Heathen

While not wanting to upset the Tin Machine fan, it has to be said that David Bowie’s post-Scary Monsters… output has been at best patchy and, at worse, downright embarrassing.

A shame because unlike such ‘70s contemporaries as Elton John, Rod Stewart and Bryan Ferry, the Jones boy has never succumbed to MOR bland-om or gone the Greatest Hits route.

Heathen may not be the spectacular return to form that some people are claiming, but it’s certainly a far more cohesive affair than its predecessors, Earthling and …hours, which both buckled under the weight of their experimentation.

Not that Bowie does himself any favours with the opening ‘Sunday’, an overwrought plodder which sounds like it’s been pilfered from an Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical.

Thankfully, redemption is instantaneous with a cover of The Pixies’ ‘Cactus’ that’s every bit as edgy as the Surfer Rosa original. Bona fides reestablished, it’s off down memory lane with the Hunk Dory-ish ‘Slip Away’ and ‘Slow Burn’, which involves Pete Townshend in its Diamond Dog-ery. The references become even more dated when ‘A Better Future’ exhumes Anthony Newley (ask your grandparents!) and ‘Everyone Says Hi’ rewrites ‘Kooks’.

Less successful are the other covers – a Dave Grohl-assisted run through of Neil Young’s ‘I’ve Been Waiting For You’ and The Legendary Spacedust Cowboy’s ‘Gemini Spacecraft’ – which are B-side standard at best.

The remaining songs – ‘I Would Be Your Slave’, ‘5:15 The Angels Have Gone’, ‘Afraid’ and the title-track – fall into that no man’s land between filler and favourite.

Which is the assessment that David Bowie fans are likely to make of Heathen as a whole.