Heroes is a catchy song. It hints at the direction the band might have gone had the single been successful. At that point, they were feeling things out, trying different approaches and seeing what could land them on the radio. Bob and Chris went for "big" production touches on this--horns, pedal steel, synthesizer strings, thickly layered backing vocals. But underneath all of the gloss is a standard blues, which she sings VERY well.
I like the horns in some spots, namely towards the end and in the bridge where she sings "When he says hello, don't forget they're all the same..." They are punchy and thick there. But I DON'T like the passages where the horn parts are a little higher and playing what appears to be meant as an instrumental hook--ie: as in the song's opening. The horns sound sort of "lite" there, a commercial gimmick that backfires.
I forgot who it was who mentioned here once that the guitar parts on the Heroes song are very similar to the guitar parts on Over My Head, except one is electric, the other acoustic. The two songs couldn't be more different in production styles. And when the thickly-layered backing vocals return on You Make Loving Fun three years later, they are all the more effective because they aren't layered over with a ton of instrumentation.
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