David Bowie – ‘Heathen’
A career as lengthy and varied as that of David Bowie was bound to contain peaks and troughs. After a slow rise to fame and glory as the quintessential glam star, Bowie stormed restlessly through stylistic changes both musically and aesthetically. Following his most potent spell in the 1970s, Bowie sacrificed his artistic edge in favour of a more radio-friendly pop sound – the Starman’s self-confessed “Phil Collins years”.
Following an artistically unbalanced run through the late 1980s and ’90s, Bowie released his 23rd studio album, Heathen. The album is a significant return to form, boasting some of his most artistically engaging content since the late 1970s. Heathen continues Bowie’s zany post-1980s divergence from pop, allowing sinister spiritual anxieties to pervade.
The title, Heathen, denotes the ruthless material within. “I think one of the subtexts for the word ‘heathen’ is one that is barbaric or Philistine,” Bowie said of the album in The Complete David Bowie. “The idea of the iconoclastic pieces in it, like the ripping of paintings and destruction of religious things.”
Meanwhile, the album’s artwork presents a grey Bowie in a trance-like state, like a still from a 1980s sci-fi horror movie. This distressing exposure signifies things to come as we explore the album’s gritty contents. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the birth of his daughter Alexandria Zahra Jones, Bowie felt compelled to translate his inner contortions of existential dread and outward anxieties for the future.
Although Bowie was a man of stagemanship, the boon of ‘Let’s Dance’ and fonder memories, he was also no stranger to grim rumination. Threads of existential dread run throughout this album, surfacing most profoundly in ‘Sunday’, ‘Afraid’ and ‘Heathen (The Rays)’. The first of these opens the album fittingly on the final day of the week with a foreboding tone of desperation. Bowie sings: “Nothing remains/We could run when the rain slows/Look for the cars or signs of life”. As the track progresses, gently uplifting synth textures juxtapose with the introduction of the record’s post-apocalyptic aura.
Bowie was always partial to a cover. His 1973 album, Pin Ups, can attest to this, but elsewhere, he transformed other artists’ lyrics amid his own material to great effect. For the Heathen project, he offers up three covers: Pixies’ ‘Cactus’, Neil Young’s ‘I’ve Been Waiting for You’ and Legendary Stardust Cowboy’s ‘I Took a Trip (On a Gemini Spaceship)’.
The covers are well-placed, adding to the overall theme of the album. Frank Black’s lyrics in ‘Cactus’ especially display the album’s characteristic wry humour with a healthy dose of morbid tension and anxiety. Later, ‘I Took a Trip (On a Gemini Spaceship)’ taps into the album’s latent dystopian edge with a hint of sci-fi oddity while bringing an obscure classic under the spotlight in a vibrant, drum and bass-inspired incarnation.
Of the album’s three singles, ‘Everyone Says ‘Hi” brought the most uplifting yet lyrically banal moment. The optimism emanates from the orchestral string sections and Bowie’s words: “Don’t stay in the sad place/ Where they don’t care how you are/ Everyone says hi/ If the money is lousy/ You can always come home.”
‘Slow Burn’, the album’s lead single, marks one of the finer moments. Granted, we can all be suckers for the surface thrill of a powerful guitar presence, especially when performed by The Who’s Pete Townshend. But beyond that, ‘Slow Burn’ houses some of the greatest lyrical deliveries on the album, reminiscent of the wails in ‘Wild is the Wind’, alongside some well-cultivated saxophone intrusions.
A refined update on Neil Young’s late 1960s track ‘I’ve Been Waiting for You’ gave the album its third single and another discerning moment. With Dave Grohl appearing as a guest guitarist, the song gives a heartfelt nod to the ‘Godfather of Grunge’ with a soaring throwback to early ’90s rock in the chorus section.
Heathen marked the favourable culmination of Bowie’s thematically similar 1990s run: Outside, Earthling and Hours. In this album, the Starman taps into his spiritual side once again, refusing to consign himself to a particular style. Musically, Heathen reaps the benefits of genre diversity while overwriting Bowie’s pioneering work of the late ’70s with more contemporary styles. Despite borrowing lyrics from other artists, Bowie maintains coherence throughout the album to give a stark reflection of his internal and external apprehensions.
