Music / Heart (Album)

The love I'm sending
Ain't making it through to your heart

Hey baby I'm talkin to you
Stop yourself and listen
Some things you can never choose
Even if you try, yeah
You're banging your head again
Cause somebody won't let you in
One chance, one love
Your chance to let me know

—"Never"

Heart is the self-titled eighth studio album recorded by the American rock band of the same name. It was released through Capitol Records on July 6, 1985.

Sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson were in a rut to start The '80s. Their last two albums, 1982's Private Audition and 1983's Passionworks, were flops, receiving no certifications, and yielding only one Top 40 hit (1982's "This Man is Mine", at #33). So for their next album, they decided to dabble with the growing Glam Rock sound.

They had already experimented with the sound, with the unreleased single "Perfect Stranger" from Private Audition. So they used that as their template. And they showed the boys how power ballads were done.

While Rolling Stone may not have liked the result initially—they rated it unfavorably, and only gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars in their Album Guide—the public was definitely sold on the new sound. Heart would be Heart's first album to top the Billboard 200 album chart, and went quintuple-Platinum in the United States; it would finish at #2 on the year-end Billboard 200 for 1986. It also went six-times Platinum in Canada, and yielded their first Gold record in the United Kingdom.

Five singles were released in support of the album: "What About Love", "Never", "These Dreams", "Nothin' At All", and "If Looks Could Kill". The first four were all Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, with "These Dreams" becoming the band's first #1.

Which is interesting, as "These Dreams" was their first ever released single with Nancy on lead vocals instead of Ann.

Heart was nominated at the 28th Grammy Awards for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The album has stood the test of time, becoming one of the defining moments of their careers. AllMusic rates the album 4.5 out of 5 stars.

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Tracklist

Side One

1. "If Looks Could Kill" (3:42)
2. "What About Love" (3:41)
3. "Never" (4:07)
4. "These Dreams" (4:15)
5. "The Wolf" (4:03)

Side Two

6. "All Eyes" (3:55)
7. "Nobody Home" (4:07)
8. "Nothin' at All" (4:13)
9. "What He Don't Know" (3:41)
10. "Shell Shock" (3:42)

Personnel

• Ann Wilson – vocals
• Nancy Wilson – lead guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin, background vocals; lead vocals (track 4)
• Howard Leese – lead guitar, keyboards, mandolin, background vocals
• Mark Andes – bass guitar
• Denny Carmassi – drums

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"These tropes go on when I close my eyes:"

• Album Title Drop: The word "heart" is so simple, pointing it out would seem like cheating for this trope. But it only appears in "What About Love" and "Nobody Home", once each.
• Glam Rock: "What About Love" could be the archetypal glam rock music video.
• New Sound Album: Heart decided to go fully into the '80s flavor of hard rock.
• Power Ballad: Quite a few, especially "What About Love" and "Never"
• Special Guest:
  • Mickey Thomas provided backing vocals for three songs, including "What About Love", which Grace Slick also provided backing vocals for.
  • Bernie Taupin and Martin Page wrote "These Dreams".
• Step Up to the Microphone: "These Dreams" was Heart's first single where Nancy took lead vocals. But she would rarely perform it for a long time; when she recorded it, her voice was rough from a cold, and it was difficult for her to replicate the sound from that song.