Sheena Easton Album: “Private Heaven”

In late 1984, Sheena Easton's album "A Private Heaven" was released and kicked off the second phase of her '80s career.

Sheena's vocals on this album were overall more loose and playful than on her previous albums. Also, her sound moved away from the Easy Listening/Adult Contemporary Laura Branigan/ONJ style to more of a dance diva sound like Teena Marie or a more sophisticated Madonna.

"Strut" which was a Top-10 smash single, opens the album and has become one of Sheena's signature tunes and for good reason, with its industrial percussion, sassy vocals and horn break, it's perfection.

Equally great is Sheena's first collaboration with Prince, the naughty "Sugar Walls", which actually caused controversy back in the day. It features Sheena's sexy speaking voice and plenty of double entendres and a slightly-Oriental synth riff. This is definitely another of Sheena's best songs.

The fast-pumping "Hungry Eyes" features another Oriental-style synth riff, but this one is more cliche than the riff on "Sugar Walls" and the song is a little repetitive.

Things slow down a little on "Hard To Say It's Over", on which the sparkling intro swells into a terrific Diane-Warren style '80s power ballad.

My favorite cut is the dramatic uptempo rocker "Swear", on which Sheena gives her cheating man an ultimatum. It may be a little repetitive, but it features a great echo effect on Sheena's vocals, which boast appropriate attitude over a "Beat It" guitar riff. Sheena even raps on this one before the potent start-and-stop section begins.

Sheena does her best Barbra impression on the cold opening of "Love and Affection". Once the song gets going though, it takes on a country-pop flavor. Sheena even uses a slight drawl on this one and I can picture someone like Wynonna Judd covering this.

"Back In the City" is a Salsa-type number with great Latin percussion that predates what Gloria Estefan would be doing in a few years. Repetition also prevents this one from being truly great.

Beginning with a "Lucky Star"-type intro, "You Make Me Nervous" features somewhat awkward pacing during the chorus, but given the lyrics, this jittery arrangement is appropriate. This is yet another song that suffers from a little too much repetition, but it's still catchy and reminds me of Teena Marie.

"All By Myself" (not the Eric Carmen song) is a pretty ballad, and Sheena sounds more relaxed singing it than on previous slow numbers. Another very good song.

The closing cut, the fast dance-rock number "Double Standard" has Sheena calling her man on his cheating behavior and she sounds more like Teena Marie on this one than any other.

Though Sheena never had a blockbuster album like "Private Dancer", "Like a Virgin", or even "She's So Unusual", her LPs in the '80s were pretty solid and very listenable without skipping tracks.

"A Private Heaven" is not the best album of her mid-late '80s output but very much worth getting.

Back in the 80's, Sheena Easton was something of an oddity in the music business. She was never the hottest thing in town, but she was rarely out of sight. In fact, her momentum kept building up until she hit her commercial (and arguably artistic) peak with "A Private Heaven".

This album was indeed very successful, and it deserved to. The classic debut single, "Strut", was possibly one of the most simple and powerful feminist statement of the 80's - "Come on baby, what are you taking me for ?" is her answer to a self-centered and patronizing lover who's willing to use her as a cheap sex object. Her vocal delivery is simply fantastic - both coy and outraged - and the song's hooks were inevitable. She kept her momentum with the sultry "Sugar Walls", which as everyone knows was written by Prince, who got a few raised eyebrows because it was a big stretch from Sheena's former "sweet girl next door" image. A third single, the rocking "Swear", never got the success it deserved, but let's just say that it's all about attitude, and Sheena had the right one.

In fact, the whole album is pretty straight forward; while one might argue that the production sounds dated today, the arrangements were a fine crossover of rock and dance. A good song is a good song, period, regardless of the era it comes from. Tracks like "Double standards", "Back in the city" and "You make me nervous" are edgy and straight forward in the best possible way, and could all have been released as singles.

I have to say something about the ballads on this album. When Sheena turns down the tempo, it's usually for the better, and this album is proof of that; the three ballads on this album are all standouts. "Hard to say it's over" is a # 1 smash that never happened, because EMI somehow overlooked it (how could they ?) and never released it as a single. This may have come from a desire to showcase Sheena as a dance artist, because most of her early hits were ballads. Her cover of Joan Armatrading's "Love and affection" feature some of her most expressive vocals ever, and "All by myself" (no, not the Eric Carmen song later covered by Celine Dion) is less effective but still very pretty and enjoyable, with a few strikingly visual lines ("Starlight shining on the boats on the harbour / One night maybe I'll be sailing away").

In fact, the only weak moments on this release come from the bonus tracks. The instrumental mixes of the album's singles were far from necessary. And songs like "Letters from the road" just don't measure up to the high standards set by the original ten songs. Still, it's not enough to bring down this fantastic album, and it's a great bonus for collectors. Enjoy ! and check out her other reissues, most of them are great (namely "Best Kept Secret", "No Sound But A Heart", "Madness, Money and Music" and her self-titled debut) !

This is one of Sheena Easton's great albums and the addition of bonus tracks makes it even better. From the racy "Sugar Walls" to the tender "Hard to Say It's Over" to her fabulous cover "Love & Affection", this one has it all.

This is a great cd for a fan of 80's music. The top 40 hit's "strut" and "sugar walls", both written by Prince make this cd worth the purchase. Other stand out tracks include "swear" and "double standard". Sheena has a great voice and almost all the tracks on this cd are great. Enjoy!

This 1984 release was a solid return for EASTON and EMI to the top of the musical charts. The impact of her release single "STRUT" composed by "THE ARTIST/PRINCE" marked on the charts a definite change in North American perseption toward the once virginal vocalist. This CD is the best produced solo CD the singer released during a decade of neon clothing.