His next few records, 1999’s Hours, 2002’s Heathen, and 2003’s Reality stopped chasing any of-the moment trends and found Bowie dabbling with subdued versions of his own previous styles, but failing to really recapture the magic of any of them. It’s not like those records are embarrassing, but they were too comfy and frankly, forgettable. An exception was Heathen‘s assured cover of Pixies’ “Cactus”. It kept the sex-and-death creeps of Black Francis’ original, but smoothed them out with gentlemanly dapperness without lessening the dark impact. A tantalizing reminder of his vocal talent in delivering inspired lyrics.
Yes