avid Bowie is the man. A good deal of his output in the 70's was nothing short of brilliant, rockers like The Man Who Sold the World and Aladdin Sane redefined rock as a mystical, as well as an asexual entity. Ziggy Stardust stole the glam torch from Marc Bolan and ran with it to some bizarre alien planet. The Eno albums forced Bowie to reexamine his preconceived notion of sound, thus changing our perceptions of rock music to something potentially transcendent.

eathen sees Bowie growing to accept his position as a former musical idol. There is no longer the pressure of having to follow up anything brilliant (how long ago was it that he released Scary Monsters? Twenty-two years??). There are only Bowie and his session friends fulfilling Bowie’s midlife visions. The album rocks at points, it is a bit sleepy at others, but it is hardly dull.

"Sunday" starts the album off on a reserved tone. Bowie, as well as the backing band, sounds as if they are barely awake as they, through dreamy production, introduce us to the record. As Bowie muses on typically ambivalent subjects, he tests us out with some silly hyperbole, "nothing has changed / Everything has changed". We are reaffirmed by a constantly comfortable texture and Bowie as he sings, "Rise together / Through these clouds / As on wings".

Bowie’s cover of the Pixies’ "Cactus" is absolutely brilliant. His loving treatment of the material is bizarre, considering the indecisive emotion contained in the lyrics and Frank’s original delivery. The smooth soul in Bowie’s voice as well as the clever, but not ridiculous falsetto backing in the chorus provide for a great tribute. Bowie has improved the song greatly; adding to Frank’s wayward yelps a maturity not typically found in the Pixies catalog.

Heathen is not devoid of rubbish, "Slow Burn" has a nice swagger to it, but the refrain is a bit tedious. For such an otherwise bouncy song, it comes as a slight shock when the gummy harmonies come in, drowning the upbeat tone in muck. This aural faux pas manages to drag the motion of the entire song way down. After the first chorus, you feel as if you are listening to a glam cover band trying to get their van unstuck from a pool of molasses.

Fortunately, the next song "Afraid" redeems the flow of the album. The rhythm is upbeat, almost dangerously so. Strings shine proudly on Bowie as he accepts an ironic salvation. "If I put faith in medication / If I can smile a crooked smile / If I can talk on television / If I can walk an empty mile / Then I won’t feel afraid." The song builds well through emotional intensity alone, not relying on the simple addition of sounds to flesh it out.

Ultimately, Heathen feels like an artist looking back at all he has accomplished in wonder. The pace is rather relaxed; songs take their time to develop into good, but not great approximations of Bowie’s career thus far.