{"id":40898,"date":"2008-05-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/heroes\/"},"modified":"2008-05-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-05-17T00:00:00","slug":"heroes","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"Heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Released only a few months after Bowie<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s initial highly influential foray into the world of electronically tinged, experimental art-rock, Low<\/i>, its follow up Heroes<\/i> continues along a very similar path. Indeed, like its predecessor, the album\u2019s first half consists of somewhat unusual sounding, but fairly standard issue, up-tempo rock songs, while the second half provides another excursion into mainly instrumental territory.<\/p>\n

The regular songs, such as the opener \u201cThe Beauty And The Beast\u201d and \u201cJoe The Lion,\u201d differ from those on Low<\/i> in the sense that they sound more organic and less coldly detached, though I find the melodies to be on the bland side. Only some highly inventive guitar work and effects by King Crimson\u2019s Robert Fripp redeems them, really.<\/p>\n

Faring better is the epic title track, deservedly one of David Bowie\u2019s most famous songs. Romantic and uplifting, an incredible moment of catharsis is reached at the midway point when Bowie<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s vocals, Eno\u2019s synths, and Fripp\u2019s guitar soar in tandem to produce a grand, timeless classic.<\/p>\n

Also of interest is the schizophrenic synth stomper, \u201cBlackout,\u201d which has a quite off-the-wall vocal performance by Bowie<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. A playful, mostly instrumental nod called \u201cV2 Schneider\u201d after Florian Schneider of Kraftwerk, one of Germany<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>\u2019s massively influential electronic music pioneers, kicks off the far more experimental half of the album, where conventional rock arrangements give way to an overwhelmingly synthesized approach.<\/p>\n

For me, the highlight of the disc is the continuous three song instrumental suite \u201cSense Of Doubt,\u201d \u201cMoss<\/st1:placename> Garden<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>,\u201d and \u201cNeuk\u00f6ln.\u201d Showing the true depths of his songwriting talent and versatility, Bowie dug deep to compose an utterly dark, dreary landscape filled with the grey, cold hopelessness of being on the frontlines of the Iron Curtain in West Berlin during the middle of the ideological Cold War between the West and East. Driven by a starkly foreboding piano line with windswept synths setting the backdrop, one could easily see \u201cSense Of Doubt\u201d as the soundtrack for the aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse. <\/p>\n

\u201cMoss Garden\u201d provides a brief respite from the dire portrait presented before \u201cNeuk\u00f6ln\u201d returns us to the ominous, expressionistic theme expressed earlier in \u201cSense Of Doubt,\u201d with some sensational saxophone playing by Bowie himself that will send chills up your spine, especially with its seemingly tearful cries of anguish at the end that possibly evoke the end of life itself.<\/p>\n

Given the emotional power of that epic conclusion, it\u2019s disappointing that instead of also being the ending of the album itself, Bowie<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> decided to tack on a funky, danceable track, \u201cThe Secret Life Of Arabia,\u201d which, despite being one of the better songs on the album, feels really out of place. The album definitely would have benefited by placing it near the beginning, but the beauty of the digital age is that the listener can program their own custom track sequence (even though in my case I tend to feel a sense of guilt for going against the intentions of the artist, who may have ordered the songs as such for specific reasons.)<\/p>\n

Despite some weak moments, like all Bowie<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> albums, Heroes<\/i> nonetheless is one of his peaks as a creative force and is a must have for his fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":29339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5671],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-40898","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-david-bowie","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40898"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}