there since 1971's Hunky Dory. RCA released "Beauty and the Beast" as the second single on 6January 1978, with "Sense of Doubt" as the B-side. It became a minor success in the UK, peaking at number 39 on the UK Singles Chart, staying on the chart for three weeks. 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". The single was released in the US and Spain on a 12" promo and in a five-minute extended form, which failed to chart despite having "Fame" as the B-side. Critical reception On release, "Heroes" received very positive reviews from music critics. Allan Jones of Melody Maker named it "album of the year", calling it and its predecessor "among the most adventurous and notably challenging records yet thrust upon the rock audience." Angus MacKinnon of NME also named it the magazine's "album of the year", calling it Bowie's "most moving performance in years" and commended the artist's growing maturity. Kris Needs of ZigZag magazine further praised the record, noting that Bowie appeared to be continuing the musical explorations of Low, while at the same time, allowing listeners time to "catch up with Low." Needs ultimately described the album as "a strange, cold sometimes impenetrable album, but Bowie makes all these unlikely ingredients work." Writing in Hit Parader, American musician and author Patti Smith praised it as "a cryptic product of a high order of intelligence." The record was not without its detractors. 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. Lott further considered Bowie's vocals "hollow" and the lyrics "opaque". Overall, although he felt it was intriguing, he stated: "As an album, "Heroes" stuns for just [the title] track. The rest is clever, but not brilliant and you expect no less from Bowie. In that sense it's a disappointment, a come-down from Low." In the US, a reviewer for Billboard also gave a mixed assessment, calling it an "extension" of both "Bowie's cosmic rock vision" and Low, and overall felt the record was "a musical excursion into a realm only Bowie himself can define." In the Los Angeles Times, Robert Hilburn lamented the way Bowie's