Hope & Glory - Ann Wilson
User Score
7.5 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 28 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 28
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 28
  3. Negative: 5 out of 28

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  1. DianeL.
    Oct 19, 2007
    0
    Are you kidding me? This is has to be one of the worst junk I have ever heard! There is Zero talent here! The vocals are horrible! Is this really Ann Wilson from Heart? I like some of the tunes (original) but this is just unbearable to listen to! I shipped this clunker back to Rounder and demanded a refund because it claimed to be from "Ann Wilson of Heart".
  2. SayH.
    Oct 20, 2007
    4
    I love Ann Wilson but this disc is Ho-Hum. It's all very tuned down and slow and Ann never gets into her much beloved wail instead focusing on lower vocals that are quite raspy. I'll keep it for collectible sake but the disc is ok but not great.
  3. JackP
    Oct 4, 2007
    2
    I love Heart with a passion but I must say I never expected Ann to release material this horrible. The potential to make a solo album and with all her talent she can only come up with half-baked cover tunes? I'm sorry but I have to rate this a 2 because it's the worst album I've heard this year. I love ya Ann but next time how about cutting something that is tolerable instead this horrible sounding crap!… Expand
  4. ToddW.
    Oct 25, 2007
    1
    Ann Wilson's talent, creativity, and credibility have lessened in inverse proportion to her weight. She hasn't written a good song in more than 20 years.
  5. JoshuaW.
    Sep 25, 2007
    0
    I feel bad having to say these things about a former member of a legendary band, but I feel it is necessary for consumers who might buy this album to hear the truth and not be blinded by the nostalgia-based praise for this album by others. This album is horrible. I love the band Heart, however, in the decades since Heart was in their prime, by the time of this album Ann Wilson has lost her ability to sing. Her singing on this album is horrible when compared to how she sounded in her glory days. Sounds nothing at all like her voice used to sound with Heart. Just as bad as that is that she butchers most of the songs on the album with silly things. Like very, very cheesy synthesizers during "Immigrant Song" that sound like they belong on a very bad 80's New Wave one-hit-wonder album, not a classic rock song! Her version of "Immigrant Song" is also over 1:20 longer than the Led Zeppelin original. But Ann doesn't use the extra time to make the song better. Instead she makes it worse by filling that time with more of the horrible synthesizers and really awful-sounding wailing. This is not a rock album, which is bizarre because she made a rock album it might have still sounded ok since she has many years of experience as a rock star in Heart. This is an album with rock songs on it which are heavily "countrified" to very bad effect. The end result sounds much worse than what making this be either a rock OR a country album would have sounded like. Trying to be BOTH at the same time is what this album does, and it just doesn't work. This album also contains a very badly-butchered, severely-"countrified" version of the classic song "Bad Moon Rising". Before the song stars Ann and the other singer on that song can be heard muttering "Mustard and ketchup and..waffles on top?." and then the other singer mutters "Chicken and a waffle and a mustard on top." then Ann says "OH-AW!", sounding here like a very elderly lady with Alzheimer's who got lost on the street late at night and has just remembered what her nursing home address is. What any of this has to do with the Bad Moon Rising song is beyond me, but it's all right there stuck onto that track for every listener's great audio displeasure. Maybe they accidentally put a rehearsal cut of that song on the album and forgot that they were reciting their breakfast meal while recording? Despite her diminished voice, Ann sounds okay on "We Gotta Get Out of This Place", due to her old rock spirit shining through. However, you will soon forget this because she features "Wynonna" on this song, and the two of them completely butcher the chorus together, and continue on butchering the last minute and half of the song, by switching from rock to country right in the middle of the song. The songs on this album that aren't ruined with synthesizers or rock songs being badly countrified, sound like mediocre karaoke versions that you can hear locally in any neighborhood bar. It's easy to want to have good feelings about Ann Wilson album because she was half of Heart, which truly was a legendary band in it's prime. However, "Hope and Glory" is the total opposite of those days in terms of music quality. In my opinion almost all of the good praise this album gets from critics or consumers is due solely due to feelings of nostalgia for the band Heart and Ann Wilson as a person. If you wanna buy the album for nostalgia for Heart go ahead. But if you wanna buy it for music quality, don't believe the hype.… Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
74 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 5 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. All Music Guide
    70
    It's a bleak album to be sure, undoubtedly inspired by the downtrodden national mood of the times in which it was recorded. Ann's voice is strong and convincing on these tunes, largely drawn from the '60s and '70s with a few exceptions.
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  2. Billboard
    70
    Hope & Glory"--which contains 11 covers and one original--is rich in pleasures, even if it plays more like a highlight reel than a thoroughly imagined work.
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  3. Boston Globe
    80
    Wilson's voice has aged; once-effortless high notes stay out of reach. But like a hard-living blues diva who subs soul for sweetness, Wilson makes those whiskey tones work.
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