Description
2026 reissue, 12″ LP, ISO/Parlophone.
An introspective later-era record for David Bowie, Heathen was one of the Bromley supernova’s noughties works, arriving in 2002 in quiet dissent from his earlier concept-driven mode. These were purer, easier and pop-driven efforts, with Tony Visconti back in the producer’s chair for the first time since 1980’s Scary Monsters. It sits closer in sound to the Berlin trilogy, sans Eno, with production choices matching a ratcheting-up in scope and pop ambition, representing a modernisation of the Bowie sound after critics cast doubt on his ability to charm the charts again. ‘Slow Burn’ and ‘Everyone Says ‘Hi” remind us of a millennial Roxy Music, their lyrics and soft, synth-driven palette harmonising with the title, evoking the mind of a settled-down man, living steadily after spending prior decades inside an esoteric, grand conceptual wormhole.
