Heart

Released in 1978, Dog & Butterfly was Heart's fourth success in a row. Like its predecessors, Dreamboat Annie and Little Queen, it sold over a million copies and cast Ann and Nancy Wilson's superstardom in concrete. There was a price to pay for all of this success, and after Dog & Butterfly original guitarist Roger Fisher left the band. The disc reached number 14 on the Billboard album chart, matching Magazine's position. This remastered and expanded edition of the album features brilliant 24-bit sound and three bonus tracks. In many ways, Heart were beginning to make their transition, but the wonderful balance of hard, Led Zeppelin-influenced power rock and multi-textured ballads is still everywhere in evidence here. The single from the album -- "Straight On" -- continues to resonate with its sultry power and slippery, soulful rockist funk, and the title track is one of the finest examples of the Wilson sisters' otherworldly ballad style. The bonus tracks include "Heartless" from a live BBC show that same year, "Feels" (a very early and radically different version of "Johnny Moon"), and the previously unissued Nancy Wilson guitar solo "A Little Bit." Dog & Butterfly is still a magical and thought-provoking record some 26 years after the fact, and a stellar example that not all rock had deteriorated into corporate formula slickness and hollow bombast in the late '70s. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide