Van Halen: A Different Kind of Truth

[shiner]

5 songs in so far :thumbsup:

Sounds a lot like the earlier stuff. Of course some of the songs are "recycled" demos from back in the late 70's so they should sound like early VH, but they aged well.

If you like the Van Hagar era you probably won't like this stuff....

 

[Oil]

I heard the song Tattoo on the radio a couple weeks ago. Complete and utter garbage

 

[shiner]

I heard the song Tattoo on the radio a couple weeks ago. Complete and utter garbage

Weakest song on the album so far. My guess is that it is the "Radio friendly" song the record company wanted on the album.

 

[NeoV]

I actually liked them better with Sammy Hagar - oh well

 

[skyking]

Weakest song on the album so far. My guess is that it is the "Radio friendly" song the record company wanted on the album.

Thanks for the review. If I had only that song to go by, I'd have to pass. I know many rock lyrics are repetitive but that was embarrassing.

 

[alkemyst]

I don't think many here really listened to original Van Halen even if 'young' in those days.

My first Van Halen experience was 1984 in the same year in middle school. I later found the earlier material and although I liked Hagar, missed DLRs style. The older stuff is actually quite good if you listen and sort of live it.

 

[Rudee]

listened to the tracks and didnt like any of them.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

I don't think many here really listened to original Van Halen even if 'young' in those days.

My first Van Halen experience was 1984 in the same year in middle school. I later found the earlier material and although I liked Hagar, missed DLRs style. The older stuff is actually quite good if you listen and sort of live it.

I listened to Van Halen's first album in 1978. At the time I was a big Zeppelin fan, mostly because I played guitar and Jimmy Page was my favorite guitar player. Hearing what Eddie did on guitar was stunning. At the time there was nothing like it and I became a big fan. Bought all of their subsequent albums. I even liked Fair Warning (thought it was critically underrated) and Diver Down.

Saw them twice before they split (and saw them again in 2008 in Orlando, which was a travesty of sound mixing). Once in '82 in Omaha and also at the Monsters of Rock in Nuremburg in '84, which turned out to be their last show before they split up. I'll tell you a story about that particular show.

Since VH was still my favorite band at the time, even though I despised the fact that Eddie started playing around with synths on the 1984 album (imo, Jump was a shit song), I decided to get as close to the stage as possible. I ended up being about 3 deep from the front on the right-center side of the stage. About 10 minutes before VH is due to come on Eddie suddenly appears on the stage with his guitar and starts tuning it. The fucking crowd goes wild. Right in front of Eddie, on top of the amp where he was tuning, was a bottle of Jack Daniels. While Eddie tunes his guitar he grabs the bottle of Jack and tips it up to his mouth.

From the right side of the stage a flash of white come rushing out at Eddie. It's Valerie Bertinelli. This was back when she was still majorly hot. She was wearing a short white dress that barely coverred her ass and looked like an absolute angel. The crowd goes even wilder.

She snatched that bottle of Jack away from Eddie and started shaking her head back and forth, obviously telling him "no" in no uncertain terms. Eddie immediately walked off the stage with a dejected look on his face. Then, Valerie turned to the crowd, smiled, put that bottle of Jack to her lips and took a massive swig. The crowd went ballistic.

Anyway, their new album isn't too bad. Tatoo sucks but some of the other songs bring back some memories of when VH was great.

 

[alkemyst]

I listened to Van Halen's first album in 1978. At the time I was a big Zeppelin fan, mostly because I played guitar and Jimmy Page was my favorite guitar player. Hearing what Eddie did on guitar was stunning. At the time there was nothing like it and I became a big fan. Bought all of their subsequent albums. I even liked Fair Warning (thought it was critically underrated) and Diver Down.

Saw them twice before they split (and saw them again in 2008 in Orlando, which was a travesty of sound mixing). Once in '82 in Omaha and also at the Monsters of Rock in Nuremburg in '84, which turned out to be their last show before they split up. I'll tell you a story about that particular show.

Since VH was still my favorite band at the time, even though I despised the fact that Eddie started playing around with synths on the 1984 album (imo, Jump was a shit song), I decided to get as close to the stage as possible. I ended up being about 3 deep from the front on the right-center side of the stage. About 10 minutes before VH is due to come on Eddie suddenly appears on the stage with his guitar and starts tuning it. The fucking crowd goes wild. Right in front of Eddie, on top of the amp where he was tuning, was a bottle of Jack Daniels. While Eddie tunes his guitar he grabs the bottle of Jack and tips it up to his mouth.

From the right side of the stage a flash of white come rushing out at Eddie. It's Valerie Bertinelli. This was back when she was still majorly hot. She was wearing a short white dress that barely coverred her ass and looked like an absolute angel. The crowd goes even wilder.

She snatched that bottle of Jack away from Eddie and started shaking her head back and forth, obviously telling him "no" in no uncertain terms. Eddie immediately walked off the stage with a dejected look on his face. Then, Valerie turned to the crowd, smiled, put that bottle of Jack to her lips and took a massive swig. The crowd went ballistic.

Anyway, their new album isn't too bad. Tatoo sucks but some of the other songs bring back some memories of when VH was great.

You do realize that the Monsters of Rock created Anthony's JD bass more or less and Jack Daniels was full featured at those concerts.

You witnessed a publicity stunt. Not sure if you realized that since you didn't mention it.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

You do realize that the Monsters of Rock created Anthony's JD bass more or less and Jack Daniels was full featured at those concerts.

You witnessed a publicity stunt. Not sure if you realized that since you didn't mention it.

I witnessed Valerie Bertinelli in a short, white dress. And you do realize that Eddie was sinking deeply into alcoholism at the time which was one of the major reasons for VH breaking up, right?

btw, a few days before the concert my buddy and I were taking his parents to Frankfurt for their flight out. While we were at the airport we ran into Michael Anthony and shot the shit with him for a while. Nice guy. Very approachable, and he had a couple of very hot women in his entourage. We asked him what he looked forward to the most being in Germany and he said "Well, right now I'm looking forward to some Big Macs." (there was a MacDonalds at Frankfurt International and he sent a couple members of his lackies off to pick some up.)

 

[paperfist]

I don't think many here really listened to original Van Halen even if 'young' in those days.

My first Van Halen experience was 1984 in the same year in middle school. I later found the earlier material and although I liked Hagar, missed DLRs style. The older stuff is actually quite good if you listen and sort of live it.

There's really 2 Van Halen's. The DLR era was theatrical, hard, lyrically fun and usually not to serious. I don't think there's another band that had that dynamic at the time or even today.

With Hagar they seemed a bit more serious, a little heavier and less experimental. Overall though they were a great hard rock outfit under his lead.

I love both versions and can't say one is or was better then the other.

 

[13Gigatons]

The new album is better then I expected. Tattoo was really bad but some songs are alright.

 

[ConwayJim]

All i heard was tattoo, and it's utter crap

 

[BrokenVisage]

Good to hear that the other songs are better than Tattoo, will have to wait until after work before I can tell for myself. Amazon has some great reviews too, encouraging.

 

[jalaram]

Listen to a sampler here.

 

[paperfist]

Listen to a sampler here.

Thanks!

Maybe it'll grow on me, but for now I think it's terrible Dave sounds like he still has the same voice but isn't going crazy with it. The music is good, the lyrics are amateur hour.

 

[alent1234]

its free on spotify

so bad not even worth pirating

 

[13Gigatons]

Eddie Sounds better on this album but let's face it they are old and their better days are behind them now.

 

[Soundmanred]

I didn't have high expectations for the album, and even those weren't met.
Decided to cancel getting tickets for when they come here in May.