Customer Reviews

Heathen

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4 star:		(1)
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Amazon doesn't mention that this '07 Japan mini-sleeve edition carries a bonus disc containing some fabulous non-album tracks & remixes. Here is the track list for the bonus disc:

13. Sunday MOBY REMIX
14. A Better Future REMIX BY AIR
15. Conversation Piece
16. Panic In Detroit
17. Wood Jackson
18. When The Boys Come Marching Home
19. Baby Loves That Way
20. You've Got A Habit Of Leaving
21. Safe
22. Shadow Man

The audio on the main disc is the same '04 remaster. However, the mastering on the bonus disc is notably improved over many of the original singles' audio. Presumably, this is the same edition as the 2004 2CD jewel box re-release.

WHAT IS A JAPAN "MINI-LP-SLEEVE" CD?

Have you ever lamented the loss of one of the 20th Century's great art forms, the 12" vinyl LP jacket? Then "mini-LP-sleeve" CD's may be for you.

Mini-sleeve CDs are manufactured in Japan under license. The disc is packaged inside a 135MM X 135MM cardboard precision-miniature replica of the original classic vinyl-LP album. Also, anything contained in the original LP, such as gatefolds, booklets, lyric sheets, posters, printed LP sleeves, stickers, embosses, special LP cover paper/inks/textures and/or die cuts, are precisely replicated and included. An English-language lyric sheet is always included, even if the original LP did not have printed lyrics.

Then, there's the sonic quality: Often (but not always), mini-sleeves have dedicated remastering (20-Bit, 24-Bit, DSD, K2/K2HD, and/or HDCD), and can often (but not always) be superior to the audio on the same title anywhere else in the world. There also may be bonus tracks unavailable elsewhere.

Each Japan mini-sleeve has an "obi" ("oh-bee"), a removable Japan-language promotional strip. The obi lists the Japan street date of that particular release, the catalog number, the mastering info, and often the original album's release date. Bonus tracks are only listed on the obi, maintaining the integrity of the original LP artwork. The obi's are collectable, and should not be discarded.

All mini-sleeve releases are limited edition, but re-pressings/re-issues are becoming more common (again, not always). The enthusiasm of mini-sleeve collecting must be tempered, however, with avoiding fake mini-sleeves manufactured in Russia and distributed throughout the world, primarily on eBay. They are inferior in quality, worthless in collectable value, a total waste of money, and should be avoided at all costs.

One of his best late-period records -- anyone care to argue whether Earthling is a Bowie album or the third Tin Machine release? -- made more compelling by the guitar work of David Torn, a terrific cover of one of the better Pixies songs, Major Tom's wanking twin, a Saul-Bellowish short-story set to music and the sort of track to track coherence of the Early Days. It's enough to make you forgive and forget "Let's Dance"!

This package may be pretty highly priced, but the "bonus" disc does include work not present in the previous and original "limited edition" which remains available still. (What are the "limits" exactly?) But all the additions aside (The word "extras" seems inappropriate -- it's like saying "extra money". Be honest, is there such a thing?) the reproduction here seems snapped up a few points: more inner detail and better imaging and nuance to the dynamic range which means you need something a few steps up from the iPod dock to get what you're paying for. With the tracks that are added -- Wood Jackson; When the Boys Come Marching Home; Baby Loves That Way; You've Got a Habit of Leaving; Safe; and Shadow Man -- make it enough volume for a second album. And they're not celeb remixes. But as good as the work is here there are no standouts that compare to the final selects comprising the original album. Nice to have, nice to hear and good to know that one of his better efforts has another incarnation. If you can spare the change, and the time.

Not much to say about this album, except that it's great. This is the old Bowie here. 5:15 The Angels Have Gone is quite a good song, but the album is actually really solid throughout, musically very interesting and always assured. It's just a fact that Bowie doesn't inspire the same sort of nostalgia that, say, the Rolling Stones do. The Stones have been making garbage for decades and selling it to Baby Boomers who still remember them as the band that did Exile on Main Street. Bowie's output post-Tin Machine has actually been pretty good, but apparently people aren't noticing. That's just how life works out sometimes. It's a shame.

My point is that Bowie is not some nostalgia act. He's still a great craftsman who is still invested in putting out a good product. Check out the album. You will not be sorry.

This is the best record Bowie's put out since - what? - Young Americans.

Coincidence? No. Tony Visconti is the magic ingredient.

I was raised on early Bowie - from the absolute start to Heroes. I got off the bus around Let's Dance - not my cup of tea.

Heathen is thoughtful, engaging, fun, and interesting to listen to.

Continuing the creative resurgence David Bowie began with 1995's "Outside," "Heathen" found David Bowie creating interesting and soulful music after the more chilling "Hours." Teaming up with producer Tony Visconti, "Heathen" seemed as if Bowie decided he no longer had to keep trying to outdo anything from his past. While the album is moody and haunting, Bowie and Visconti seemed to be settled on making an album that played to Bowie's greatest elements.

If listened to in that respect, "Heathen" delivers plenty of payoffs. Bowie seems more of an alien than ever on "Heathen," staring with the electronic squiggles and snaps of "Sunday," which ultimately builds to Bowie chanting "Seek only peace" under the main lyric. The melancholy, if warmer "Everyone Says Hi" calls out to a lost love to come home to the boring little town she long ran away from. "Slow Burn" recalls a slowed down "Starman," and is the most haunting of the songs here (as well as my favorite from the CD). Close behind is "Slip Away," which - to me - indictaed the purpose of "Heathen" as Bowie and Visconti created it.

"Some of us will always stay behind
Down in space it's always 1982
The joke we always knew..."

Seems to be directed at everyone still expecting another "Space Oddity" or awaiting another chapter in the chronicles Major Tom. It's more than a sly humor. Even more humorous and intriguing are the three choices of outside songs. Bowie takes a run at Neil Young's "I've Been Waiting For You" (featuring Dave Grohl on guitar). This is probably the most conventional of the three choices, and without knowing the source, it would be easy to think it came off of Bowie's pen. Then there's The Pixies' "Cactus," which is sort of fun. If you listen carefully, you'll hear Bowie spelling out D-A-V-I-D the same what The Pixies spelled out their own name on the original.

But the absolute topper comes in the form of "I Took a Trip On a Gemini Spacecraft," originally by the Legendary Stardust Cowboy. Stardust issues aside, the Texas psycho-billy artist 9and one time T-Bone Burnette collaborator) is a hardcore cult artist that Bowie has always admired. But picking this song is almost like an inside joke, because it fits into the album so seamlessly while kind of pricking the Bowie legend. It's the most fun to be head on "Heathen."

It also kind of vindicates the album's title. The slip-sleeve's images include pictures of damaged art, and including a song like "Gemini Spacecraft" is a sort of blaspheme. It's hard not to imagine Bowie having a good laugh at all the critics who'd be poring over the album when it was first issued and trying to figure the relevance. "Heathen," dark and moody as it often is, is still David Bowie at his strongest, as well as a hearty call of "I'm still here" from the artist.