Heart: The five albums Ann Wilson can’t live without
As the frontwoman of Heart, Ann Wilson has many highlights to her name. A stellar songwriter with a remarkable set of pipes, while her most famous songs are primarily ballads, Wilson comes from the rock tradition and has greatly impacted the genre.
With her younger sister, the band’s guitarist Nancy Wilson, Ann railed against the male-dominated and misogynistic industry with her music and proved widely influential. Whether it be ‘Barracuda’ or ‘Magic Man’, the group’s best tracks from the 1970s remain potent because of their brilliance and the configuration of the world in which they emerged.
Whether it be contemporary figures taking off from where she left, such as Halestorm’s Lizzy Hale, to established acts such as Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains, without Ann Wilson’s work, indirectly and by proxy, the world of rock music would be a different, and probably much less inclusive environment than it is today. With that said, on the gender disparity front, there’s still a long way to go.
While she remains a legend in every sense, the most critical aspect of Ann Wilson’s career is her music. Regarding her influences, Wilson cites an array of artists as her favourite. When speaking to Spin in 2021, she listed the five albums she can’t live without, providing an enlightening peek into her inner workings as a creative.
The first album she picked is the most recent of her collection: David Bowie’s final album, Blackstar. The swansong of the great artistic chameleon, as well as being a masterful record, Blackstar is significant as he died of liver cancer only two days after its release. Furthermore, as Wilson is of Bowie’s generation, it affords her an extra touch of consequence as he was one of their ultimate pioneers. She cites its existential power and distillation of the Englishman’s boundary-pushing style as a reason for picking it.
Wilson said: “I love this album because it is so brave and poetic. I feel this album is his most cutting edge. All through his career, Bowie took on various status quos including the rules of fashion, middle-of-the-road musical styles and gender fluidity. I feel on Blackstar he challenges the most immutable law of all: mortality. The album is haunting and wide awake as he ponders his own demise and invents a new religion with the relic of Major Tom as its mythological deity. Musically, it’s Bowie’s most sophisticated work. He allows the breezes of modern jazz to blow through the open window of his soul.”
The second album Wilson chose was Joni Mitchell’s 1976 offering, Hejira. The record that pushed the Canadian in a more experimental direction than before, informed by free jazz and her travels, it is also notable for the immense fretless bass work of the late Jaco Pastorius.
Wilson explained: “I love this album like I love a lifelong friend. On Hejira, Joni is a grown woman, a free agent, travelling solo. The songs are full of the rich imagery of the things and people she encounters and interlaced with her poetic, unforgiving introspections. Musically, Hejira reaches new heights; again letting jazzy time signatures and voices ride shotgun with her signature guitar tunings. It’s Joni on electric being played like an acoustic and it’s a first. This album does not age. Rather, it unfolds with time.”
From two prominent bodies of work to a lesser-known one. Wilson’s third choice was 2000’s Perfect Day by the late singer-songwriter and guitarist Chris Whitley. Comprised of covers of classic love songs, such as Bob Dylan’s ‘Spanish Harlem Incident’ and Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Drifting’, the American musician puts his distinctive spin on the entire collection. It is so good that Wilson says the album doesn’t age.
She expressed: “I love this album because it is so intimate. Chris’s tangled, smoky vulnerability is wide open here, and there is no effort made to pretty things up with production”.
The next pick comes from one of music’s ultimate female icons, Lucinda Williams. Wilson opted for 2001’s Essence, which earned Williams three Grammy Awards, one of which she won, ‘Best Female Rock Vocal Performance’ for the track ‘Get Right With God’.
Wilson explained her adoration for the record and how she sees a kindred spirit in Williams, stating: “I love this album because it’s the perfect marriage of unpretentiousness, honesty and badassery. I love me some Lucinda and Essence is full of her best songwriting and singing”.
The final pick that Wilson effused about was one of the most iconic albums of her era, The Who’s 1973 rock opera Quadrophenia. Like many, she deems it the best album by the British group. The Heart leader said: “I love this album because I feel it’s The Who with all cylinders firing”.
She added: “This music and story of alienation feels to me like Pete Townshend and the lads could really relate close up, and so can I. The songwriting is iconic and shows a band at the apex of their development”.
Ann Wilson’s favourite albums:
- David Bowie – Blackstar
- Joni Mitchell – Hejira
- Chris Whitley – Perfect Day
- Lucinda Williams – Essence
- The Who – Quadrophenia
