** HEART “Brigade” <i> Capitol</i> ; <i> Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to five (a classic).</i>

The good news from the latest angiogram is that the ol’ Wilson ticker still can get the blood flowing on hard-pumping rockers. Nevertheless, major surgery is indicated to remove severe chronic blockage caused by that fatty deposit of sonic cholesterol, the power ballad.

Half of “Brigade” is clogged with heaping dollops of characterless schmaltz balladry, inflated with the typical grandiloquent cliches of the power ballad form (“Stranded,” sung by Nancy Wilson, is the worst of a bad lot, with its spineless, soppy portrait of woman-as-emotionally-dependent-mess).

The exception is “I Love You,” a ballad that substitutes honest feeling and a lush Beatlesque setting for the usual bombast. As for the rockers, they’re mostly copies of such proven megasellers as Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, ZZ Top and, on “Wild Child,” Heart itself, circa 1976. If not original, Heart’s attack is at least well-honed, and Ann Wilson’s massive voice is more focused and less banshee-shrill than in the past.