Disco de Heart: “Jupiters Darling”

Jupiter's Darling plasters a grin on my face every time I hear it. Of the 16 tracks, each and every one of them is strong, and many are absolute killers. I thought Ann and Nancy Wilson had given us their best in 1977 with Little Queen - and that was good enough. Now three decades later they've topped themselves. Barracuda, Love Alive and Dream of the Archer still form an unbeatable suite for this band, but songs just as good are here too. Heart had some overhyped stylistic resemblance to Led Zeppelin in their early days, but here it is more pronounced than ever. In fact, with Jupiter they fully pay off their artistic debt to Page, Plant & Co., delivering a performance that those masters would have been proud of if they'd done it themselves, both in the metal and acoustic realms. On "I'm Fine" Ann quite deliberately, and appealingly, goes over the line into outright humorous imitation. Ann's singing tears the roof right off the barn when she wants it to, astounding after all these years, and Nancy has never sung sweeter. The many pleasures of this album are magnified by the fact that it comes as such a surprise. If Ann and Nancy ever had any doubts, they can now sleep at night knowing they have truly met their full potential. Unless they have even bigger surprises in the works!

WOW! Heart really digs down into the roots of their music on this gem. They are back doing what they want to do and what they do best...rock and roll! This falls into the non-commercial Heart category to join Magazine, Dreamboat Annie and the like. A must-have for any real Heart fan!

I totally missed it when Jupiters Darling was released in 2004. I discovered it browsing the web one night in 2005 when I was wondering if Heart had been doing anything lately. I immediately got myself a copy. I admit that I had a bit of trepidation, as I had no idea where their musical tastes had led them in the intervening years, and they have certainly dabbled in a variety of styles popular at the time they have recorded. (Which as most know, hasn't always been a good thing. Just say no to synthesizers!)

My trepidation was somewhat realized, in that there are a couple songs I don't care for too much, as they seem to be more in the style of post-grunge alternative rock, which only occasionally appeals to me. That's not to say they aren't good songs, other Heart fans with a different range of tastes may like them a great deal better. The thing about this album is that it contains 16 songs. If you don't like a few of them, so what? There's plenty left to choose from!

As others have mentioned, Nancy's songs aren't a strong point of the album. Nancy really does have a beautiful voice. But Ann's is more powerful and has an edginess that propels it into greatness. Plus, I'm such an unabashed Annie fan that any song she doesn't sing gives me a bit of a withdrawal twitch. When in the right mood, I enjoy "I'm Fine", though ironically enough it falls somewhat into the category I mentioned above. I do really like "I Need the Rain". It's my second favorite that Nancy has sung, after "Stranded" on the Brigade album.

Quite a few of the songs are sort of middle of the road for me. I really enjoy listening to them, but they aren't the ones that tend to play in my head as I'm going about my daily business. Among those are songs like "The Oldest Story in the World", "The Perfect Goodbye", "Enough", and "I Give Up".

Jupiters Darling does contain several songs that have become some of my Heart favorites. Most of them slowly grew on me over the course of several listenings until they finally stuck in my head just as much as "Crazy on You" or "Love Alive". I'm hard pressed to say what my absolute favorite is from the album. At first it was "Lost Angel". But depending on my mood it could also be "Make Me" or "No Other Love".

"No Other Love" is interesting because it's so incredibly simple as far as lyrics go, yet it really does give me that "I'm flying" feeling. The instrumental arrangement for the song is perfect, first a simple beat and guitar, then adding mandolin, and finally a cello I believe it is, fully fleshing it out into a thing of beauty. I consider "Make Me" to be classic Heart in sound and style. It starts off with Nancy displaying her mastery of the acoustic guitar, then breaks into a rock rhythm while blending acoustic and electric. Not my top favorite on the album, but I really really like it, "Fallen Ones" is very Zeppelinesque in style, and is their most blatant homage to date.

So to sum up, Jupiters Darling is a very strong addition to Heart's incredible catalogue. If there's one overriding weakness to the album it's that it's not an internally consistent whole, due to the variety of music styles and number of tracks. This was an album that had to grow on me. I didn't immediately take to it, but I listen to parts of it it now as much as I do my older faves, which include Dreamboat Annie, Little Queen, and Heart. (Just to be complete, my newer favorites are Desire Walks On and The Road Home.) I consider Jupiters Darling to be a solid middle tier Heart album on my scale of most to least favorites, lumping it in somewhere near Brigade and Bebe le Strange. Ann continues to amaze and astound me. I don't think anyone listening to the album who didn't already know would ever guess she's in her 50's. Rock on!

p.s. I get the feeling that people who rated this album with one star are those who only liked the 80's albums and do not appreciate the true breadth of musical talent that the Wilson sisters possess. The 80's are done and over with. It's time to move on, just like those of us who originally loved Dreamboat Annie have moved on.

Opening with a rousing acoustic guitar, you are ready to hear the old world winds of "Magic Man" as Ann kicks in to sing, alas it's not "Magic Man" but for the sisters who have been making power packed rock since 1976, this is still a really welcome comeback.

At 16 songs, the power and passion that is the Wilson sisters can end up being a little intimidating but for anyone who ever sang along with the likes of "Barracuda" or even "Dreamboat Annie", Jupiter's Darling is a great place to go. Ann proves she hasn't lost a bit of her vocal chops as she punches through "Make You" and then takes it down four notches for "The Perfect Goodbye", and ever since she proved what she can do on a lead with 1985's "These Dreams" Nancy (Mrs. Cameron Crowe if you're nasty) gets a few songs of her own, most notably on the acoustic "Things".

... this will NOT be what you like. However, if you like the classic '70s-era Heart, heavy with rich harmonies and complex, flowing guitar work, you'll LOVE it.

This album shows that Ann and Nancy have wisely abandoned the Ron Nevison production style (heavy synthesizers and super-layered vocals)in favor of going back to the simpler guitar-and-vocals structure they started with. There's no "Barracuda" on here (the ladies are seemingly happier than they've been in years), but songs like "Make Me" and "Oldest Story in the World" still dig into the solid Beatles-Led Zeppelin rock that was Heart's initial strength.

Ballads? You like ballads? Okay, then we've got "The Perfect Goodbye", "Enough" (I could *swear* that the mellotron behind it was lifted from "Strawberry Fields"), and "I Need the Rain" (which could have been a collaboration by Jimmy Page and David Gates). "No Other Love" is a classic; you will either cry your eyes out at this one or be inspired to hug the one you love-- or both.

The loose concept of "Jupiter's Darling" is "the story of a temptress who lures men of power away from making war... [and]... the planet Jupiter herself is a protector... so, WE are Jupiter's Darling."

The undoubtedly heaviest song on the CD is "Vainglorious", a blazing rocker which borrows from Zeppelin while still sounding current.

I hope this lineup will stay together through the end of Heart-- it just sounds right.