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CD Review: Heart 'Red Velvet Car'

ROCK
(Legacy)

Somebody must've hit Heart with a hard-rock defibrillator, because Ann and Nancy Wilson are pounding out some of the strongest music they've made in years on "Red Velvet Car," their first collection of new songs since 2004's "Jupiter's Darling" and their 14th in a string of records launched with "Dreamboat Annie" in 1976. That album went platinum on the strength of the powerhouse hit singles "Crazy on You" and "Magic Man," and "Car" rolls out several blood-quickening throbbers that hark back to those Led Zeppelin-influenced days of yore.

Such thunder rumbles through "WTF," with Ann wailing in multitracked layers like the female Robert Plant counterpart that she is, over the acoustic and electric string-bending of Nancy and producer/co-writer/multi-instrumentalist Ben Mink. The same kind of rich vocal and instrumental weight is brought to bear on the more dreamlike hometown Seattle tribute "Queen City," with its touches of strings and tolling bells.

Fans of the sisters' folksier side can revel in the beauty of such ballads as the autoharp-jeweled "Hey You" and reflective, mandolin and dobro-embroidered "Safronia's Mark," which travels from a whisper to celebratory shout and bears sonic shadings reminiscent of Zeppelin's "The Battle of Evermore."

The bluesy kick of "There You Go" and guitar-rich growl and melodic, harmony-filled sweep of "Death Valley" prove that these barracudas can still bite long after most of their classic-rock contemporaries have lost their teeth.

— Gene Triplett

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