Private Audition

Heart | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000025RA
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #285,694 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad as its reputation--Heart still passes the audition, June 19, 2003

By 

Daniel J. Hamlow (Narita, Japan) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Private Audition (Audio CD)

True, Heart were trying to progress following the hard-rocking Bebe Le Strange so it could be said that Private Audition and its followup Passionworks were a transition stage. That said, it's actually not a bad album. The writing is good, but not at the heights of Dreamboat Annie or Dog & Butterfly.

"City's Burning" begins with a quick acoustic guitar that is overridden by Howard Leese's intense and grinding KISS-like rock guitar. Ann belts out the lung power in a song about a couple on the edge.

That segues into the quick rocker "Bright Light Girl" supported by guitar and piano. The girl in this song is a naif here, a wide-eyed romantic naif who's a "bright light girl in a disbelieving world."

"Perfect Stranger" is another preview of power ballads that Heart would excel during their Capitol Records period. One of their better tracks.

The title track is a bouncy piano and guitar rocker and the private audition turns out not to be singing standards but "casting for his couch." Another price some women have to pay to break into show business.

"Angels" has a nice acoustic melody that would later recall Nancy's "Elevator Beat" for Vanilla Sky. The dreaming protagonist tells of clouds being faces she can see, and later asks the angels "what did you see in me/will my time go very far?"

Urgh--they did it again--the "Even It Up" syndrome. Why this for a single? "This Man Is Mine" is an announcement to other girls about a man being hands-off to them. It has a beat similar to "Private Audition" with a prominent bassline, but is merely okay.

A Rock And Roll Over era KISS-style guitar rocker, which is relief after the previous song. What is "The Situation"? Basically about how people are media-zed, channeled, hypnotized, and that people must wake up and shake up the situation. Ann's vocals are nice in the interim between verses when the synth comes on.

Then comes two lush ballads--"Hey Darlin Darlin" and "One Word." The string-laden first has to do with hanging onto one's ideals without selling out: "they didn't make us and they can't break us." This may also be about Heart itself--still holding on. Nancy sings solo on "One Word" and she does some darn good piano work. What word? "Dreaming never looked so true/one word ain't enough/heaven's finding eyes in you/how can I say love?" The song rises to a crescendo with a stomping piano and a great Leese guitar solo.

The final hard-rocker "Fast Times" is a disillusioned protest against the mechanistic morning bell to evening bell drudgery of a day, just to make another dollar. Ann really lets loose here--whew!

The ballad "America" tells of the generation divide between a racist Southern father and the daughter who marched with King. The chorus goes "America, are you losing your mind."

Sue Ennis co-writes on nearly every track here, except for "One Word" and "The Situation." And the album was co-produced by Connie (Ann Wilson, Nancy Wilson, and Sue Ennis) so the Wilsons are really cutting their teeth in handling a business normally made for men.

Mostly a collection of strong rockers--thanks to Howard Leese, a real backbone to this album--along with a few ballads, but not as bad as its reputation. Leese also does the string scoring for "Perfect Stranger", "Hey Darlin Darlin" and "America." Following this album, original alumni Steve Fossen and Michael Derosier left the group, to be replaced by the artists who would propel Heart to glory... but that's two albums away.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Innovative and striking, July 9, 1998

By 

Butch ([e-mail]) (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Private Audition (Audio CD)

This was the first album Heart put out that really got me interested in the band; after hearing this, I went out and bought all of their earlier records. While there are some weak tracks here (Fast Times, Bright Light Girl), it is also a last hurrah for the original band (minus Roger Fisher) and they are at full throttle. Ann's voice really whoops (Perfect Stranger), their songwriting is sharp and on-target (Angels) like their earlier records, and some of the arrangements are unlike anything they've done before (This Man Is Mine, the title track). This will always be my favorite Heart record and I'll always be bummed out that they really started to sound bad after Private Audition, even though all their biggest hits came afterward. With a few exceptions (Never, There's the Girl, Who Will You Run To), most of their ensuing work is sappy or goofy, and missing the earlier edge.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars buy the bgo version with 'passionworks" on it too., September 12, 2010

By 

Michael P. Dobey (colorado springs) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Private Audition (Audio CD)

As the other excellent reviews here have said this was heart in a rough place. And this disc far more than passionworks mirrors the old hearts breakup. Many songs have a rushed feel to them. but this is not a terrible disc it has some real gems on it like 'city burning' a awesome rocker, the new wavish 'the situation' , and the old time song 'this man is mine' among the more blander songs. For this reason I suggest you buy the bgo version available on amazon.com because it has the much better 'passionworks' album as well for about the same price! Alone this one is more for people like me who are heart completists rather than the casual listener. Heart had four truly eternal classic cd's before this one came out : 'dreamboat annie' , 'little queen' , 'dog and butterfly'and 'bebe le strange' , 'magazine' was a unfinished record that their old label put out , it's worth owning though, but this one should be bought with 'passionworks' because that's a better deal, and they were much more focused on things on that disc. However no heart disc is ever a one star effort in my book not even this one.