This might not hold up under too much scrutiny, but it always felt to me like a lot of the veteran big rock acts working around that time (I’m thinking Bowie/U2/REM, maybe even Prince to an extent) had a spell in the mid to late 90s where they pushed into a more electronically-influenced sound, maybe caught up in some millennium/internet fever.
And whether critically or commercially, on some level it didn’t quite work, and in the early 2000s there was a big “return to form” push from those acts and their labels - big lead singles that heralded a return to a more classic sound, lots of promo, talk show appearances, big tours, the lot. Reality probably fits the bill for Bowie in this category better than Heathen does, but Heathen was the start of it for him.
Of course, these albums weren’t really a return to some classic sound because they weren’t really like what they’d done before, but it did see them re-enter the Q Magazine five star review world and sort of properly have the elder statesmen role conferred upon them.
Heathen is good though, and probably slightly too weird to really be in that category I’ve just described (but like I say, Reality is probably the one that fits best).
I def think the production and how the (late 90s/early 2000s) electronics intertwines with the more trad elements is very Up-esque on this Bowie run from Hours to Reality. I like Up so I wonder if that’s why I like this Bowie era more than the Outside/Earthling era.
I was about to make a joke about flexing like a whore and wanking on the floor, but I’ve just checked the lyrics for Cactus and apparently the line is ‘sitting here wishing on a cement floor’ so I’ve been hearing that wrong for years
The Velvet Underground & Nico – The Velvet Underground
Tupelo Blues – John Lee Hooker
Blues, Rags and Hollers – Koerner, Ray and Glover
The Apollo Theatre Presents: In Person! The James Brown Show – James Brown
Forces of Victory – Linton Kwesi Johnson
The Red Flower of Tachai Blossoms Everywhere: Music Played on National Instruments – Various Artists
Banana Moon – Daevid Allen
Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris – Cast Album
The Electrosoniks: Electronic Music – Tom Dissevelt
The 5000 Spirits of the Layers of the Onion – The Incredible String Band
Ten Songs by Tucker Zimmerman – Tucker Zimmerman
Four Last Songs (Strauss) – Gundula Janowitz
The Ascension – Glenn Branca
The Madcap Laughs – Syd Barrett
Black Angels – George Crumb
Funky Kingston – Toots & The Maytals
Delusion of the Fury – Harry Partch
Oh Yeah – Charles Mingus
Le Sacre du Printemps – Igor Stravinsky
The Fugs – The Fugs
The Glory of the Human Voice – Florence Foster Jenkins
EDIT : sorry this is actually 2003 so let’s hold off until we do reality THEN we do these THEN we return to Next Day
EDIT 2: that 6 month break will help simulate the 10 year break between Reality & TND
100% mentioned this on here before (doesn’t usually stop me), but this is around the time I saw him live for the only time, at Old Trafford Cricket Ground. Suede were the support and it absolutely hammered down with rain whilst they were on so we hid under the stands. It then cleared away, the sun came out, Bowie came on and opened with ‘Life on Mars’. It was, and still is kind of magical, and I’m so happy I got to see him live. He did a few off Heathen looking at the setlist, still like ‘Everyone says Hi’ as a nice pop song, and the ‘Cactus’ cover was great live from memory, ended with Ziggy as well which was brilliant.
I have no need for it given I’m pretty sure I have all the tracks off the official release across my collection but boy would I love to own one of the original 150 private release versions.
Does contain Crystal Japan, which earned him a co-write on A Warm Place by NIN (possibly the most gorgeous piece of music ever recorded), so worth existing for that alone
I assume like a lot of people, Heathen was my first introduction to Bowie as a contemporary figure, rather than the guy whose Greatest Hits from the 70s/80s was really good.
I enjoyed it at the time, and I think it holds up. A few of the synth sounds etc date it a bit, but the best material (e.g. Slip Away) stands up with the best of his late-era work, and even the less essential tracks still have a sense of fun and adventure that I think was missing on a lot of his similarly mature-sounding work from the early 90s. Having Visconti back seems to have reinvigorated him.
Lot of enjoyable stuff happening with the drums in particular, and it did strike me just how much his voice elevates so many of the songs, Slow Burn stands out for that. He sounds older, but there’s a richness to it.
“Sailing over Coney Island…”, love that line, really into 5:15 Angels Have Gone too. Lots I really like about this tbh, and it feels like even though it’s not his most ambitious work, it’s the platform for the final stage of his career.
My thoughts exactly, down to the bit about it being the first “new” Bowie album I was aware of. “Heathen” is just a really solid collection of songs rather than a crazy genre exploration or concept album, with an elder-statesman sheen. Think it really holds up too.
“Toy” was laughably bad I’m afraid, I had to skip ahead to the next album after four songs. There’s a reason the record label wouldn’t let you release this one Dave!
