Search - :: Heathen

Michelle D. from HAMPDEN, ME
Reviewed on 2/16/2021...

By David Bowie.
I like the seventies Bowie (Ziggy,Aladdin, Diamond) more than 2000's Bowie (Heathen, Blackstar, Next Day) but I still liked this. I would recommend it.

Pretty good, especially for a middle-aged rocker

finulanu | Here, there, and everywhere | 02/14/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"So David goes retro, setting the clock back to the '70s - "Slip Away" almost retains the spirit of "Life on Mars?" - but keeping another foot firmly in 2002, which makes the album seem anachronistic and up-to-date at once. The choices of covers (an uneventful but far from bad version of the Pixies' "Cactus"; Neil Young's "I've Been Waiting for You", transformed from a nice love ballad into a roaring, Ziggy Stardust-like rocker with Dave Grohl on not drums, but guitar), and the half old-school, half up-to-date production on this album furthers this theory. "Sunday" combines both approaches, starting as a cold, emotionless ballad and moving to an aching climax (a la "Five Years"), while "Slow Burn" and "Afraid" have the heavy guitars, pounding pianos, brass, operatic vocals and Orwellian lyrics of Diamond Dogs, but with a distinctively modern sheen in the production. It works out very well for the guy, too, because he hasn't lost any ground whatsoever as a songwriter, spinning out hook after hook after hook with clever lyrics about the ups and downs of getting old. He really blows it on the slow, stoic "I Would Be Your Slave" and on the "spacey" "I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship" - two attempts to carry songs on production alone. But when he matches the production with good songwriting and interesting structure, as on "5:15 The Angels Have Come" (think that's a Who tribue?), that's something different entirely. He also makes it work on "Everybody Says `Hi'", because he does very interesting stuff with all of those synthesizers. The record's just a couple missteps away from being a classic (the overblown title track), and I'd definitely call this a late-career milestone - I'd call it a return to form if it weren't for the fact that I haven't heard any other of his recent albums."

Good for Latter Day Bowie

Savona | Metro Detroit | 04/14/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Someone actually wrote a review and said this is as good as "Heroes", which is ridiculous. Not that this is a bad album, it's not. But "Heroes" happens to be one of my favorite Bowie albums, and this frankly doesn't compare. In fact, I don't know how anyone can rate anything past Scary Monsters with 5 stars. That being said, I like this album. I believe this may be some of his best work since 1980. People soon forget how influential, experimental, and possibly ground-breaking Bowie's 70's work was, that they await another album of that calibur. It is very rare that any artist has a stretch of "important" music as long as Bowie's was. Accept it, he probably will not make another album as good as Scary Monsters or prior.

So, if you are a Bowie fan, you will like this album. I personally wish this album was more ambient or post-rock sounding. This album is much better than 'hours...'"