Little Queen - Big Heart!
It starts with a rocking song "Barracuda" which was #1 hit. This is fantastic! I bought this album because I liked so much "Dreamboat Annie" and I never even had realized, until now, that this album is the best Heart album ever. After that the songs sound much peaceful, and I think they are much like Led Zeppelin, except that this is female rock. "Love Alive" is a great song, and I also like the next one, Sylvan Song, which is an instrumental track. "Dream of the Archer" is one of my favourite tracks in this album. "Kick It Out" is much more rocking that the three earlier tracks. The title track is a great song but after those five songs it doesn't sound as great as it could be. "Treat Me Well", "Say Hello", "Cry to Me" . . . so great! "Go on Cry" is actually almost instrumental. You can hear the words "Go on Cry" peacefully on the background - it's a great song, I think that it's more near Pink Floyd than Led Zeppelin.
Stars: Barracuda, Dream of the Archer, Go on Cry.
Little Queen
It's great to have a remastered version with bonus tracks, wish Capitol would do the same with Dreamboat Annie. Little Queen, Heart's second album, measures up to their debut Dreamboat Annie. "Barracuda" is the featured song here & in many ways surpasses "Magic Man" from Dreamboat Annie. "Barracuda" rocked hard & added to the claim that Heart was the Queens of Rock. "Kick It Out" is a good song, so is the funky "Little Queen". It's unfortunate that, like its predecessor, its not a consistent album. This album might be more consistent than their first but the highs are quite as good.
"Dream of the Archer" is similar to the Led Zeppelin song "Battle of Evermore" but not one of my favorites. Call me a fool if you will but I was never the biggest fan of Led Zeppelin. "Sylvan Song" is a great instrumental that features Howard Leese. Leese was Hearts musician extraordinaire, playing several different instruments. In Fact, he would be the longest surviving member of the band, not counting the Wilson sisters. The album has two bonus cuts :Too Long a Time", an early version of "Love Alive" & a live recording of "Stairway to Heaven". Adding this cut only reinforces the myth or title that Heart was "the female Led Zeppelin". I'm not sure where this myth originated but Heart did little to dispel the myth.
Heart was one of the major groups to debut in the seventies & was one of my favorites. In a three year period we got Heart, Boston, Foreigner & Van Halen. This was the last great rock band period of the seventies. Heart would continue for many years & would reinvent themselves in the eighties to once again enjoy a large scale success. The Wison sisters & Heart were "rawkers" & this album does nothing to change that image.
Less focused than "Dreamboat Annie", but still solid
"Barracuda", now a staple of classic rock radio (and playable on Guitar Hero II), kicks off this album with a bang, much like the hard-rocking "Magic Man" that touched off their debut album. With "Little Queen", Heart managed to continue the musical brilliancy promised by their phenomenal debut. "Barracuda", with its chugging rhythm and trippy effects, showcases the technical prowess of Heart's three(!) guitarists and drummer. Somewhere through this churning blend, Ann Wilson's powerful voice comes through loud and clear, as always.
Heart slows it down for "Love Alive", "Sylvan Song", and "Dream of the Archer", continuing to develop Heart's Led Zeppelin-esque blend of folk music and hard rock. "Kick it Out" rivals "Barracuda" for the hardest-rocking song on this album. "Little Queen" is probably the catchiest track, featuring a funky bass groove and crooning vocals from the Wilson sisters.
"Treat me Well" is a largely forgettable song, sounding like an outtake from "Dreamboat Annie", but it nonetheless serves its purpose in transitioning the album towards a more laid-back feel. "Say Hello", which features a Pink Floyd-like ambient intro, is a cheerful, relaxed tune that serves as an effective contrast to the slow caress of "Cry to Me" and "Go on Cry".
"Too Long a Time", an early demo version of "Love Alive", and a live cover of "Stairway to Heaven" finish out this CD version of "Little Queen". I actually prefer "Too Long a Time" to its counterpart on the album; it shows more genuine emotion than the more slickly produced "Love Alive". "Stairway to Heaven" is a bit of a disappointment; Ann Wilson laughs nervously during her spoken intro, her vocals are spotty, and her backing band adds no new ideas to a song that everyone has heard a thousand times. Nevertheless, it does reinforce the influence that Led Zeppelin had on Heart during this time.
For "Little Queen", Heart chose to focus on individual songs rather than crafting a unified conceptual album, a trend they continued in their subsequent releases. Nevertheless, certain parts of this album flow together seamlessly, such as the "Sylvan Song/Dream of the Archer" medley at the beginning and the "Cry to Me/Go on Cry" duo at the end of the album.
"Little Queen" is worth owning, but get "Dreamboat Annie" first.
Fabulous!
They were some of the first women in rock and I admire them b/c they did it without overly sexing it up and without imitating men either- they just acted as themselves and showed that femininity and rock are fully compatible, adding their own style to it. This is such an enjoyable album! These ladies are just so talented and I had heard them on the radio and heard their name as a child, but I can't believe how long it too me to really get into them.
"Barracuda" is a song that came on in the car when I was getting home. It was such a kicking song I didn't want to turn the car off. It is still one of my favorite songs by them. "Love Alive" is also very beautiful and classic as she calmly sings "ever since I was a baby girl I wanted one thing most in this world was to keep my love alive" and the instrumental afterward is kind of progressive sounding. "Sylvan Song" and "Dream of the Archer" (sorry I can't tell when they separate b/c I have this on tape) are really enchanting, dreamy, medeival songs, with great use of mandolin. "Kick It Out" and "Little Queen" are both really catchy with some cool little riffs. "Say Hello" is a cheery little song, good use of mandolin again and I like the inflection in her voice. "Cry to Me" and "Treat Me Well" are slow, thoughtful songs that grew on me. "Go on Cry" is a great instrumental- kind of simple, great rythm, it plain rocks!
Throughout this album is Ann Wilson's strong, piercing, clear voice, beautiful harmony, mandolin, and well written songs. And I love the cover too! It matches with the music perfectly!
Currently, my car stereo is broken and this tape is stuck inside. It's been playing over and over for more than a week and I can't stop or eject it. The fact that I'm still giving this album a 5 star review certainly says something too!.
Kickin' back with Heart
Glad I added it to my collection. I really enjoy the CD. It brings back memories from my teen-age days. Rock on.
You can see a complete list of all Heart discography, or go back to the Heart tabs
|
