Rocktrospectiva: Heart's Succesful Self-Titled Album Turns 40

Released on 21 June 1985 "Heart" was the 8th., studio album by US band Heart, the album was a contination of the band's transition into mainstream rock, this album become Heart's only record to top the Billboard 200 to date, spawning five singles such as the band's first number-one single, "These Dreams", along with four other singles: "What About Love", "Never", "Nothin' at All", and "If Looks Could Kill". 

The Seattle rockers had a decent succesful early in the 80's, scoring a top 40 with "How Can I Refuse?" & "Almost Paradise." This boosted Heart but ironically they had little difficulty courting new label suitors, with Capitol duly stepping in and offering the band the deal.

With their new label, Heart’s conscious decision to streamline their sound, with the acoustic and folk-inclined textures of their early work sidelined in favor of the leaner mainstream rock sound they would pursue on their next studio album: a rebirth of a record they would title simply Heart. The album was produced by Ron Nevison. 

Nevison gave Heart a vigorous, radio-friendly polish, his crisp production eschewed the worst of the opulent studio techniques which have since dated many big-budget rock and pop albums from the mid-80s. Some stilted keyboard sounds aside, the album’s ten songs have aged acceptably well, though the inherent quality of the songwriting itself has been the biggest factor in the record weathering the ravages of time. Heart eventually bequeathed a formidable quartet of US Top 10 hits, with Ann Wilson playing the smoldering, revenge-plotting woman scorned to perfection on the adrenalized "If Looks Could Kill," before three of her team’s classic hits followed in quick succession. Featuring a cameo from Grace Slick, the lingering "What About Love?" and the anthemic, positivity-fueled "Never" both went Top 10, while "These Dreams" a show-stopping ballad with lyrics supplied by Elton John wordsmith Bernie Taupin gave Heart their first US No.1.

The album had many others power tracks, in metal style on the "The Wolf" and  "Shell Shock," and again paraded their diversity on the swaying, keyboard-swathed “Nobody Home.” Critics were nice praising the songs and producction, the band was enjoying a sustained success, topping the US Billboard 200 and spending an impressive 92 weeks on the chart, earning a Grammy Award nomination, while Heart were gearing up to deliver their next smash multi-platinum smash, Bad Animals. According to Ann Wilson: the album was self-titled because the band "didn’t write a whole lot of the songs on there, so that aspect of closeness with the work was gone and it was much harder for us to come up with a title that was real."

 

Heart Track List: 

 

1. If Looks Could Kill

2. What About Love

3. Never  

4. These Dreams 

5. The Wolf  

6. All Eyes

7. Nobody Home

8. Nothin' At All

9. What He Don't Know

10. Shell Shock

Rocktrospectiva: The Culmination Of Heart's Trilogy "Brigade" Turns 35

Released on 26 March 1990, "Brigade" ws the tenth studio album by US rock band Heart, also it supposed the end of the band's second part, moving away of their rock classic sound the band performed in the 1970's towards a more commercial sound, this change began with their 1985's Heart", then "Bad Animals" and this same AOR sound intesifies on "Brigade" finishing their succesful trilogy and the band's most brilliant period. The album spawned four singles "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You", "I Didn't What To Need You", "Stranded" & "Secret.

The album's lead single, "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You", reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100. The subsequent singles "I Didn't Want to Need You" and "Stranded" peaked at numbers 23 and 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively. The album was followed by a successful world tour. Like its 1987 predecessor Bad Animals, Brigade is notable for having fewer writing contributions from lead members Ann and Nancy Wilson, but would be the last of Heart's albums to prominently feature outside writers.

Heart’s  MTV-friendly glam-metal makeover led to chart-topping albums such as 1985’s Heart and 1987’s Bad Animals and sustained mainstream success, but as the next decade dawned, the image was wearing thin. Things needed to change when Heart made its next album, 1990’s Brigade, and the bet play the best for them, just like Wilson sister said: it was the time to get back to real, and Richie Zito help to achieved that. The Brooklyn-born producer also proved ideal for Heart. “Some of the producers we’ve worked with in the past have wanted Heart to sound like what was popular at that moment,” Ann Wilson recalled. “Richie never did that. He was very good to work with.”

Accordingly, some of the Brigade material saw Heart returning to its hard-rocking roots – not least on the smoldering, guitar-heavy tracks such as "Fallen From Grace," "Tall, Dark Handsome Stranger," and the compelling, Led Zeppelin-esque light and shade of "The Night." However, Brigade wasn’t a complete break from the recent past. Its trio of U.S. Top 40 hits, “I Didn’t Want To Need You,” the Nancy Wilson-sung “Stranded,” and the Robert "Mutt" Lange No. 2 smash "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You" were all superior power ballads in the same vein as Bad Animals' chart-topping "Alone." Amazingly, though the latter song is now recognized as one of Heart's signature cuts, the band only happened upon it by chance.

"All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You" was originally written for a man to sing, Ann Wilson remember that, so it got thrown in the pile of stuff that was being pitched to us. The band sounded good on it and when we turned the lyric’s gender around, it became something unique.”

Helped along by the mainstream success of the Grammy-nominated "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You," Brigade also marched purposefully up the charts. It peaked at No. 3 on both the U.S. and U.K. album charts and also rose to No. 2 in Canada on its way to a multi-platinum yield similar to the best-selling Bad Animals. 

Furthermore, Brigade’s desire to embrace loud guitars also meant Heart was well-placed at a time when the early 90s grunge explosion was about to put Seattle back on the map."“Brigade came out was when music was turning back to guitars – and away from the huge layer cake production sounds of the 80s, when it was cool to be from Seattle just then!”

The first track "Wild Child" is a rocker catchy hymn, with a incredible force that literally recreate that bad-ass attitude, next is the massive "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You", an AOR power ballad smooth and charged of intesity, talking about the girl who only wanted sex instead the man, "Secret" was a classic ballad, with a hidden love sang it in impossible tones by Ann Wilson, "Tall, Dark Handsome Stranger" retook the hard rock, all-guitar driven and intense drums and vocals, "I Didn't Want To Need You" a melodic one with certain AOR touch, "The Night" is between a rocker tune and a melodic one, with its in crescendo estructure, moving towards a harder sound with 70's sound-a-like solo, "Fall From Grace" turned into classic rock with strong guitars and a slower verse surrounded a sad atmosphere, "Under The Sky" is the shortest one and the most gentle.

With "Cruel Nights" again the typical classic AOR sound, "Stranded" another piece of tune, a brilliant power ballad that catches the audiences, "Call Of The Wild" is a groovy one with certain bluesy riffs and some southy vocals, "I Want Your World To Turn" is a little bit slower with prime keyboards and a light rock melody, and the final "I Love You", another ballad, an slower one and with touchy vocals. 

It was an intense album, perfect and brilliant, so complete that even had a tune sang by Nancy "Stranded", and it was another No. 1 their first one since "These Dreams" again sang by Nancy, it's curious but this record doesn't sound like something produced in 1990, maybe something between 70's/80's and to think about it was produced in Seattle during the period when the city was about to become the main music turmoil, says a lot. A beautiful production, sublime on lyrics, vocals, melodies, everything, their voices, the elegance, and the band spreading aunthentic rock with quality and style. 

 

Brigade Track List: 

 

1. Wild Child 

2. All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You

3. Secret

4. Tall. Dark Handsome Stranger

5. I Didn't Want To Need You

6. The Night 

7. Fallen From Grace

8. Under The Sky

9. Cruel Nights

10. Stranded

11. Call Of The Wild

12. I Want Your World To Turn

13. I Love You

Rocktrospectiva: El Brillante Y Exitoso "Brigade" Cumple 30 Años

Lanzado el 26 de marzo de 1990 bajo el sello Capitol, "Brigade" décimo álbum en la carrera de la banda Heart, llegó alcanzar el No. 3 en el Billboard 200 y en el UK albums chart, gracias en parte por el éxito que tuvo el mega single "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You" que llegó al No.2., y los subsecuentes "I Didn't Want To Need You" y "Stranded" que no tuvieron el mismo éxito que el primero pero tampoco anduvieron mal. 

"Brigade" siguío la tendencia de canciones accesibles a las ondas radiales, elegantes, baladas intensas aunque endureciendo el sonido, a lo largo de estos 13 temeas se puede apreciar temas rockeros, mid tempo, suave y baladas increibles, y todo esto fue gracias a la participación del legendario Mutt Lange en dos de los temas, a lo que se sumo la gran producción de Richie Zito, que le volvío a dar una grata indentidad y sonido al disco,  y lo cual comenzaba desde un principio con el tema "Wild Child" y esa bateria intensa apoyada por un bajo sólido más las guitarras cortantes y el estribillo pegadizo, luego se nos venía la increible "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You" que pegó por doquier y hasta la fecha sigue siendo de las más preferidas del grupo, aquí se puede notar el sello de Mutt Lange, "Secret" era eficiente y muy buena y servía como puente para "Talk, Dark Handosme Stranger" que llega a golper con fuerza y dotada de una gran sección de viento, "The Night" es otro tema sólido y potente alternando entre guitarras acústicas y electrícas con un gran estribillo, otra destacable era "Fallen From Grace" que comienza con un interpretación a capella y con tan solo una guitarra acústica cambia de ritmo y se acompñada de un gran coro en el estribillo, "Call Of The Wild" deambula en campos mas rústicos con todo y una armónica y quizás uno de los temas más debiles del set, en cambio "Cruel Nights" devuelve la calidad y las Wilson resultan impecables en un tema original de Diane Warren, y finalmente nos quedan las baldas "Secret", y las dos que fueron singles "I Didn't Want To Need You" y "Stranded" que se merecen especial atención por lo soberbias que son, buen acompañamiento músical no digamos la interpretación. 

Cabe mencionar al final otros temas más simples como "I Want You World To Turn" que llega a ser tan simple que no impacta como quisieramos y "I Love You" en donde solo se destaca su interpretación y a menudo son consideradas como de relleno del disco. Curiosamente las dos chicas, Ann y Nancy son las alternan labores a lo largo del disco y eso que "Brigade" a pesar de los temas de relleno, suene tan bien hoy en día como hace 30 años, y gracias al estado de madurez musical que por aquel entonces ya tenían las dos chicas, una carrera llena de hits bastante muy equilibrada.

En Guatemala llegó a sonar muy pero muy bien "All I Wann Do Is Make Love To You" sonó hasta el hartazgo y todavía sigue sonando a pesar de los pesares, fue el único tema que estuvo disponible ya que las otras dos canciones que funcionaron como singles no llegaron al país, aunque gracias a la MTV fueron conocidos por muchos de nosotros.

Brigade Track List:

1. Wild Child

2. All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You

3. Secret

4. Tall, Dark Handsome Stranger

5. I Didn't Want To Need You

6. The Night

7. Fallen From Grace

8. Under The Sky

9. Cruel Nights

10. Stranded

11. Call Of The Wild

12. I Want Your World To Turn 

13. I Love You