By JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

HEART – HEART (1985)

Before the release of Heart’s 1985 self-titled album, I couldn’t tell you if I’d even heard of the band before. While it is entirely likely I might’ve heard one of their classic hits from the 1970s on the radio, I don’t have any specific memory of doing so. While my fandom for the group now extends to their entire catalog, in 1985 the Heart album proved to be my entry point for the band.

Heart’s commercial fortunes had fallen quite far with their previous two albums (Private Audition and Passionworks), so an image change to the more glam look the band sports on the album cover was put in place and a lot of co-writers were brought in to amp up the songwriting. While it may not be so well looked upon now (by the band, fans and critics), it proved to be the magic touch as the band’s popularity in terms of commercial success hit its highest point during this particular time.

The Heart album had five singles released from it and the first four were massively successful. It struck me a bit funny that the final single released from the album was the album’s lead track “If Looks Could Kill”. I’m a bit saddened that it never even made the Top 40 chart as a single but I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised considering I never even realized it had gotten released as a single in the first place. But don’t let that lack of individual success for the song make you think it isn’t a great song. I love the riff that fuels the track and as a lead cut on the album, it serves as a great way to adrenalize the listener right from the start. It’s a fully rocking song with singer Ann Wilson sings, in a warning or perhaps threatening manner, about how “You don’t want to see my anger / so don’t you make another mistake”.

The next three songs on Side One were all big successful singles as well. “What About Love” was originally written by members of the Canadian band Toronto. In a boneheaded blunder, the band didn’t release their original version and Heart ended up making the power ballad a hit across the world. And while the song definitely has the expected punch of a 1980s power ballad, I have long thought it was a bit more rocking throughout. One thing I did notice while I was listening to the album for this article is that I really liked the guitar solo on this track. I can’t say that I really paid that much attention to it before now for some reason.

The song “Never” became a #4 hit single for the band. It’s a full on uptempo rocker. According to the online research, the lyrics are considered “uplifting”, which made me go back to the song because in all this time (we’re talking more than 35 years here), I am not sure that I ever really got that. And to further compound my stupidity, I’ve long sung along to the lyrics yet somehow never really let that feeling of being uplifting sink into my brain somehow.

While a lot of ballads don’t age well (or I just have continued to grow immune to their charms over the years), the song “These Dreams” remains a song that I have never lost my love for. Way more gentle sounding than most of the songs on the Heart album, the song features Nancy Wilson on lead vocals rather than Ann Wilson. It also became Heart’s only #1 hit single in the US.

The closing song on Side One is called “The Wolf”. It’s one of only two songs in which all five members of Heart (plus Sue Ennis) are credited with writing the songs as a band. And while this is definitely an “album” track, I have always liked the song. I wouldn’t say that it would’ve been a great song for a horror movie soundtrack or anything but if there was ever a more lighthearted werewolf movie, I am able to envision it playing over the end credits. I thought the track created a great vibe for the listener to get lost in.

While the first side of the album features songs that are mostly credited to other writers, on Side Two, there’s more of a focus on the band themselves in terms of songwriting. Yes, there are still co-writes but Ann and Nancy’s names appear a lot more often on Side Two.

The 2nd side of the album opens with “All Eyes” which is another fast moving rocker. It’s got a huge vocal sound to it in the chorus and while it is another song that gets categorized as an album cut, it still provides an amped up soundtrack to further energize you.

The song “Nobody Home” is a pure ballad. And oddly enough, I still find myself really enjoying it, despite a definite lack of “power”. Back when I first got the album I was psyched to see a name in the liner notes for the song (see NOTES OF INTEREST below), but aside from that, the song still manages to evoke a mood when I hear it.

Meanwhile, the “Nothing at All” track is all about hitting the right peaks as the uptempo pacing is driven by a keyboard track along with the expected inclusion of guitars at the same time. It hit #10 on the singles chart when it was released and remains one of Heart’s more sing-along songs for me when I hear it either on the radio or when I play the album.

While a lot of the material online talks about how the band embraced the radio friendly pop sound that prevailed in the early-to-mid 1980s, I have long thought that the two tracks that close out the Heart album leaned a bit towards their more hard rock side as well.

“What He Don’t Know” has a great melody to it, there’s no doubt but there’s a bit of edge and urgency in the performance, especially with Ann Wilson’s vocal track that made me sit up and take notice back in the day.

And with “Shell Shock” being the 2nd song that the band wrote together, there’s definitely a harder edge to the music. And when the song title is sung in the chorus, it actually sounds like you are pumping a gun to get it ready to fire. The production of the song makes it fit into the thematic sense that guided the rest of the album, but if there was a rawer version to be heard, it would’ve found a home on their 70s albums with no problem.

While there has been any number of takes on the band’s decision to embrace the popular trends of the 1980s (including from the band members themselves), I have nothing bad to say about the Heart album. It got me into the band in the first place and when you look at things objectively, these songs hooked you in pretty quickly and still give you all the feels now that you got back in 1985. It is, simply put, an utterly fantastic album in my eyes.

NOTES OF INTEREST: The Heart album would go on to sell 5 million copies at last check. It was jam packed with special guests, whether in the songwriting or performance credits. “These Dreams” was co-written by Elton John’s lyricst Bernie Taupin and Martin Page (who has worked with Neil Diamond, Starship and others in his career). Mickey Thomas and Grace Slick from Starship provide backing vocals on “What About Love” with Thomas also appearing on “All Eyes” and “Shell Shock”. Survivor guitarist Frankie Sullivan is credited with playing guitar on “Nobody Home” and “Nothing at All”. And there’s plenty more.

If you look at the liner notes, you’ll notice the name “Connie” appears as a co-writer on a couple of tracks. While I’m not sure why it was done this way, it is a pseudonym for Ann and Nancy Wilson plus songwriter Sue Ennis.

The heavy metal band Primal Fear recorded a cover of “If Looks Could Kill” for their 2017 compilation Best of Fear.

I wish that I’d seen Heart in concert during this period of time, but the one and only time I saw them in concert was on July 13th, 1990 on their tour for the Brigade album at what was then called The Great Woods Center for the Performing Arts in Mansfield, MA with Giant as the opening band.