The music builds upon its predecessor's electronic and ambient approaches, albeit with more positive tones, atmospheres and passionate performances.

The cover photo, like Iggy Pop's The Idiot, is a nod to the painting Roquairol by the German artist Erich Heckel.

It was the best-received work of the Berlin Trilogy on release; NME and Melody Maker each named it their respective album of the year.

"Heroes" has received enduring praise, particularly recognised for Fripp's contributions and the album's place within Bowie's longterm artistic development.

In the second half of 1976, David Bowie and his friend Iggy Pop relocated to the Château d'Hérouville in Hérouville, France, to escape from the drug culture of Los Angeles.

[8] Describing how the location of the studio affected the creative process, Visconti recalled: "Every afternoon I'd sit down at [a] desk and see three Russian Red Guards looking at us with binoculars, with their Sten guns over their shoulders, and the barbed wire, and I knew that there were mines buried in that wall, and that atmosphere was so provocative and so stimulating and so frightening that the band played with so much energy".

"[8] Most of the album was recorded with the same personnel as its predecessor Low,[8] with Carlos Alomar, George Murray and Dennis Davis as the core band.

He and Visconti would travel around Berlin frequently and one on such occasion, they met Antonia Maass, a local jazz singer who would go on to provide backing vocals on "Heroes".

"[18] Overall, Eno had a much greater role on "Heroes" than he had for Low, being credited as co-author on four of the ten songs, leading Seabrook to call it the "truer" collaboration.

"[18] Eno would act as "assistant director" to Bowie, giving feedback to the musicians and suggesting new – and unusual – ways to approach the tracks.

[11] Although these cards were used greatly throughout the Lodger sessions, Eno and Bowie only used them on "Heroes" when creating the instrumentals, including on "V-2 Schneider", "Sense of Doubt" and "Moss Garden".

[33] Visconti recalled that lyrics were made up on the spot, with Bowie sometimes ad-libbing entire songs, singing "at the top of his lungs".

[36] "Sons of the Silent Age" was the only song written before the sessions began[11] and was originally intended to be the album's title track.

[43] "Sense of Doubt" puts a repeating four-note piano motif against a set of synthesisers to paint an image of a barren landscape.

[11] Although the influence of Kraftwerk and Harmonia are less prominent on "Heroes" in favour of Edgar Froese,[32] Bowie paid tribute by naming the album after Neu!

Like the artwork for Iggy Pop's The Idiot, the cover is a nod to German artist Erich Heckel's paintings Roquairol and Young Man.

"[32] In an interview with Charles Shaar Murray of NME, Bowie said that the quotation marks in the title "indicate a dimension of irony about the word 'heroes' or about the whole concept of heroism".

[52] It was supported by a music video, shot in Paris and directed by Nick Ferguson, that features Bowie in the same jacket on the album cover against a backdrop of white light.

[39] Pegg and Chris O'Leary note that it wasn't until Bowie's Live Aid performance in 1985 did the song become recognised as a classic.

[61] NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray remarked that its "jarring, threatening edge...obviously put off a great many of the floating singles buyers attracted by the intoxicating romanticism of its immediate predecessor".

[7] Allan Jones of Melody Maker described it and its predecessor "among the most adventurous and notably challenging records yet thrust upon the rock audience.

"[67] Writing in Hit Parader, American musician and author Patti Smith praised it as "a cryptic product of a high order of intelligence.

Tim Lott of Record Mirror gave the album a more mixed assessment, calling it "disjointed" and criticised the instrumentals on side two as having less "continuity" than the ones found on Low.

[74] The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau was less receptive to Eno's contributions, particularly the second side's instrumentals, saying that they are "interesting background" but "merely noteworthy as foreground, admirably rather than attractively ragged", in comparison to "their counterparts on Low".

[77] In the Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll, "Heroes" finished 21st in the voting for 1977's top album.

[78] Upon completion of his promotional appearances for "Heroes", Bowie recorded narration for an adaptation of Sergei Prokofiev's classical composition Peter and the Wolf, released as an album in May 1978.

[86] Although "Heroes" was the best-received work of the Berlin Trilogy on release, in subsequent decades critical and public opinion has typically fallen in favour of Low as the more ground-breaking record owing to its daring experimental achievements.

"[23] Ryan Dombal of Pitchfork similarly praised the record, calling Bowie's vocal performances some of his finest and highlighted Fripp as the standout.

In a review in which he commended the entire Berlin Trilogy, Dombal identified "Heroes" as the album that indicated the most artistic growth for Bowie, after turning 30 and escaping years of drug addiction.

[122] A volume shift in the 2017 remaster of the title track received ire from fans and critics, but Parlophone proceeded to describe it as intentional and unalterable,[123] because of damages in the original master tapes.