Music Review | Heart: Jupiter's Darling
Written by: Kage Alan

Album Rating: B

I feel a little guilty about my love for Heart’s music.  You see, I grew up an 80s child and my first real dose of Ann and Nancy Wilson came from their second coming (1985+), material mostly written by other people and elevated to the radio waves with slick LA production.  I’ve seen them live on a number of occasions, but only took a passing interest in their older material.  Shame on me!  Fortunately, a colleague recently took it upon herself to “educate” me in classic Heart and I’m extremely thankful for that.  While I still enjoy the polished 80s and 90s sound, I now prefer much of the material leading up to those decades.

So, years later since 1993’s “Desire Walks On,” the sisters have returned to the studio as Heart to deliver “Jupiter’s Darling.” Adding an even more personal touch is that Nancy herself produced the album, which is a guarantee that they had the most control over the direction of the project as well as its particular sound.  The obvious first question, then, is “What does ‘Jupiter’s Darling’ sound like?” Imagine if all the albums from 1985 through 1993 didn’t exist and that we’d gone from “Passionworks” directly to this release.  We’d see a continued maturity in Nancy’s guitar work and Ann’s vocals, but also a return to their earlier songwriting roots.

There are no “What About Love?,” “Alone” or “All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You” radio friendly slick hits here.  This has a much rawer and organic feel to it, which is perfectly set up with its first track, “Make Me.” Whereas I initially might have hoped for another hard rocking “Black on Black” type number, things start off quiet and slow.  The melody takes its time in moving and also in reintroducing us to the magic of the Wilson sisters.  This isn’t to say that there aren’t moments of pure rocking brilliance to be found here, such is the case with “I Give Up,” easily one of my favorite tracks.  “Oldest Story in the World” and “Vainglorious” also have a harder edge to them.

Aside from the more rock-oriented tracks, “Things” takes a distinctively different, almost folksy, approach while “The Perfect Goodbye” picks up the pace after coming across as almost ballad-like.  As for a softer side of the Wilson sisters, “No Other Love” and “I Need the Rain” fit that bill perfectly.  “Down the Nile” is, to use my colleague’s word, a “jammin’” tune.  Not everything works as one might have hoped, though, such can be evidenced in “I’m Fine,” which is vocally weak.  A couple of other tracks meander around a bit and don’t really add anything to the album, but Heart does have a ton of new material and it’s better to put as much out there as possible to see what works and what doesn’t.  One certainly can’t hold that against them.  The album finishes with “Hello Moonglow,” a song that harkens back to many of their more unusual and melodic tracks that found their way onto an album.  They may not have fit in per se, but they added that much more depth.

It took me a little while to sink my teeth into “Jupiter’s Darling.”  I first had to undo all the damage their old record company inflicted on the band’s sound and direction in the 80s.  Once that was done and I’d listened to the album a couple of times, I started to appreciate it more and more with each subsequent listening.  This is an album fans of Heart have been craving now for a couple of decades.  It’s not entirely perfect, but it is evidence that Ann and Nancy Wilson are ready to continue their journey into Rock & Roll history with their third coming.  Having witnessed their tenacity, I have no doubt that they will continue to succeed!

Afterthought: One final thing I am going to note is some disappointment that the import CD of this album contains bonus tracks that are absent on the US release.  Why?  Much to the dismay of record companies and the artists themselves, this is one of the reasons downloading songs is so popular.  Is somebody really going to buy the US release, then fork out another $31.49 on Amazon.com for the import?  Probably not.  Why should foreign markets have such a benefit for a group that’s from here while we do not?  I continue to be puzzled by this.