HOPE & GLORY - ANN WILSON
This debut solo album from Heart’s Ann Wilson is hardly a go-it-alone affair. Of the dozen cuts, only two feature Wilson without a little help from her friends; the remaining 10 find the singer sharing the mic with guests including Elton John, k.d. lang and Rufus Wainwright. (Three cuts costar Ann’s sister Nancy, which technically makes a quarter of the disc a Heart album.) “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. The centerpiece is a folk-funk take on Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song”; Wilson emphasizes the tune’s menace, but also draws out its vulnerability. Other gems: Lucinda Williams’ “Jackson,” with lang, and Neil Young’s “War of Man,” with Alison Krauss. Hope & Glory
