Track Listing

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

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5020 in Music
• Released on: 1999-09-28
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Enhanced, Original recording reissued

Album Description
Limited Edition Japanese pressing of this album comes housed in a miniature LP sleeve. 2007.

Amazon.com essential recording
One of Bowie's more stellar moments working with Brian Eno, Heroes again sees the artist moving into barely chartered waters (at that point, 1977), creating moving, emotive rock and putting it right up against some very detached and futuristic synthesized sounds. The collection opens with a ferocious rocker, courtesy of Robert Fripp's taut, snarling guitars ("Beauty and the Beast"), and then slides into the roar of "Joe the Lion" without missing a beat. Bowie's vocals have rarely sounded as desperate as they are on "Heroes," the anguished "Blackout" rages on a peculiarly up beat, and suddenly the listener finds they've slipped into a parallel world of icy soundscapes. The next four tracks present glassy synthesizers, stark piano, the ping of Asian-styled guitars, and other styles presumably left over or influenced by the Low recordings. The delicate "Moss Garden" is particularly beautiful, and "Sense of Doubt" is brooding and ominous. The closer, "The Secret Life of Arabia," moves with the rhythm of a snake charmer, and Bowie's vocals are irrepressibly intoxicating. Challenging, and worth the effort. --Lorry Fleming

Amazon.com
The second disc in the late-'70s Bowie/Eno trilogy, Heroes essentially repeats the form of Low--half rock songs with darkly cryptic lyrics and bizarre mixes, half foreboding instrumentals--but the songs are better realized (especially the weirdly dramatic title track) and the non-songs are more richly textured. The album's tone is muffled and desperate, like screams from the next room. As on Low, Bowie plays hide-and-seek with his slithery voice: songs have backing vocals and nothing more, or shift into German and French, or never quite move past an introduction. Eno's treatments make the instruments sound gluey and sluggish, especially in the proto-ambient second half of the album. This is mood music for an execution day. --Douglas Wolk

Customer Reviews

Ich, ich bin dann König ...
This 2nd synth album follows the pattern of Low, the first one in the Eno trilogy, in its mix of short pop/rock songs plus moody instrumentals and semi-instrumentals. Somehow it lacks the trenchant edge of Low although the title track is truly spectacular in its powerful imagery and stirring melody - his voice sounds as human as on Word On A Wing (from Station to Station) over the wailing drone of the synths as it paints a scenario of lovers meeting beneath the Berlin wall. Truly breathtaking, this song was also released as a single in German and French versions in the 1970s. The melancholy Sons of the Silent Age has a spacey feel, beautiful lyrics and a ghostly chorus, while Blackout is harsh and discordant. I love the sax and the driving beat of V2 Schneider and Bowie's voice intoning the title. Moss Garden is a delicate instrumental, a sound I recognized later in some pieces by e.g. Autechre and Cabaret Voltaire, but the sung Secret Life Of Arabia drags a bit. Owing to it's spectacular title track, Heroes remains my favorite of Bowie's trilogy of 70s synth albums.

Good album, but it's not "Low"
Although I've had this record for over half my life, it's never sat totally comfortably with me. I've always much preferred its predecessor "Low," and with recent listens, I've finally realized why. As "Heroes" is known as the 2nd installment in Bowie's Eno-aided, forward-looking "Berlin Trilogy," and as it repeats the split pop/mood conceptual structure of "Low," (with full blown pop on side 1, and side 2 given over to lush, moody instrumentals) it's impossible to discuss it without comparing/contrasting it with "Low."

When it came to creating "Heroes," it sounds to me like Bowie had one serious classic on his hands (the epic masterpiece of the title track), but little else. So, he quickly churned out a bunch of mediocre, unsatisfactory pop songs to round out the album's pop half. And to me, the poppier material sounds detached, unfocused, messy, and rushed. Whereas "Low's" pop songs sound extremely well-crafted and thoughtfully arranged, "Hereos'" pop songs sound like bloated filler. Plagued by cluttered arrangements and oddly distant sound, the songs themselves just seem like generic ditties knocked out in a hurry. An exception to this is "The Secret Life of Arabia" with its coolly funky, art-disco vibe, which is actually tacked onto the end of the album's instrumental half.

And of course, the song "Heroes" really is a quite a feat. Texturally rich, futuristic, and atmospherically mesmerizing (w/ help from guitarist Robert Fripp), it's a beautiful and harrowing tale of two lovers separated by the Berlin Wall. No wonder Bowie felt the need to concoct an entire album around it, however iffy the rest of the material might be.

While I really like the concept of saving the 2nd half for instrumental mood pieces, and while said instrumentals on "Heroes" are quite good, they still don't quite possess the emotionally stirring and sweeping melodic beauty of "Low's" instrumentals. Whereas "Low's" instrumentals convey a sense of motion, "Heroes'" instrumentals seem stagnant and detached by comparison. Don't get me wrong, they're still chillingly beautiful and texturally lush; they just don't reach for the kind of riveting emotional impact achieved on "Low," ie., they never quite get off the ground.

Overall, "Heroes" has a fair amount going for it. Although arguably one of Bowie's better albums, to these ears it's not one of his very best. To me "Heroes" will always be like "Low's" funky little kid sibling.

One of the best CD
As I delved deeper and deeper into Bowie's back catalogue I found this excellent album. I have never been a big fan of David Bowie which is admittedly a great singer, Though one of rock's most influential figure
the quality sound is perfect I recommend this CD .