he got his first job (as a golf caddy) was so that he could afford to buy Lodger, which had just come out. Built to Spill would reference the album in their song "Distopian Dream Girl" off of their 1994 album There's Nothing Wrong With Love.