'Ancient Heart' At 25

For an album that had a couple of videos in semi-permanent rotation in the 1989 of my memory, Tanita Tikaram’s Ancient Heart, which was released on this day 25 years ago, may be one of the most neglected great records of that period. There’s nothing innovative or groundbreaking about it, sure, but it was an astonishingly assured debut by one of the most interesting voices of the last quarter century, and there are certain people I know who still pretend to have something in their eye when they hear “Valentine Heart,” which deserves top ten placement on any assembly of sad songs worth the name. If you’ve never heard it — and if you are under 30 you probably have not — you should give it a shot.