Does Heart ever recover from the 80s?

Inflammatory title, but I am of the opinion that Dreamboat Annie is a top tier album and the Wilson sisters, whoever they brought with them, never quite put anything that good out since. Magazine, Little Queen and Dog/Butterfly are all decent releases though.

Conversely, I cannot stand Bebe Le Strange, Private Audition, Passionworks and ESPECIALLY the Selftitled... or Brigade for that matter. Each of these makes Heart sound like a cheap disposable glam metal act to my ear. So I want to know, what Heart albums are actually worth listening to?

 

I would recommend Jupiters Darling, Red Velvet Car, Desire Walks On and their 1995 "unplugged" album The Road Home. Those are all very enjoyable records with the majority of the songwriting done by the Wilson sisters. Though you seem very dismissive of even their early works (I think Little Queen and Bebe Le Strange are both great) so I can't guarantee you'll enjoy them. They return to the mix of hard rock and folk rock found on the early records, though.

 

Did any of us?

 

and the decades have only been worse, each one since,
both for music and culture,
and the whole world in general.

 

Recover? I'm sure they made more money in the '80s than in the '70, I doubt they think they need to recover from that. More likely they'll never recover from the incident where the husband of one of the sisters attacked the kids, that seems to have led to an estrangement that may well never been repaired. That the band possibly won't recover from.

 

Don't know their whole catalog, but I can attest that Jupiters Darling was a fantastic album full of great tracks that sound very much like '70s Heart. I've heard that Red Velvet Car was also very good.

 

Saw them live about 15 years back in London, they were superb. Really like Jupiters Darling and The Road Home.

In fact I bought a copy of Red Velvet Car cheap on cd and this thread has inspired me to give it a play. Maybe The Road Home later also.

I liked Bad Animals, that's a great album. There's The Girl is still a favourite. Alone is superb. I like Heart in 70's, 80's and beyond. So to answer the question, yes they did.

Must give the Strange Euphoria cd set a play also soon.

 

All of them in my opinion.

That you can't stand Bebe le Strange etc. is your loss.

 

Sounds like you simply don’t like Heart. I wouldn’t recommend any later albums and to just enjoy Dreamboat Annie. I’m like that with other band where, for whatever the reason, you just click with one album.

 

Just playing Red Velvet Car for the first time, its another good one, those who recommend this are right. Well worth seeking out.

 

For me with Heart its the first two I love, after that im a little more choosey, then when we hit These Dreams and Bad Animals, i'm fully onboard with those, perhaps because of All I Wanna Do, which was played to death, I'm less enthused but then we reach the Road Home and the later albums - Jupiters Darling, Red Velvet Car, all are good. I suspect there's some gems inbetween still for me to discover, there's no hurry, plenty of time for my ears to enjoy.

Might have to check out The Lovemongers too, all I know is the cover of Battle of Evermore on Singles soundtrack. Looking forward to Ann's solo album, the tracklisting of covers looks superb. Baker St I look forward to hearing. Funny how someone lesser covering that song would fill me with dread, with Ann's vocals I am very positive.

But not wishing the subject away from Heart. Great band!

 

I remember an interview with Nancy Wilson who stated her and Ann regretted caving to pressure to change their style in the 80s.

 

From the basic premise of your post, I would suggest not bothering with anything other than Dreamboat Annie. Sounds to me like you’ve already made your mind up and need to move onto something else.

 

Yeah, they were featured a year or two ago on a CBS Sunday Morning segment and slagged the 80s material, but I personally find that completely hypocritical. "Pressured"? Yeah right. They wanted to remain relevant, get on MTV, attract a younger audience, stay on the radio and sell records. They accomplished all of those things.

They seem to act as if their cred is threatened with a decade of glam success. It's annoying.

dan c

 

(Marvin the robot in The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams)

 

I don't think Heart suffered from their 80s path as much as they just ran their popular course like most bands.

It's not like tons of artists remain popular and relevant for decades and decades.

They had a good - albeit fairly brief - run in the 70s and then a nice - albeit brief - comeback in the 80s. I don't think the latter era damaged their longterm prospects at all...

 

Heart got into the Rock Hall even with the "albatross" of their 80s comeback, so they can't complain about it too much.

I actually suspect they wouldn't have been inducted without the comeback. Sure, it's their 70s stuff that's more respected, but without the 80s comeback, they're more firmly in the "where are they now?" file...

 

There was absolutely nothing to recover from … if anything they handled the '80's better than many rock bands did.

 

Sounds to me like you've already answered your own question. Maybe Heart isn't the band for you...

 

How so? They "handled the 80s" well commercially - in the 2nd half of the decade, at least - but artistically is a different debate.

In terms of fashion, not so good!

 

This is horrible. Just like their music

 

^^ I saw a lot worse looking "fashion" in the 80s - besides which I thought this was going to be about the music rather than what they wore.

 

A) Maybe from some new band, but I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a 60s/70s act who looked more ridiculous in the 80s. Maybe as ridiculous, but more???

B) Yes, the OP mentioned music in his first post, but any discussion of how Heart "recovered" from the 80s inevitably leans toward their "look", as that became something of an albatross.

Besides, that "look" offers a pretty good visual clue of where they went musically. Their music/fashion went hand-in-hand in that era...

 

I thought it was about being 80.

 

Did they, though? They didn't write any of those hits, so a lot of the money was diverted elsewhere. They sold a lot of tickets during those years, but tours weren't as lucrative as they became in the 90's and onward.

They got their band back in the 2000's, making a series of Zep-tinged 'traditional' Heart records....they're enjoyable if you like the early stuff, but the songwriting isn't up to the standard they set back in the day, IMO. (They're also all mastered to be ear-splittingly loud, unfortunately). I saw them live a couple times in 2009 and 2010, and they were wonderful, though, so in that sense, they definitely 'recovered.'