Royally Wonderful Rocking Women! (Little Queen - Heart)

Member Name: TheChocolateLady

Product:	Little Queen - Heart
Date:	23/08/08 (148 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fascinating lyrics, interesting instruments, artisticly written songs, great vocals

Disadvantages: The additional track of their live "Stairway to Heaven" isn't great

Back in the 70s the rock scene was dominated by male groups until sisters Ann & Nancy Wilson finally got into the act and released their multi-platinum debut album "Dreamboat Annie" (which I will review after I get the CD to replace my vinyl copy). Their second album, "Little Queen" was equally successful but considered by some to be not quite as good as their debut, despite the hit songs "Barracuda", "Kick it Out" and the title song, and the album reaching the #9 in the top ten pop (go figure!) albums (Billboards for North America), and going triple platinum.

This album has much going for it, and still sounds great today, over 30 years after it was released. In addition to some of the most inspirational drumming that hits you with such a smack you can't resist the urge to move, and some amazing electric, acoustic and bass guitar solos that are on a level of Clapton and Springstein, they also incorporated less conventional instruments like flute and mandolin into their songs, the latter giving this particular album a slightly folk rock flavour underneath its strongly hard rock, close to metal surface. This may have been the inspiration for the cover picture with the Wilson sisters dressed in their Renaissance costumes on a forest backdrop complete with a dwarf, a goat and pantaloon dressed band members.

Together with the driving beats of "Barracuda" and "Kick it Out", even some of the songs that have slightly quieter beginnings still get the rock treatment, such as "Say Hello" and "Love Alive". One thing that really gets your attention is their unique way of including key and tempo changes that was rarely used in 70s rock. This, along with intros that add croaking frogs or background noise that sounds like things you'd hear on a busy street are musical twists that innovative groups like Queen and Pink Floyd used and is probably what got them known as the "female Led Zeppelin". (And it is perhaps this label that encouraged the producers of this remastered CD to include a live performance of Heart's rendition of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven".)

What's more, Heart broke many rules of popular music of its time, such as not always writing songs that fit into the typical verse/chorus/verse/repeat chorus build and allowing some of their songs a more linear flow to them. For instance, how many other rock groups at that time could insert a full two minute instrumental ("Sylvan's Song") that leads seamlessly into the next 4½ minute track "Dream of the Archer" making a combo of over 6 minutes of music that paints a story and bewitches the listeners. This is the song that I believe inspired their cover picture, and uses the mandolin heavily, but still brings in a heavier rock interlude in the middle. What's more, we get all this with harmonies that are as rich and layered as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young but unlike them, we also get to hear beautiful voices singing these, making the experience even more luscious, and very sexy sounding, as well.

Another thing that put Heart on the map could easily be their very special lyrics. Take for instance "Dream of the Archer". The opening lines are: "Wayfaring warrior Soul - still wild The archer stands Arrow measured to the goal - sing of Strong and living man." See what I mean? This whole song is filled with this type of evocative phrasing that brings us back into the past. Of course, this is the most unusual of the lyrics on this album but the rest of the songs also use interesting turns of phrase. For instance, in the title song lines like "Away from the sellers, the papers said Your crown was tight and heavy on your head Still you danced and you sang - all night The telephone rang Music kept on playing from your pen." tell a story of how fame effects artists like themselves. In the opening hit song "Barracuda" they also look outside themselves at how fake people can get in this industry with lines like "Back over Time when we were all Trying for free Met up with porpoise and me No right no wrong your selling a Song- A name whisper game." These are not words that you'll easily remember or learn by heart, but rather ideas that are poetically shaped and need to be listened to with the music to fully understand their meaning. In this, Heart is almost more like a folk group than the rock bands of the same era that hardly ever made their lyrics as artistic as their sound.

If you ask me, while Heart might not appeal to those who prefer less heavy rock sounds, there is still a good deal that those who prefer pop might enjoy - especially in this album. On the surface, this is a very up-beat album that exudes extremely high energy even on the quieter tracks. Beneath that surface you'll find a very talented group of musicians coupled with two beautiful female vocalists that write distinctive lyrics, all spiced up with the additions of less than usual instruments like the mandolin and sprinkled other surprises along the way. And while I'm sure some of the purist heavy metal lovers out there will turn up their noses at a female band, I sincerely hope that what I've said here will encourage them to give at least one Heart song a listen (I'd recommend "Barracuda") as they might be pleasingly surprised. I'm going to give this five stars out of five and highly recommend it.

Rock On Girls and thanks for reading!

Davida Chazan © August 2008

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Technical Stuff:

Heart's official web page can be found at http://www.heart-music.com/default.asp and the page for this album gives you the lyrics to all the songs as well as a link to the American Amazon site for purchasing.

This album is available on CD from Amazon.co.uk new for £5.97 or through their marketplace from £4.62.

You can also see the Wikipedia page for this album at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Queen

Ann Wilson has just released her first solo album "Hope & Glory" and she has a My Space page of her own which can be found at http://www.myspace.com/officialannwilson
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Summary: Female rock band Heart's 2nd album