Search - David Bowie :: "Heroes"

The second disc in the late-'70s Bowie/Eno trilogy, Heroes essentially repeats the form of Low--half rock songs with darkly cryptic lyrics and bizarre mixes, half foreboding instrumentals--but the songs are better realized (especially the weirdly dramatic title track) and the non-songs are more richly textured. The album's tone is muffled and desperate, like screams from the next room. As on Low, Bowie plays hide-and-seek with his slithery voice: songs have backing vocals and nothing more, or shift into German and French, or never quite move past an introduction. Eno's treatments make the instruments sound gluey and sluggish, especially in the proto-ambient second half of the album. This is mood music for an execution day. --Douglas Wolk