David Bowie may have had a fallow period in the 1990s but you can't keep a class act down and his latest album Heathen has sold extremely well.

It's a powerful but unusual set, proving once again that Bowie doesn't pander to popular taste and does things the way he wants to do them.

Sunday is a rather dour opener but then there's the explosive Cactus (a Pixies' cover) and the superb and elegiac Slip Away, a song to rank with Bowie's best.

Slow Burn is a driving rocker while Everyone Says Hi has a fragile but effective tone.

Bowie croons a bit too much for my liking - as he did on the album hours - but the strength of these songs makes this an album which proves Bowie still has plenty to offer.

AT.