Heart

Passionworks

The end of Heart's transitional era, with the comeback soon

Review Score:

(8/10)
By 1983, Heart had primarily been remembered as one of the few rock bands led by women, in fact two, Ann & Nancy Wilson. But it had been three years since they had a huge hit, and even that was with a cover of Aaron Neville's "Tell It Like It Is". While PASSIONWORKS, their last album for Epic Records, was devoid of any hits, it's still an album that is unworthy of its bad reputation. PASSIONWORKS shows the Wilson sisters as sexy, seductive yet not submissive females, while their previous albums had them projecting a rougher exterior. This departure didn't win them any new fans or keep their old ones, as the single "How Can I Refuse" failed to crack the top 40. But while audiences may have "refused" to buy the new Heart, PASSIONWORKS still contained some underrated favorites in rockers like "Ambush", "[Beat By] Jealousy", and "Love Mistake". The one song that should have been released was "Allies", a rousing power ballad typical of the era, but not stereotypical. And no wonder, it was written by Jonathan Cain of Journey. The only truly embarassing song on here is "Johnny Moon", which sounds like the soundtrack to a very bad teen movie from the '80s. It's a good thing this has remained unnoticed. In some ways, PASSIONWORKS was an album that didn't have much thought into it. After all, it was the last album under their contract with Epic. But it showed that Heart may have just needed to cool off before re-thinking their approach, and eventually revive their career with their self-titled 1985 album that would bring them more success than they saw in their '70s days.

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