Heart’s 5× platinum 1985 self-titled album, which features hits like “These Dreams,” “What About Love?” and “Never,” is set to be reissued on vinyl on March 17 to celebrate its 40th anniversary.
Order Heart’s self-titled album on vinyl right now.
The album will receive a Barnes & Noble Exclusive edition, available on standard weight in an exclusive smoky blue color vinyl. It will also be released on standard black vinyl.
When they came to record their self-titled eighth album for Capitol Records, Heart’s popularity appeared to be on the wane. The band’s acclaimed 1975 debut, Dreamboat Annie, and its three immediate successors all peaked inside the Top 20 of the US Billboard 200 and sold upwards of a million copies, but neither 1982’s Private Audition nor ’83’s Passionworks went gold, while the latter title brought Heart’s contract with Epic to a close.
The bigger picture, however, looked a whole lot brighter for the stalwart Seattle rockers. Passionworks may only have scraped the US Top 40, but its lead 45, “How Can I Refuse?” topped the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, while vocalist Ann Wilson scored a US Top 10 with “Almost Paradise”: a collaboration with Loverboy frontman Mike Reno, which also provided a major hit for 1984 teen movie Footloose.
Boosted by these shots in the arm, Heart had little difficulty courting new label suitors, with Capitol duly stepping in and offering the band the deal which would take them to new heights during the latter half of the 80s.
The impetus provided by their new label coincided with Heart’s conscious decision to streamline their sound, with the acoustic and folk-inclined textures of their early work sidelined in favor of the leaner mainstream rock sound they would pursue on their next studio album: a rebirth of a record they would title simply Heart.
To realize their goal, Heart teamed up with producer Ron Nevison. An astute choice to man the console, Philadelphia-born Nevison began his career doing front-of-house sound for Traffic and Joe Cocker before gravitating to production, his CV including classic rock perennials such as Jefferson Starship’s Freedom At Point Zero and UFO’s landmark live double-set, Strangers In The Night.
To Nevison’s credit, while he gave Heart a vigorous, radio-friendly polish, his crisp production eschewed techniques which have since dated many big-budget rock and pop albums from the mid-80s. The album’s ten songs have aged incredibly well, though the inherent quality of the songwriting itself has been the biggest factor in the record sounding great today.
Order Heart’s self-titled album on vinyl right now.
