timbre seductive as Christine McVie's, and her scalding hard-rock attack not unlike Robert Plant's; it is her performance which holds together the album's sharply defined, if not coherently developed, themes of supernatural love and sexual hysteria. The music runs from guitar-and-synthesizer-oriented rock with blues-based vocal and guitar hooks ("Magic Man" and "Crazy on You") to dreamy art-rock ("Soul of the Sea"). But the strongest piece is the haunting title theme, an acoustic folk fragment that is developed recurrently throughout the album. The success of Heart, in the wake of Fleetwood Mac, should point the way to still more acceptance of women rock singers in a field still very dominated by men. (RS 224)

STEPHEN HOLDEN