Brigade

by

Heart

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This is by far the best CD Heart ever made. I have everything that they have ever done that I could get my hands on. I love all of their stuff, including the Lovemongers, Nancy's CD Live at McCabes, solo stuff, import albums just for one song not released in the US, everything. But this CD rules. I bought it the day it was released in 1990, and 11 years later, it is still my favorite Heart CD. I love every song on this CD. Ann's voice is an amazing instrument. Unbelievable power, range, clarity and diction. I've seen them in concert 3 times, and she sounds just as good if not better live. It's too bad she never made a duet with Steve Perry. That would've just been an absolutely incredible to hear. My favorites on this CD are Under The Sky, Fallen From Grace, All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You, Wild Child, Secret, and Stranded. Nancy turns in her best vocal performance to date with Stranded. It is such a good album that it is hard for me to say which songs are my fave's, because I really love the entire CD. It is also an excellently recorded album, really sounds great. I also got the CD single for Stranded which has 2 unreleased songs on it, which are: The Will To Love - a ballad, which is one of my favorite Heart songs, and Cruel Tears - a slamming rocker. Both of them are sung by Ann. Unfortunately, this CD single is no longer available. It's too bad they didn't put them on Brigade, it would have rounded the CD out to 15 songs, and really put it over the top as one of the best rock albums of all time. When I recorded Brigade on tape for my car, that's exactly what I did. Buy this CD right now, I promise you, you won't be sorry.

I know I'm in the minority here, but I actually preferred the late 80's "hairspray and synthesizers" Heart and Bad Animals to the band's early albums (which I also enjoy). I'm a child of the 80's, and those albums really knocked me out as a kid. I was hoping for more of the same from Heart's 1990 album Brigade, but instead the Wilson sisters seemed to slide into adult contemporary territory.

I suppose Brigade is best known for the hit single "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You", a song rivaled only by Alannah Myles's Black Velvet for the title of "song most likely to make me put my eyes out with a screwdriver". This single, which has probably been adapted into at least a dozen Lifetime Network movies, would have been easier to handle if there were any quality rockers on the album. Unfortunately even the harder songs lacked the charm of "Who Do You Run To" or "If Looks Could Kill". Brigade just seems sanitized and sterilized, even in comparison to Heart's "corporate" 80's material.

I'll give this one three stars, largely because even a bad Heart album is better than most. It's probably closer to 2.5 stars if I'm being completely honest. Despite the largely positive reviews here, I have a hard time seeing how this album would appeal to fans of either Heart era.