ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, AUG. 16, 1990
By Steve Newton
I’ve been an off-and-on admirer of the Wilson sisters for many years now—heck, they used to play teen dances when I was a kid in Chilliwack, and I loved ’em. I loved ’em a lot more than I do now, that’s for sure.
Ann Wilson is still a powerhouse singer with emotion to burn, but Heart’s latest mix of rockers and ballads just doesn’t have that special something that the early albums had. As a matter of fact, I’m afraid the band’s been steadily losing it since its self-titled comeback album of ’85, which had some sparkling moments. I hope the inspiration that gave us such great tunes as “Barracuda”, “Crazy on You”, and “These Dreams” will return to these former faves.
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How can you not like this album? I was iffy on the 85 self-titled album, and though Ann’s vocals sounded fantastic on Bad Animals, the only tracks on that one that had power were “Alone” and the title cut (both great tunes, but two songs aren’t enough to carry an album).
On Brigade I finally felt like they were heading closer to the band I loved in the 70s. In fact, the only song on the album I didn’t like was it’s biggest hit, “All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You”. Songs like “The Night”, “Wild Child”, “Call of the Wild”, and “Tall Dark Handsome Stranger” were really hard which is the dynamic I felt was missing from Bad Animals.
Even the power ballads like “Secret” truly had guitar power chords instead of the synth “power’ like on “Alone”. And album closer “I Love You” may be Ann’s finest vocal performance since “Mistral Wind”.
A lot of folks didn’t seem to care for this album, but as someone who has heard all 16 of Heart’s studio albums I think Brigade and 1993’s Desire Walks On are the band’s best records of the Capitol era even if they weren’t the two biggest sellers.