"Heroes," while it contains much that is reminiscent of "Low," offers further, and occasionally considerable, evidence of [Bowie's] artistic maturity….

[On the instrumental] tracks on side two, Bowie] has not pursued the vocal techniques and use of phoneticism explored on the likes of "Warszawa" and there is, furthermore, a return on the five songs that appear on side one of "Heroes" to a more conventional use of rock lyrics than was apparent on the fragmented songs on the first side of "Low."…

Lyrically, these songs seem to speculate on an inevitably bleak and uninviting future, with Bowie looking out to the world more emphatically than on any album since "Diamond Dogs" (of which I'm inclined to think this side of "Heroes" is a more considered extension). Certainly, "Heroes" shares with "Diamond Dogs" a preoccupation with a disturbing vision of a vaguely futuristic society berefit of all values and conscience and heading for the chute to premature termination….

I should emphasise, though, that unlike the similar scenarios of "Diamond Dogs" there is no real recourse to familiar sci-fi pop imagery (though "Sons Of The Silent Age" does skirt the edge of that style)….

No, these songs are not clarified speculative essays. Bowie has eschewed narrative structure and concentrated on cutting images, brief incidents, punctuated by music that is frequently brutal and violent, to suggest more than is ever actually stated. "Joe The Lion," for example, for all its oblique references (really odd asides, some of them, like this one: "he said, 'Nail me to my car and I'll tell you who you are'"), succeeds in evoking a portrait of some absolute nut haunting late-night bars with murder on his mind—shades, perhaps, of [Robert] De Niro in "Taxi Driver".

With a dedicated economy Bowie creates a convincing atmosphere of dread and potential disaster, but for all its pessimism "Heroes" ultimately overcomes its own depression and Bowie, with the title track, emerges defiant and determined to survive the conditions of barren waste and terror we have created for ourselves. The slow motion elegance of "Heroes"—a six-minute opus that impresses me as one of Bowie's finest achievements—has a mesmerising beauty that offers a compassion rare in his work.

These are initial impressions of a characteristically provocative and challenging admiration for its author. Bowie, virtually alone it often seems, is attempting to create truly modern popular music for a modern world. "Heroes" has its failures, I'm sure, but its courage cannot be denied.