Berlin Trilogy UK top five. Bowie would later call the music of the trilogy his "DNA". "Consequence of Sound" characterized the trilogy as an "art rock trifecta", while "Rolling Stone" wrote that the Berlin Trilogy "stands as some of the most innovative music in the artist's influential canon". Following Bowie's Thin White Duke period and the commercial success of the singles "Fame" and "Golden Years" in 1976, he was eager to escape the drug culture of Los Angeles, where he had developed a cocaine addiction. He had also become embroiled in controversy regarding comments he made seemingly in favour of fascism. He
Berlin Trilogy on the album started before Bowie's own "Low", Pop's "The Idiot" is often referred to as the unofficial beginning of Bowie's Berlin period, though the two albums were recorded almost concurrently. The album "Low" (1977) was recorded as Bowie grappled with difficult personal issues, including a troubled marriage and drug dependence: "There's oodles of pain in the "Low" album. That was my first attempt to kick cocaine, so that was an awful lot of pain. And I moved to Berlin to do it. I moved out of the coke centre of the world ["i.e.", Los Angeles] into the smack centre