“A wonderful, poetic structure”: The most underrated Heart song, according to Nancy Wilson
Many factors go into creating a good song, and while some aspects might be great, that doesn’t always mean the rest will be strong enough to draw in listeners. For instance, many songs have excellent lyrics but poor production, just as countless others hook you in despite lacking substance. For Heart’s Nancy Wilson, one of their best songs was held back by poor mixing.
For a musician, believing in a musical idea is one of the scariest yet most exciting things that can happen. While it’s easy to feel enthusiastic whenever inspiration strikes, at any given moment, there’s also something especially powerful about stumbling upon an idea you just know will feel and sound great—whether it’s rooted in personal experience, something external, or even something abstract.
Therefore, for a musician, watching a great idea transform into a terrible song is one of the worst things that can happen. Throughout history, endless streams of great songs have fallen into the hands of bad producers, whether the resulting sound quashes its overall impact or lacks the clarity that would otherwise make it feel much more impactful.
For instance, many regard Metallica’s Death Magnetic as one of their worst-produced albums, with good ideas and concepts being overshadowed by the intensity of the production technique to create something far too jarring and overwhelming to be good. Although spearheaded by Rick Rubin, it seemed his off-kilter, disassociated ways weren’t enough to make the record sound great, instead resulting in something that reduced the band to a mere component in the broader noise war.
In the case of Heart, this unfortunate slip-up occurred for their 1983 Keith Olsen-produced studio album Passionworks. Despite being one of their more harshly reviewed works, Wilson felt somewhat taken aback by how one of the songs, ‘Language of Love’, was all but butchered during production, making one of her all-time favourites fall by the wayside within their broader discography.
“One I really loved and wished got more attention was ‘Language of Love’,” Wilson told Vulture. “It came from an album, Passionworks, that I felt was badly produced overall. But that song had a wonderful, poetic structure to it. It was put on the B-list of Heart songs in the end.” Wilson later revisited the track for a re-mixed version on the album Beautiful Broken, breathing new life into a song she knew had potential.
The difference between both versions is evident from the off. While the Passionworks version leans heavily into Heart’s rock roots, the Beautiful Broken one is far more stripped-back and pop-influenced, with an edge that highlights its sentimental quality. Clearly, the over-production of the former did nothing to spotlight the message they intended, leaving it nothing more than a seemingly poor attempt at a conventional rock ballad.
