Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	68/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Robert Christgau	C+
Entertainment Weekly	B+
The Guardian
Mojo
The Music Box
NME	8/10
Pitchfork	7.8/10
Q
Rolling Stone

Heathen is the twenty-second studio album by English musician David Bowie, released on 11 June 2002. It was considered a comeback for him in the US market by becoming his highest charting album (number 14) since Tonight (1984). It also earned strong reviews. The BBC said the album's title track "shows that Bowie could still pen disarmingly direct, affecting pop of a very individual inclination 30-plus years after he started". Worldwide, it sold more than two million copies and experienced a four-month run on the UK charts. Although its production had started before the September 11 attacks in 2001, the album was finished after that date, which resulted in the influencing of its concept.

Heathen marked the return of record producer Tony Visconti, who co-produced (with David Bowie himself) several of Bowie's classic albums. The last album Visconti had co-produced was Scary Monsters in 1980. This was the first album since Bowie's pre-Tin Machine work to not include guitarist Reeves Gabrels.

Originally, Bowie had recorded the album Toy for release in 2000 or '01. This album was meant to feature some new songs and remakes of some his lesser-known songs from the 1960s. Although Toy remains officially unreleased, a few of its tracks—including "Afraid" and "Slip Away" (then titled "Uncle Floyd")—appear on Heathen. Some other re-recorded songs were included as B-sides to the singles from Heathen.

The album features guest appearances from The Who guitarist Pete Townshend (who had played guitar on an earlier Bowie track, "Because You're Young" from Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)), Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess, pianist Kristeen Young, and prolific bassist Tony Levin of King Crimson. The song "I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship" contains the lowest note Bowie has ever sung on an album (G1).

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Wikipedia