Heart’s Next Album To Be Hybrid SACD Only Title

Epic/Legacy Records has announced that the upcoming 2 Disc album by Heart entitled “Alive in Seattle” (Epic E2H 90287) will be one of Sony Music’s first Hybrid Layer Multichannel SACD releases. Alive in Seattle was released this week in DVD Video format.

According to Epic/Legacy officials, the 2 Disc Multichannel SACD will be available in stores on June 10th. The 2 disc SACD set will carry a list price of $24.98, which is Sony Music’s standard price for a front line, 2 Disc CD set as well.

The announcement of this release fulfills a committment made in January at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). At that time, we were told that once Sony had all three of its new Hybrid SACD plants on line, more top line artists would be releasing albums in the Hybrid SACD format.

At the recent 114th AES Convention in the Netherlands, Sony’s DADC Division announced that the new Hybrid SACD plants in Terre Haute, Indiana and in Austria would be fully on line by May with an added Hybrid SACD capacity of 1 Million discs per month between them. This is in addition to the Hybrid SACD capacity already at the Sony Hybrid SACD replication lines in Japan.

As a Hybrid Layer Multichannel SACD, the new album will feature Multichannel SACD, Stereo SACD and Stereo CD versions of the music on the disc. The album will be designed to play in SACD and CD players as well as SACD compatible DVD Video players. No separate Stereo CD edition is planned for release.

Details About Alive in Seattle
The Alive in Seattle album will feature performances by Heart at the “final hometown gig” performed during the “Summer of Love Tour” last August at the 3,500 seat Paramount Theater in Seattle. In addition to this week’s release of the concert from Image Entertainment, the concert will also be featured on PBS Public Television Stations in the U.S. starting on June 10th. This will be part of the tie-in to the release of this upcoming Hybrid Layer Multichannel SACD.

According to Epic/Legacy Records, the songs on the album will be a

“mix of early Heart hits (“Magic Man,” “Crazy On You,”, “Barracuda”), later hits (“Alone,” “These Dreams”), album tracks (“Mistral Wind,” “Love Alive”), cover versions (Led Zeppelin’s “Battle of Evermore” and “Black Dog,” Elton John’s “Mona Lisas and Madhatters” and the Sonics “The Witch”) and new songs like “Heaven,” “Sister Wild Rose” and “Break The Rock.”

 

Comments from The Wilson Sisters
As part of the announcement of the Alive in Seattle Multichannel SACD, Epic/Legacy also released statements about the project from Heart lead singers Nancy and Ann Wilson.

According to Nancy Wilson,

“I’ve got to say of all the tours that I’ve ever been on, this was by far the most fun and the most meaningful. It felt amazing to be Heart again. In-between then and now, I did a Nancy Wilson tour as well as scoring music for movies, and Ann’s done her Ann Wilson tours, but there was something super sweet about being Heart again on a big rock stage and just turning it up really loud. It felt amazing.”

 

Ann Wilson added that

“It was really freeing playing new material. The more time that goes by with Heart, the more the songs that weren’t Top Five just kind of fade into obscurity. Then you’re just thought of as the “Magic Man/Crazy On You/Barracuda” band. So when we can have success playing new stuff, that’s what we live for really.”