David Bowie | Heathen

The new David Bowie CD is good! I fell for the 1999 hype of Hours . . . and found all of that talk about a return to his early-seventies-type of quality/style to be unjustified. (Not that I think a creative force like Bowie would necessarily have to return to somewhere in his past to do something credible/incredible.) Nevertheless, the similar talk regarding Heathen made me skeptical. Surprise! It really is a slight return to the writing (chord progressions) of that era and is even quite an emotionally convincing record. I've followed Bowie through a lot of releases and even did a lot of listening to 1. Outside (probably the darkest album ever released by a well-known artist, including Lou Reed's Berlin.) Bowie said in one of the many recent interviews that he wound up using his own playing for a lot of Heathen and (along with his teaming up with producer/bassist Tony Visconti again) I think it accounts for some of the believability here. More important, the material is good and sometimes great. He's lost some top end on his voice (how old is he now?), but still sounds like one of the best. His (one-sided) conversations with God ("I Would Be Your Slave" and "A Better Future") are funny, sad, and likeably personal.
The excellent "Afraid" should have been the first single. He actually sounds like a real friend on "Everyone Says Hi."

It's been weird to watch a person as talented and intelligent as David Bowie artistically searching (with very mixed results) from record to record (Never Let Me Down, Tin Machine, Tin Machine II, Black Tie White Noise, 1. Outside, Earthling, Hours...). It's a lot better than weird to see him release something as good as Heathen.

By the way, I wonder if David ever heard "Loophole" by the Royal Coachmen (which happens to be on the new Lost Legends of Surf Guitar now out on Sundazed). The opening chords bear a striking resemblance to "I Would Be Your Slave."

Originally posted to SteveForbert.com in September 2002.