Website © 2003 by Tyler Carey
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Review - David Bowie - Heathen
and Commentary - AMG's Coverage of Bowie
-by Christian B. Carey, Ph.D.
Sometimes the easy access of Allmusic.com (the online version of the All Music Guide, or AMG) makes me practically weep with joy. It features complete, and usually accurate, discographies available at the click of a button for artists in every conceivable genre. The entries list not only which albums an artist has released, but also where he or she has appeared as a sideman, producer etc. (which often proves quite instructive as to the network of influences and relationships within the music business). And if you want to play a musical game of 'Six Degrees of Separation,' Allmusic.com suggests similar albums to the one you are researching. I had fun once seeing how many of these associations it took to get from Sonic Youth to Toad the Wet Sprocket (two, for your information). Bless them for keeping their website free -- everyone go out and buy a hard-copy of one of their genre guides so that they can stay in business!The reviews on Allmusic.com however, can be a good deal more quixotic. For the lazier of us, they have kept the detestable "star" rating system as part of their review process. Sometimes the stars in no way line up with what is said in the bulk of the review, leading one to wonder whether one person rates the recording and another writes about it. Also, a note to my fellow reviewers - if you have no sympathy or affinity for an artist's work, isn't it irresponsible to take on reviewing their ENTIRE canon for a database? Give someone else the gig.
Thus, I had a little bit of a shock when I looked up the AMG reviews for David Bowie's previous two albums while preparing for this one. The reviewer had an exact opposite impression of them than not only myself, but practically everyone I know who listened to them. AMG suggested that Earthling should received two stars and that Hours merited four. While neither was a terrible album, Hours struck me as tepid, while Earthling seemed to be Bowie's most appealing work in some time. Clearly one of Bowie's most important collaborators of the 1990's, the guitarist Reeves Gabrels, agreed to an extent with this assessment, as he vocally decried Hours and decamped from Bowie's circle shortly after its release.
While Gabrels' contributions are missed, Heathen is a much stronger album both in terms of the songs themselves and their arrangements. Bowie is ably abetted by a host of prominent musicians on the release, including David Torn, Dave Grohl, Lisa Germano, Tony Levin, and Pete Townshend. Several of the selections, 'Sunday' and 'I would be your Slave' in particular, remind one of Earthling's experiments with electronica. And, in the spirit of "something old, something new," 'I took a Trip on a Gemini Starship' brings us the now requisite quasi-Space Oddity imagery. Bowie sings with consummate professionalism and impressive flexibility and range, particularly given his eligibility for AARP membership! There is much more of an emotional variance in his work here than on Hours. While he is able to sound resonant and mournful (see 'Sunday' and 'Heathen'), as he did so often on the 2000 release, he counterbalances this with some impressive dramatic singing and falsetto, reminding long-time fans of halcyon days of yore.
Given the album's title, I wonder if the near quote of 'Ave Maria' was conscious on the third track, 'Slip Away.' Indeed, Heathen abounds with spiritual imagery, right down to the defacement of iconic artwork that appears throughout the accompanying booklet. This ambivalence towards the spiritual, simultaneous evocation and abjuration, is nothing new in pop music; Madonna has made a career out of alternately profaning and embracing religiosity. It smacks a bit of needless sensationalism, but then what is the Thin White Duke if not needlessly sensational? I could have done without the knife-marks in the face of the Blessed Virgin, but I enjoyed much of this 'return to form' album from David Bowie.
-Dr. Christian Carey. New Jersey. July 23, 2002.