826 Heart - Heart(1985)

 826 Heart - Heart(1985)

Studio Album - Rock




About the Act:

Formed in 1967, Heart have been an American Rock band almost continuously, except for a couple of short breaks. They have had quite an impressive turnover of members, and several different names to start with, but sisters Nancy and Ann Wilson have been the mostly constants since the mid 70s. Despite all this turmoil they have had widespread world-wide success, and 16 studio albums.


About the Album:

This was the band's 8th studio album, and was a departure for them from more acoustic-based rock, bringing in a harder, more stadium-oriented sound. It went quintuple platinu in America.


My History with this Album:

I don't know it as an album, but I am vaguely aware of a few of the tracks as singles - What about Love, and These Dreams particularly.


Review:

So if I say this was a major rock album in 1985, and asked what that would make you imagine, there is a reasonable chance that your description would fit this album. It's rocky, but synth plays a significant role in some tracks. It's big, it's theatrical, and it sounds like Journey, Foreigner, and others of those ilk. Apart from the female vocals. Let's focus on the music first though.

Like I said, synths, big songs, big guitars, big hair, big stadiums, and everything is quite theatrical. In fact I checked to see if Jim Steinman had been involved, it has that kind of vibe, Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler. You probably get the idea.

Now, the vocals. This is their USP, if you like. There are two of them, and I don't know if I could tell you one from the other, but they can sing. There is at least one really big set of pipes here to wail away at the big notes, and do that throaty gravelly thing (back to Bonnie Tyler again!) but also smooth and clean and almost musical theatre style. The versatility probably comes from there being two of them with different strengths, but between them there are a lot of strengths and quite a range of possibilities.

So, I like a bit of rock, even if in this case it is a bit too glam for me, a bit too theatrical, and feels a bit produced and forced, I can mostly forgive that as being a product of the times. There are some decent songs here, not earth-shatteringly brilliant, but a few worthy of note. The cliché quota is high, both musically and lyrically, but it is done with enough bones to carry it off, mostly.


7.2/10



Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0zM8rTVzPoT7SD4ZMds430

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBRoD5zWbE84tDflqyZzowvF6vH_YuGyR

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_(Heart_album)



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