Does anyone else think Eric Carmen's "Change of Heart" is a pretty good album?

I loved it when it came out. It was cool and contemporary, with a little less crooning than his previous albums.

Been listening to a few tracks from it lately. Sounds a little slower tempo than it seemed when it was released, but the songs are pretty good...

 

No, I think that it is a weak record, was very disappointed at the time it was released, not enough rock.

 

Picked this album - almost mint - spinning it for the first time tonight. Will throw my thoughts below. What are the forums thoughts on this album?

Big fan of his first album - not so much the second one.

1. "Desperate Fools Overture" (2:05)
2. "Haven't We Come a Long Way" (3:17)
3. "End of The World" (3:29)
4. "Heaven Can Wait" (3:33)
5. "Baby I Need Your Lovin'" (Holland–Dozier–Holland) (3:17)
6. "Change of Heart" (3:30)
7. "Hey Deanie" (4:26)
8. "Someday" (2:52)
9. "Desperate Fools" (3:07)

 

A weak, short, and disappointing album following Eric's labor of love "Boats Against the Current". The relative commercial failure of Boats, as well as Eric's falling out with Clive Davis, meant that Eric was defeated and Clive wasn't going to fund another big budget extravaganza.

The one gem here is Desperate Fools, which is one of Eric's very best ballads.

Change of Heart was a minor hit, but it's not very good.

Hey Deanie is decent bubble-gummy pop--at the time it was a recent hit for Sean Cassidy.

I got this album as a promo from Arista a few days before it was released (for review). I was a big fan of the Raspberries, and thought Eric's two previous solo albums were very good. My impression upon listening to this was: Ugh...what happened here?

 

Just spun it... for me... it was very on par with Boats Against The Current. Tell me more about this falling out with Clive Davis. Was not aware.

The best tracks on this lp, I picked up 2 years ago when I bought the Best Of Eric Carmen LP. Before that I had the first 2 Raspberries LPs. After that, I decided as a boy living in Pittsburgh, I needed to track down as much of the Cleveland band that almost made it big as I could.

 

Boats Against the Current went far over budget, and suffered a lot of delays--some due to Eric falling out with producer Gus Dudgeon and having to start again. Clive Davis, head of Arista, was not happy about any of this. But he indulged Eric after the success of Eric's debut solo.

Davis didn't really embrace the final product. It's not clear if he really didn't like it or he just didn't find it commercial enough. Probably the latter. Anyway, the first single, She Did It, was a modest hit. After that, Eric insisted on releasing the title track as a single. David didn't believe the album version (which was Eric's baby and vision) was a good single. He wanted to add prominent female background singers to the track for the single release. Eric hated the idea. Hot heads met. Eventually, Davis released the single HIS way, but in the middle of December--when no one is paying any attention to single releases. Predictably, it died quickly.

I can't imagine thinking Change of Hearts and Boats were similar. The one really good song on Change of Heart (Desperate Fools) would fit in very nicely on Boats. But the rest is far less ambitious than Boats.

 

Personally, I like Change of Heart... a lot. It wan't so much that it was a bit of a fresh direction for Eric... I couldn't care less about who made it. I thought the songs were really solid, with a contemporary groove that worked nicely back in the day. Listening to it these days, there are a few off spots where the timing could have been tighter and the groove a little snappier, as is the case with Haven't We Come a Long Way. Regardless, the ideas for the songs on this album are all laid out nicely, and it's a good listen. No apologies for picking it up back when, or continuing to appreciate it now.

 

Glad you are enjoying The disc, but as a fan back in the day, I felt the disappointment re: Change Of Heart.

Huge dropoff after the first two solo albums (not to mention the brilliant Rapsberries). The first solo was a wonderful pop disc, and the lush Boats Against The Current the very definition of overindulgent. Boats was a legendary noble failure, but at least I still viewed it as an interesting misstep by a huge talent.

The failure of Boats must have crushed Eric. Change Of Heart had little of the appeal of the previous albums. Some of it worked as contemporary pop, but nothing leapt out as special. To me, it was a huge step down: simply the work of just another decent songwriter on autopilot, and the harbinger of most of what was to come.

Unfortunately, Eric rarely ever seemed inspired again.

 

Probably my fav Carmen solo record. Big fan of his solo work, and for me start to finish his all around best effort.

 

I'm beginning to think this is a much stronger album than B.O.A.T.S.

Track 9 is sort of a drag though...

 

I've had a good portion of Carmen's albums in my collection for a while now, but for some reason, Change of Heart and Tonight You're Mine had eluded me for the longest time; I couldn't find them at any of my local record stores for ages, but I finally found them both last week and picked them up for a few dollars a piece. Before going into the album, I had only heard the title track on 45, but I immediately thought it was one of Eric's best pop songs. I think he was smart in continuing on the trend of more upbeat singles he started with "She Did It."

There's no doubt that his first two albums are very strong efforts, so on some level I can see how Change of Heart can come off as disappointing for some. I however found it to be an extremely fun and satisfying listen. It definitely embraces the late-70s L.A. pop/disco sound that was popular at the time, but I think the change in production really complimented the material Carmen wrote for the album. I could see it coming off to some as a "sell-out" maneuver, but it seems to me that his creativity was simply taking him in that direction. As much as I adore his ballads, its also nice to hear his take on the then-contemporary sound.

I do agree that it is a little short though. There's nine tracks, but it still clocks in at under a half-an-hour, and even then, it's still somewhat padded. The "Desperate Fools Overture," while a nice opener to the album, is for all intents and purposes just an orchestral reworking of the closing track. The cover of "Baby I Need Your Lovin'" is quite good, but I think I would've preferred a Carmen original in its place. Also, "Someday," while being a nice addition, was originally a non-album B-side to "She Did It" and was recorded during the Boats sessions so its placement here is a bit strange. Take all that into account, and you really only have six new Carmen compositions, which is a little lackluster. I don't know if the album was rushed to completion or what, but regardless I'm kind of impressed at the resourcefulness. I'd be more disappointed except the execution of it all is so solid!