Heart Thinking Conceptual For Next Album

[GoldDustOrphan]

Heart has started to plan for its next project, which guitarist Nancy Wilson says will be "a concept album." But Wilson doesn't want to reveal too many specifics about it yet.

"I think it's a really fresh idea, so I'm not quite ready to unveil it yet," she tells Billboard.com. "I don't want other people to rip us off. So I'm keeping the details quiet right now."

Wilson says she's already writing songs for the album, which will be Heart's first of all-new material since "Jupiter's Darling" in 2004. "It will thread together thematically from top to bottom," she says. "It'll be a complete experience instead of a collection of songs, and it'll have more of a cinematic feel to it."

Why a concept album? "Well, that just feels like what I want to do," Wilson explains. "I want to keep pushing it on all the other guys in the band -- they're into it. It just felt like it was time for that. People don't even think in terms of concept albums anymore, and it's something we haven't done since (1976's) 'Dreamboat Annie,' in a way; even though that was sort of a mini-concept album, it does have recurring motifs.

"I just think it's good to have a big, living, breathing piece of music that's not just songs."

Wilson, who's married to director-screenwriter Cameron Crowe ("Jerry Maguire," "Almost Famous"), says Heart hopes to start working on the album "quickly and turn it around quickly."

Heart is wrapping up a summer tour with Journey and Cheap Trick. The group was in the news last week when it asked the Republican presidential campaign to cease using its 1977 hit "Barracuda," which was Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's reported nickname as a teen athlete.