2012 Remainder Reviews - Heart - Fanatic

[TageRyche]

This is a review of one of the leftover albums from 2012 that I didn't get around to reviewing before the calendar year was up.

 

Heart
Fanatic
Legacy Records - 2012
http://www.heart-music.com

The title of the new Heart album would be a generally apt description of my love for the band. I got into them with their self-titled album back in the 80's and the follow up album Bad Animals, but I readily went backwards to explore the entirety of their back catalog. I also carried onward from the two albums mentioned previously. I even got to see the band live in concert once.

Yes, I'm a big fan. That fact makes it very hard to say that, after listening to the disc five times and living with my thoughts for a LONG time before writing the review, the Fanatic album was drastic disappointment for the most part.

Despite employing a heavier and more raw sound on a number of tracks, the music couldn't cover up for what I thought was a lack of decent lyrics on a lot of the songs.

While Heart is known for rockers and ballads, the material did not seem to blend well together here. The title track (which you can hear via a Youtube video below) has that heavy sound but the pedestrian lyrics left me quite near to yawning.

Slowing things down from the uptempo songs like "Dear Old America", the track "Pennsylvania" comes off as being completely nonsensical. My reaction to other numbers like "Walkin' Good" (which featured a guest appearance by Sarah McLachlan) or "Mashallah!" was a shrug of the shoulders and a vocal comment of "Eh..."

It's not all bad though. The song "Skin and Bones" was a lively little song and the shading to the vocals from Ann Wilson give off a very slinky kind of vibe. The song "A Million Miles" was surprisingly good and I really liked the heavy sound of "59 Crunch" which featured both Ann and Nancy Wilson on vocals.

Heart's landing in the descriptive term of "classic rock" is fine by me but despite a couple of songs I did actually enjoy, the material comes off as a classic rock band trying to stay relative in an age when they don't quite have the same musical chops they had in their heyday. It kills me to say that but while others have loved Fanatic, I found it a chore to get through each time I put the disc in the player.

GRADE: C MINUS

 

 

[RJhog (Admin)]

Nice, honest review TR.  I'll have to go back and listen again.  I haven't done so since it came out.

[Jon]

I've listened to this album a few times and the only thing I really remember is the title track. I liked the album, but just can't remember it. Or maybe I didn't like it?