Heart - Bad Animals
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CD Details
Artist: HeartEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 1990-10-25
Music Label: Capitol
Soundtracks:
- Who Will You Run To
- Alone
- There's The Girl
- I Want You So Bad
- Wait For An Answer
- Bad Animals
- You Ain't So Tough
- Strangers Of The Heart
- Easy Target
- RSVP
Music reviews of Bad Animals
Music Review: Not to be Confused With BAD HEART by the Animals
Rating: 4 Stars
Just kiddin'. Wanted to see if you were awake.
Well, I'm the first to admit that neither set of Wilson sisters (Ann and Nancy or Carnie and Wendy) ever really grabbed me, musically speaking. But it's also true that periodically, someone will mention to me (or maybe post on Amazon or someplace else) that they think Ann Wilson is just about the greatest female rock singer ever. More than Janis? Grace? Chrissie or Stevie? Yes, they insist, and actually,they have a point.
Ann Wilson does have some set of pipes, no denying. Whether she is superior to any of the artists listed above (or any number of others) will always be moot--and subject to the whims and tastes of individual listeners everywhere. But after listening to this record some 18 years after its release, I would have to concede that Ann is probably the greatest woman ARENA rocker ever. How much stock you want to put in that depends largely on how you feel about that kind of music.
Power ballads and bombastic art rock were NEVER critical faves, and many of us regular Joes and Joannes may not have been exactly enamored of the genre either. But we all have our little guilty pleasures. One of mine was "Magic Man." But that in itself wasn't quite enough to make me a total Ann fan. I thought "Barracuda" was a little screechy and generally over the top. And "Little Queen" and other 70s entries pretty much made no impression.
I was intrigued when I learned that they had briefly taken up co-writing with one of their old school friends who had gone on to major in German literature (as I had). I was curious as to how that would all pan out. The prospect of Rilke-rock seemed pretty intriguing. But I never quite got around to checking it out. (I believe that would be the DOG & BUTTERFLY era, but I could be wrong.) I didn't expect they'd be entering Nico territory, but literate rock'n'roll never did seem like a contradiction in terms to me. Apparently though, that association didn't last, and Heart itself kind of meandered until their mid-80s commercial (and I do mean "commercial") renaissance.
The Diane-Warrenization of popular music was well underway by the mid-80s when Heart jumped on that particular bandwagon. And if anyone was suited to that kind of melodious melodrama, it would have been Ann and Nancy. Grace Slick, who of course, also dabbled in 80s commercialism herself, once said that she came to admire Warren (and presumably other hitmakers) for her ability to do what she did so well--even if it wasn't really her thing. Well, it did seem a particularly bizarre match for Grace, but for Ann and Nancy, it pretty much fit like a glove.
Nancy does her usual one song ("There's the Girl")on BAD ANIMALS, and it's impressively diaphonous a la "These Dreams"--but with a little more bounce than the earlier track. The track shows off her pretty, but not overly dynamic, voice to good advantage. The rest of the album is Ann's to do with as she will. And regardless of how one may feel about the music as a whole, it is a fascinating, almost textbook example of power rock vocal technique. Call it Rock Singing 101. The grit is there on the title track. And the skilled balladeering dominates elsewhere.
All in all, a tour de force performance. Like I say, it's easy to see where all her admirers are coming from. But the album is also fronted with hits. The songs you heard in the 80s are the first songs on the CD. And it's clear the radio hits were selected for a reason. As the album goes on, the music gets less and less interesting. And by the last song, "RSVP" many listeners will be all too glad to see the album come to an end. It's not bad, but by then, the R'n'R 101 class presentation has lost some of its steam. All the stops have been pulled out, and it's time for something else. Or maybe just some peace and quiet.
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