Brigade

After bad animals which totally stripped away hearts signature sound, drowning each song with synthesizers, this album upon cursory listen, sounds more like their true sound. They brought back the signature mixture of acoustic and electric guitars. and the production was not overly slick like the past two albums. However, when one listens past the arrangements and production, they will notice and aside from Ann's voice, the songwriting is atrocious. Only 4 songs out of 13 were co-written by Wilson sisters. Every other song was generic, turned out by songwriters such as Holly Knight, Mutt Lange, and Diane Warren. The record company realize that ann wilson's voice could turn mediocre generic songs into hits. They would not allow the Wilson sisters any creative control on the album, and Ann has said publicly that she did not like this at all. If you listen to most other heart, aside from bad animals, Ann Wilson's lyrics are so much deeper than anything on this. Musically, their songwriting is so much more complex and unique. The only good thing about this album is that they brought back the traditional heart arrangements. My favorite song is under the sky, a true heart song written by the Wilson sisters and their songwriting partner, Sue Ennis. Also, the night, cowritten with Sammy Hagar is a good song. I do like the song I want your world to turn, which was written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly who wrote the song alone. It does seem like they run it specifically for Heart. Heart is a constant Play in my iTunes library, but I almost never listen to this album and if I do, I listen to me before songs. Their next album, desire walks on, is the beginning of the return to their roots and regaining creative control. It is not perfect, because the production is a bit too slick for its time but there are some great songs and all songs were cowritten by the Wilson sisters except for the Bob Dylan cover, ring them bells, and the generic much Lang song, will you be there in the morning, which was a hit single sung by Nancy. Yes, this album does have some catchy songs, and the vocals are amazing, and sonically it does sound much more like Heart than their previous albums. But if you compare it artistically to any of their other works, it does not hold up.

some great Heart stuff on this album, I like their 90s sound. There are so many good songs

I am a hard core Heart fan, and I love ALL of their albums, but this is by far their weakest effort. Is it bad? No, they ROCKED on these songs! It's not the band's fault. In fact, it's the people who wrote the songs that are to blame. Heart's previous two albums, their self-titled smash and Bad Animals, were extremely successful, peaking at #1 and #2 on the Billboard charts respectively. As their success in their 2nd and arguably most successful era got bigger, they lost their creative control. In fact, on Bad Animals, 4 of the songs Ann and Nancy Wilson wrote made it, but on Brigade, only 2 made it. There are several songs that have some pretty questionable lyrics, but the award for most confusing, awkward song goes to "All I Wanna Do…", AKA, the song that was so ridiculous that Ann Wilson herself refuses to perform it! For those who don't know what the song is about, it comes from the point of view of a woman who finds some random guy on the street in the rain, takes him to a hotel, and, SPOILER ALERT, uses him to get pregnant because her husband can't have kids (without the man she used knowing). Never have I heard a song with a meaning that crazy! Musically though, if you get past the sometimes cringe-worthy lyrical content, you will find that the composition of the songs are FANTASTIC!! Even though the lyrics to "All I Wanna Do…" are terrible, you can't deny that the actual musical part is beautiful! Ann's voice is also really strong, and although she doesn't hit those high notes from albums like Dog and Butterfly or Private Audition, her screams are just as powerful! Her vocal performances here should be considered LEGENDARY!!!! Brigade is a departure to Heart's previous synth-orientated works, but it is still good. The album has a hard rock, heavy metal edge that has never been fully revisited (although Desire Walks On and Jupiter's Darling were pretty heavy, they were more grungy and felt like albums from a 90s alternative rock band), and in a way, that is somewhat of a shame. I personally prefer Heart's other albums over this one, but I recommend this one. Thirteen pretty good songs for $5.99 is a STEAL, even if the album isn't their absolute best. Also check out Brigade's often-neglected successor, Desire Walks On, as it also has some pretty wicked tunes!

Brigade has some of my favorite Heart songs. Stranded - All I want to do - Secret and so much more. The music is melodic, their voices stunning. It may be one of those 90s albums that bridges pop with hard rock…but these gals make it work.