release date: Oct. 14, 1977
format: vinyl (1984 reissue - NL 83857) / digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,33]
producer: David Bowie, Tony Visconti
label: RCA International - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 3. " 'Heroes' " (5 / 5) - 4. "Sons of the Silent Age"
12th studio album by David Bowie and his second in "the Berlin trilogy" released only 9 months following the album Low.
The album has status as one of the finest of rock, or more precisely: art rock. It's Bowie's seventh studio album to be enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".
I purchased the album at some point in the mid-80s alongside the predecessor Low after re-discovering Bowie. I had been fascinated by Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (1980) and simply loved his The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust... (1972) album, so it was a natural option to turn to his acclaimed Berlin-trilogy. I do understand how he was the notorious musical chameleon, and I was prepared to meet a diverse album, but at the same time, I was quite familiar with the fine title track, so I may have been slightly excited about getting the full album. I only felt bewildered as to why I didn't like this so-called masterpiece. Only the title-track felt like a fine song, but how that one song had everyone talking about it and lauding the album as something otherworldly was, and basically still is, beyond my comprehension.
In Bowie's Berlin trilogy 'Heroes' is his second, and that's also the way I rate them: Low, as the first is the best, and then the quality drops one by one. making Lodger (1979) the poorest.
[ allmusic.com, Select 5 / 5, Rolling Stone 4,5 / 5, Blender, NME 4 / 5 stars ]
