Track Listing

1. Beauty And The Beast
2. Joe The Lion
3. "Heroes"
4. Sons Of The Silent Age
5. Black Out
6. V2 Schneider
7. Sense Of Doubt
8. Moss Garden
9. Neukoln
10. Secret Life Of Arabia

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2445 in Music
• Released on: 1999-09-20
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Part two of the Berlin trilogy that started with Low and ended with Lodger, Heroes saw Bowie trying to kick his assorted drug addictions while simultaneously attempting to create the music of the future. And so, on the one hand, "Beauty and The Beast"--which spawned the Human League's "Love Action" and not a whole load else, really. And on the other, the title-track--one of mankind's greatest achievements, a song so incredible it's permissible to know a technical fact pertaining to its recording, i.e., Bowie had eight microphones set up for the vocals, all at staggered distances along a hallway. That's why he sounds like he's bouncing his voice off mountains on the moon. Like Low, Heroes is an album of two halves--the second side being taken up with the brooding instrumentals he and producerBrian Eno cooked up while the engineers were busy wiring up eight microphones in the hallway. It's not your essential Bowie. But it's pre-Tin Machine Bowie, and that's more than enough. --Caitlin Moran

CD Description
The Germanic feel of this album is not surprising, as DavidBowie recorded it in Berlin during his period of infatuation with the city. HEROES is a much more lively affair than LOW and has the benefit of a title track that remains one of Bowie's finest songs, in addition to excellent contributions from Robert Fripp and Brian Eno.
The thick, mysterious textures of "Beauty and the Beast" set the tone for the rest of the album. The Eno-influenced "Sense of Doubt" is the flipside to the majestic "Heroes"--dark and moody, as is "Neukoln". But, despite (or perhaps because of) the charged atmosphere of doom and gloom, this is a seminal Bowie album.

Customer Reviews

Indispensible.
In contrast to other reviews for this record I'd say "Heroes" is not to be seen as tracks weighted against each other. The record stands out on its own merit and its avant-guardish style is seldom seen in other works of Bowie, except perhaps in the recent "Outside" (also with Eno).

One can distinguish the record split into a part with vocal songs (tracks 1-5) and an instrumental part (tracks 6-9) followed by "the secret life of Arabia" which is rather a bridge to the next part of the trilogy "Lodger" which begins with the similar "fantastic voyage".

The instrumentals very well derive as extra-tracks from the soundtrack of "The Man Who Fell To Earth", Roeg's film in which Bowie starred the leading role a year before the release of "Heroes". The ambience and intensity of the music can hardly be attributed completely to Eno. Bowie himself when asked told he was highly influenced by early works of KRAFTWERK in making this part of the record.

As for the title song (or anthem rather) the connection with the Velvet Underground is more than evident (Bowie and Reed where soul mates at the time) with the piano riff being like an alternate take of VU's "White Light-White Heat" blended with Eno treatments. The result is breathtaking. Nico's later interpretation of the same song reveals the common vibes shared.

Credits must also be given to the personnel involved. Musicians of the magnitude of Fred Frith, Carlos Alomar among others and of course Eno in his most creative era tell the high musical output attained on all levels. One of the greatest and most influential works of Bowie, "Heroes" is indispensable.

someone fetch a preist! u can't say no yo the beauty and the beast
After Bowie's last two albums, "Station to Station" and a career high point of "Low", he had alot to live up to.

Thankfully he released "Heroes", a jarring, experimental mish mash of brilliant instramentals and haunting tunes. To be truthfull it will not be everyone's cup of tea; many of the songs are hard on the ear, and have some strange and frankly awful lyrics. However this adds to the album's charm, and makes it all the more fulfilling (that's Bowie for you). The instramentals are outstanding and, although not quite as good as the ones on "Low", make for wonderful audio landscapes (be sure to listen to with headphones for the full stereo experience). However the albums high point is of course the title track. It is truely uplifting and the music eclipses anything else on the album, and is possibly Bowie's best song.

This album is a definate for Bowie fans and anyone else looking for something different and challenging. "Heroes" stands up by itself next to the brillience of "Low".

Good stuff, Dave
As a whole this is a very strong album. It starts with the rather mediocre "Beauty & the Beast". Just when you think your in for a rather uninspired album, it kicks off with the second track, the storming (and quite batty) "Joe the Lion", things get even better with the classic "Heroes". Things get even better than that though, with "Sons of the Silent Age", one of my all time favourite Bowie songs (WHAT a chorus:). A few tracks later and we're into an ambient/instrumental section of tracks, which bleed one into another. The mood is slightly haunting. This was certainly extrememly progressive during its day (the late 70's) and the surprising thing is that it sounds fresh and not at all embarrasing today. The final track, "Secret Life of Arabia" is very enjoyable, and leads on logicaly to the next album "Lodger". All in all this is great stuff, strong throughout, and really grows on you with repeated listening!