The Rolling Stone review didn't help - the reviewer hyperbolically called the album a "catastrophe" - but there was a grain of truth there. It was particularly noteworthy that her duet with Tom Petty wasn't chosen as a single, had little impact and is largely forgotten - nowhere near as effective as Insider or Stop Draggin' My Heart Around. While the epic title song, featuring Stevie's most daring-ever vocal (check out the "wild, wild, wild, WIIIIILLLD HEART!" thriller at song's end), Sand Back, Sable on Blonde and Beauty and the Beast (another daring moment) showed Stevie at the top of her game, other songs (Gate and Garden, Nightbird, Nothing Ever Changes, If Anyone Falls) were comparative throwaways, indicating that there was a limit to how many worthwhile songs she could generate in a given space of time. Pushing her voice and her talent to the limit and fueled by ever-increasing amounts of cocaine, the album foreshadowed the frayed, burned-out and desperate Stevie of Rock a Little. While I appreciate The Wild Heart for its wildness and for some of its wonderful songs, this was the moment when Stevie began to unravel, although it wasn't necessarily apparent at the time.
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