Van Halen - A Different Kind of Truth

 

An open letter to Edward and Alex Van Halen.

Never.  Never.  Never have anyone sing in your band but David Lee Roth.

That's the only conclusion I can make after giving the much hyped/anticipated/debated new Van Halen album a serious couple of spins.

Yes, Diamond Dave is back in the microphone seat of what was once one of the greatest rock bands in the land.  And let me tell you, I approached this project with a ton of trepidation and about as much caution as I'd approach eating fish out of a swamp full of toxic waste.  At best, I had no interest in it whatsoever.  At worst, I was afraid it would be a major embarrassment and do even more to tarnish the memory/reputation of what used to be a cool band. 

See, I used to dig Van Halen.  Man, when that first album came out and I heard it for the first time.  Wow!  Blew me away.  Yes, Eddie's technique was out of this world, but it was more than that.  I've never been a guitar-God kinda guy.  It was the songs.  The attitude.  The thrusting drive of Anthony's bass, the propulsion of Alex's drumming, and yes, Dave's very different, sleazy, campy, and somehow dangerous singing.   No one sounded like VH in the glory days.  No one ever will.

I lost interest as the years went on and then came the Van Hagar years which to me were an abomination.  And I'm not sure why.  I dug Sammy in Montrose, and was ok with most of his early (read pre-Standing Hampton) albums.  But Hagar in Halen was a disaster for me.  It was like they took the worst of Hagar's tendencies and added those to the worst of Van Halen's.  Really, there's not one song I enjoyed there.

Then came the whole Mark III version of the band, which most people forget even existed, then the countless reformations with Dave and breakups and rumors, etc. etc.  Too much drama for any one band's reputation to handle.

So when this album was announced, I wasn't standing in line for it.  I never saw the early single/video that became the fodder of so much Facebook/forum discussion.  I read some reviews from people saying the album "rocked" and simply didn't believe them.  In fact, the only reason I ever listened to it is because a free copy literally dropped into my lap.  And even then I wasn't interested.  But it was Van Halen, and I had to know.  I hesitated, took a deep breath and put it in.

And immediately, my worst fears were realized.  Opening song "Tattoo" is abysmal.  Really, simply horrid, with the retro '80's production on the intro vocal, the boring riff, the lackadaisical singing, the non-interesting bass work of Wolfgang and the flat chorus.  There's really just not much life in the whole song for me.  And worst of all, it's totally generic.  I could play this song for anybody who didn't know what was going on and I'd bet no one would guess it's Van Halen.  In summary, it's a stinker.

That was it for me.  I was ready to eject the disc and swear that I paid too much for it (even though it was free) but fate intervened.  The traffic light changed.  I had to stop rather suddenly and couldn't get to the eject button.  While I was regrouping, the most amazing thing happened.  Van Halen came back into my life.

"She's the Woman," cooks.  Simply cooks.  Eddie's guitar intro is violent and heavy and immediately drops down into a simply cooking groove.  Alex is back there, pounding the skins and Wolfgang holds thing steady.  I was bopping, head in full swing. Then came the big moment.  Diamond Dave entered the fray and you know what?   It was Van Halen, through and through.

Let's face it, Dave has never been a great singer, but he's a great singer for this band.  He may have lost a bit of higher end range over the years, but he can still wail and screech and he injects his vocal phrasing with tons of personality and attitude.  Everything that had been missing from Van Halen over the years.  And during the chorus, when the band harmonizes together . . .that's Van Halen!  That's the sound we all know.  Add to all this a brief but cutting Eddie solo and we got the best VH song in ages.

So, was it a flash in the pan or the beginning of something real?   "You and Your Blues" answers that question right away.  Dave sings away over a stuttering, scratching guitar line as the song builds to a low roar right into a driving chorus.   "China Town" is even mightier, tearing into a classic VH riff-fest after Eddie's brief blinding guitar intro.  Then, lest you think the boys are slowing down, they up the ante, as the song literally explodes in a flurry of adrenaline, Eddie whipping through a verse section guitar riff that's so blindingly fast and mean it's breathtaking.  Toss in a few harmonics, some feedback -- all within the structure of the riff -- and I'm flying.  Dave sounds pissed and angry and sneers his way through the song.  It's perfect all the way down to the hammer-on guitar solo sounding like days of old.

"Bullethead" ups the anger quotient coming on so fast and mean-spirited it's almost punk.  "The Trouble with Never," "Outta Space," and "Big River" are all massive guitar-athons with killer riffs and Dave's driving vocals.   And if it's Eddie's guitar you want, you won't have to look far.  He simply has not sounded this inspired in . . . a helluva long time.  "Honeybabysweetiedoll" is a quasi-instrumental assault.  Yes, there are some vocals, so it's not "Eruption" but the song ain't about the vocals.  This is all Eddie and he's all over the place playing as fast and brutal as I've heard.

Yes, there's a few problems here.  "Stay Frosty" takes the place of any one of Diamond Dave's more "jokey" songs, Dave Anthony's propulsive bass is hardly replaced by Wolfgang's more rudimentary style, and inexplicably Alex's driving drums are mostly buried in the mix when what we need is a huge drum sound.  But overall this album has the right to be officially called a Van Halen album.   It doesn't sound like VH so much from back in the day, but it's exactly what VH would've sounded like if they'd kept on making music together.

And that's a helluva lot better than I originally expected.

Van Halen haven't embarrassed themselves this time.   In fact, I have to add their name to the ranks of UFO who've also released one of their best albums in years at this late date in their career.

So Eddie.  So Alex.  Keep Dave around.  Trust me, the magic is still there.  The special combustible something that made Van Halen so damn incendiary.  It's still there.

--Racer

Van Halen – Fair Warning

How criminally underappreciated is Fair Warning?!?!? Let’s face it, when most people talk about the brilliance of Van Halen, more times than not, all we hear is Van Halen I, a couple of nods towards II . . . man nod of approval for Diver Down or Women and Children First . . . but time and time again, when I mention Fair Warning, I get a blank stare as if the person has never heard the name of the album or I get some ambivalent and dismissive shrug. At least with the blank stare response, I can always whip out a copy of the album and educate to the sonic pleasure, musical diversity, and pleasantly surprising experience of this disc. The ambivalent shrug just irks me.

I don’t know all of the background history to the album, I don’t know what production techniques that producer Ted Templeton used, and I haven’t the foggiest notion what type of gear the boys are jammin’ with, but what I do know, I hear with my ears and I feel with my soul. Fair Warning has beastly brawn, sultry swagger, and a jazzy groove that takes me places that no other Van Halen, Roth or Hagar crooned, has taken me before or since. Eddie’s guitar playing should go without mention, but from one song to the next, I hear things that consistently surprise me. Michael Anthony plays with a soulful, damn funky groove that I had never picked up on before. Alex’s skin bashing is of its own legend, but on Fair Warning, he plays with as much animalistic fervor as he does swing. And, of course, you have David Lee Roth in his charismatic prime, completely enveloped in the role of lead man, coming across more as an X rated narrator than any singer I had ever heard. The four parts combine to create an album that exhibits the classic VH stomp and blatant lack of self respect for good health.

The two singles that come to mind from this album are the album opener “Mean Street” and the unbridled and gritty “Unchained.” Both songs are classic Van Halen in that they move with a massive and aggressive head of steam, but with a heavy element of fun that is lost in today’s heavy metal. When that oppressive opening riff of “Unchained” starts chugging from the left speaker, you can feel that something ominous is making its way into your life. The tight pocket playing of Michael Anthony in tandem with Alex is a key component to this song driving as hard as it does. Their individual approaches aren’t so much based on technique as they are on attitude, but that’s pretty much always been the M.O. to this band. When one mentions technical brilliance within the context of Van Halen, those references undoubtedly are aimed at Eddie’s playing. But I’d like to think that Eddie’s flash and pizzazz would be just that without the rock steady power of this rhythm section.

Of course, just as I make a statement like that, Van Halen challenges me to rethink these earlier ideas. “Push Comes to Shove” is a song that stunned me the first time I heard it because it was almost anti-Van Halen in its sound. Filled with jazzy guitar runs, funked out bass lines, a straight forward drum approach, and Roth’s raspy vocal styling, “Push Comes to Shove” suddenly made me stop mopping the floor and simply stare at the amazing flurry of sound emanating from my floor speakers. This heavy funk, jazzy fusion-y concoction was coming on directly after “Unchained?” Are you freaking kidding me?!?!? The only reason I can think that this song wasn’t talked about more was because in the early 80’s, Van Halen were expected to be a heavier type band, a guitar driven band, a rock band . . . everything that this song was not. But you know what? “Push Comes to Shove” is easily the most interesting piece of music that I’ve ever heard from this classic outfit. The guitar work alone is mystifying. Eddie, almost unconsciously, makes the shift from full on jazz fusion passages to palm muted metal riffagery to stratospheric guitar solo, encompassing so many different styles in the course of a brief four minute lapse of sanity. But again, Eddie’s incredible guitar work wouldn’t mean a thing by itself or over a piece of music that was half assed. The VH rhythm section doesn’t get the credit they deserve for driving a song, but here’s a new wrinkle for you. Check out Michael Anthony’s bass work throughout this track. His hands are flying all of the neck of his bass, creating wild sounds as if he were competing with Eddie for the spotlight. And DLR’s vocal performance is the epitome of cool. He simply conveys an emotion to this song that no other vocalist could, and part of that is probably due to the image that he’d creating of himself at this point in history. The whole damn thing works and “Push Comes to Shove” is the red headed step child in the Van Halen catalog, but for all the wrong reasons.

Ultimately, what has made Van Halen so good has been their ability to fuse the good times vibes into their musically solid sound. “Mean Street,” as heavy, hard rockin’, and technically proficient as it is still has a thick vein of sheer exuberance running through it. The same can be said about “Dirty Movies” or “Sinner’s Swing!” or “So This Is Love?” One doesn’t listen to these songs and think that the band are made up of a bunch of tough guys so much as it’s made up of beer swillin’ comedians who are more interested in chasing tail that bloodying knuckles. In particular, “Sinner’s Swing!” will get the toes tapping in time with the beat as we hear Roth hoot and holler in classic DLR fashion about finding a piece of ass and tappin’ it. With the backing vocals from the band, one can actually image the rest of the band standing on the sidelines cheering on their front man. Seriously . . . how can anyone feel menaced by a song as fun as this? It’s just good ole rock n’ roll.

In the 70’s and 80’s, Van Halen was the ultimate party band. This band influenced countless Los Angeles bands who tried to follow in their footsteps of debauchery and questionable taste. In doing so, they unexpectedly created an even worse hybrid of rock n’ roll. Hair Metal. But who wouldn’t want to emulate their heroes when one gets to hear such fabulous tales of getting gussied up in their finest duds and hitting the streets in search of legal (and illegal) intoxicants and hot broads? Fair Warning has become that Van Halen gem that transcends the rest of their catalog because every tune offers something new and exciting. Hard rockin’ metallic jams mixed with jazz fusion and funk rock . . . c’mon, are you kidding me? What’s not to like there? Where most of the pre-1984 Roth-era Van Halen leaves me craving a bit more musical creativity, Fair Warning is the disc that satisfies every need I could want. I’m usually left exhausted after listening to it because it’s so complete. It rocks on a primal level, it grooves with sexual vibrancy, it’s compelling from a heady, musical stand point, and most of all . . . its God damn fun! - Pope JTE

Buy here: Fair Warning



http://www.van-halen.com/