Search - Heart :: Jupiter's Darling

NOT A MASTERPIECE, BUT STILL QUITE ENJOYABLE

D. Snyder | Salem Oregon | 05/03/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Musically, I find this album highly refreshing after their 80's over synthed, over produced material. While Heart has never been one of my favorite bands, I do enjoy them, and they do know how to rock. I can also understand how some people would not like this material much, especially the fans of Heart from the 80's. I found the 80's stuff to be their most uninspiring work (but then I see the 80's over all as a pretty uninspiring time in music). musically speaking, I find this much closer to there seventies material throughout much of the album, but it does stand alone in their discography as being unique. This, I think, is what some fans find disappointing, as this is not really Heart as they have ever sounded before. I can see how this could be referred to as a return to the seventies material, but to me it sounds quite different from the seventies material too. Personally, I found it interesting to hear them try out some new music styles. Musically I would want to give this one 3.5 to 4 stars, but...



Lyrically, I do have to agree with the people who found this uninspiring. A few of the songs are chocked so full of cliches that they got a little annoying for me. While I have mostly enjoyed Heart over the years for there music and have never thought of their lyrics as very deep and thought provoking, some of these lyrics could and should have been a little more thoughtfully penned.



That being said, I appreciate Anne and Nancy's work in the rock and roll industry. Their voices are still very good on this record, and I strongly disagree with the nay sayers who say otherwise. Clearly on this album they were experimenting with a new direction that they hadn't really gone up to this point. I, for one, would have been disappointed if they had tried to simply rehash their 70's sound. Don't come to this record expecting them to sound anything like they did on Heart, Bad Animals, or Brigade. Finally,I think most people who have enjoyed Heart in the past would enjoy this one as well, especially if they don't have too many preconceived notions of what the band should sound like.



And to Anne and Nancy I would like to say, keep being true to yourself, and I'll keep on listening.



P.S. I just want to add that I am aware that there was some great music coming out of the 80's (U2-The Joshua Tree and Dire Straits-Brother's in Arms readily come to mind). The point I was making about the 80's is that in my opinion the soul was often sucked out of music with overly slick production and technology often running out of control with synthesizers seemingly taking over the music industry. I can appreciate Anne and Nancy's vocals from every era; they are fantastic, but I am so thankful that they have gone away from the synthesizers."

Doesnt really cut it!

W. STEVENS | Cleveland, OH | 09/12/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I just got and heard Hearts new great CD today and rated it 5 stars. I went back again and listened to Jupiters Darling which is the first time I heard it since I first played it in 2004. It's not a good CD! They try way too hard to be different on this one, Ann using radically different tones on her voice, same with the instruments. These really arent good songs or good arrangements of the songs and how they recorded them. They are all over the place often shifting in the song from one thing to another. The hard rock songs almost sound like throwaways from other albums or just EXPERIMENTS they tried that didnt work. The variance in tone on the vocals is really annoying. I do like I Need The Rain done by Nancy! Make Me the opening track is also catchy, a good song. Perfect Goodbye and Enough are decent songs as well! But the rest of the CD is very experimental, veering far from the formula the made Heart a legend. Buy the great new CD instead Red Velvet Car which is their best work in maybe 30 years!"