Artist: David Bowie
Album: Heathen
Release Date: 2002
Wow, what a pleasant surprise! Truth be told, I haven't had much use for David Bowie's albums since Scary Monsters, so when my wife bought me this back in 2002 for my birthday I pleasantly smiled, said 'thank you' and filed it away in my music library.
On a whim last weekend I pulled it out and was really overjoyed with what I heard. This album really is pretty damn good! Reteaming with producer Tony Visconti seems to bring out the best in Bowie. The songs and sound are classic 70's Bowie with enough modern production updates to make the album 'current'. Virtually every track on here will remind you of one from his Eno/ Berlin period and even as far back as Hunky Dory and Ziggy!
Is he pandering a bit? For certain, but who gives a crap? Pretty much everything he has done since 1981 has been garbage, so I'll take this album and run with it just the way it is, thank you very much! He was so good back in the day and this album's biggest asset is that it makes you want to pull out all your old Bowie records and listen to them all in one sitting.
Highly recommended.
1 hour ago
4 comments:
I dig this album too. Although I am also a big fan of the wonderfully cheesy Labyrinth soundtrack, so some might question my advice when it comes to Bowie records.
Ah, don't worry Frank! There were some pretty fantastic tunes underneath those cheesy synth riffs.
I would say that Heathen is one of Bowie's best albums, definitely on the same level as his 70's classics. Personally, I think Bowie's work has been pretty strong from 1993-95 on, but Heathen was the album where it all came together again, and I think Tony Visconti was a big part of that. Reality, the follow-up to Heathen, is also very, very good. It's too bad Bowie hasn't done anything since Reality.
Thanks for the comment, Mark. I may just have to plunk down some cake for Reality this week, something unthinkable before I 'discovered' Heathen.
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