HEATHEN

Heathen is not much different from Hours that set Bowie's music cuisine to contemporary adult pop music. You can hear that he is a seasoned and crafted artist and the production work is great as usual. There is enough to discover after repreated listenings. Bowie's music has become more reflective and less upbeat in the recent years and that may sometimes provide more transparency to see into the core of his art.

Arrangements and instruments support main ideas but stay politely in the background. Although there are electronica/trip-hop influence in the first track, the album is carried on a more conventional pop-rock wave. Out of instruments, I would highlight clever guitar playing variety and drums that sound differently in literally every song. Noteworthy is a string trio or quartetto that accompanies in several songs. The darkest a bit symphonic track comes at the end with echoes of the Berlin era.

There are few artists that in the world that could craft such a pleasant, competent album sounding contempotary at their age of 55 and remain true to themselves at the same time.