Heart - Fanatic

Crunching Respect

I’ve been as far removed from being a Heart fanatic as possible, not really knowing their work apart from ‘classics’ played on the radio – and I couldn’t name these yet immediately accept that classification – but their latest release Fanatic has made me an instant convert, fanaticism itself perhaps hammered out to huge respect.

Seventh track Mashalla delivers that power rock sound I most associate with Heart in my limited radio-led appreciation, Ann Wilson’s vocal towering over the already immense production. The song that absolutely rocks the bollocks is ninth 59 Crunch which enacts the onomatopoeic word of its title with chomping bass/drum/guitar gusto. These latter numbers have tumbled like heavy boulders from the hard heights already set by what has preceded: opener and title track Fanatic with raging guitars and electronic stuttered rhythms; second Dear Old America which is a schizophrenic mix of orchestral strings and distorted guitar a la the most recent ZZ Top, and the over-amped guitar sound is replicated again in fourth and my favourite Skin and Bones. There’s even a John Martynesque echoplex opening and continuing guitar riff in fifth track A Million Miles, so half way through these ten tracks, I’m hooked, head banging, volume pumped, songs immediately replayed even louder.