Musically, "Station to Station" was a transitional album for Bowie, developing the funk and soul music of his previous release, "Young Americans", while presenting a new direction influenced by German bands such as Neu! and Kraftwerk. The album's lyrics reflected his preoccupations with Friedrich Nietzsche, Aleister Crowley, mythology and religion. Drawing on funk and krautrock, romantic balladry and occultism, "Station to Station" has been described as "simultaneously one of Bowie's most accessible albums and his most impenetrable". Bowie himself said that "Station to Station" was "a plea to come back to Europe for me".