More on "A Different Kind of Truth"

Sometimes an album does grow on you.

When I first listened to A Different Kind of Truth, I was fairly underwhelmed. The elements were all in place, but I also felt like the songs were lacking. I still stand by that assessment, and I think the album is getting a lot of praise, not for being a great album, but for not being a terrible one. The most rational and clear-headed review I've read so far is Chuck Klosterman's. I think he's smart enough to have figured out how to process the fan's excitement that this album exists at all, and the facts of what the record actually is.

It is not perfect, and it's not a "return to form." Anybody who says that is too caught up in their own, personal, need for it to be a return to form. However, what it does present is what Van Halen is right now. Dave can't be the Diamond Dave of 1984, his solo career represents a, slowly sliding downhill, embarrassing testament to that fact. Eddie spent too many years crafting less jaggedly adventurous rock with Sammy Hagar (not a criticism - I am a fan of all eras of Van Halen, but Sammy was more of a classic songsmith than Roth will ever be). They can't just put all that away and be 20 again, and to want or expect them to is unfair to them, and yourself as a fan.

The problem, I think, is that they try to do just that, at points. I am still disappointed at the re-use of demo songs from the late 70's. I am. I'm far more interested in what the band can create today than how they can re-purpose songs and riffs that weren't good enough (for whatever reason) to get on an album more than a quarter of a century ago. I also can't shake the real feeling that the need to re-use old material speaks to a deep fissure in the band. Of course, it's Van Halen, there's always deep fissures and drama, but...even for all the cash you're gonna rake in, you can't get in a room and hack out some songs together?

All that is prelude to saying that I do like the album more than when I posted my first impressions. I don't love it, and there's a very long swath of songs at the midpoint that really drag, but I've reassessed by initial feeling that there were no hooks here. Sometimes I feel like Eddie would like to have some of those big, sweeping choruses that Hagar did so well, and Roth is simply uninterested, as well as just not having the voice for that kind of thing. The music and vocals sound a little at odds, but that tension can be interesting. Again, it's Van Halen right now, artists who's grown and evolved. When that's acknowledged, cool stuff happens.

There are several really good tracks, and at least one excellent one. "Tattoo" is still a really poor choice for a first single, but it's grown on me. "She's the Woman" maintains the energy and drive, which leads into "You and Your Blues," which is the first really good track on the record. "China Town" works for the most part, and "Blood and Fire" kicks some ass.

Then we get into the stretch where they lose me. "Bullethead" is just awful (I stand behind my initial assesment "Van Halen for idiots"), "As Is" kinda rocks, but also has this sense of meandering, "Honeybabysweetiedoll" is dull, "The Trouble With Never" (I agree with a critic I read...somewhere - a much better album title) feels like leftovers, and "Outta Space" has one of those "clever" lyrics that just pains you the more you listen to it. Let me be clear, these are NOT bad tracks, but neither are they exciting. I think Klosterman hits the nail on the head when he says some stuff here (especially this section, for me)  feels like a conscious reproduction of what used to be organic.

Things get back on track with "Stay Frosty," which is clearly one of Chuck K's "conscious replications." It's the "Ice Cream Man" track, in tone and execution. It's also highly energized and fun, so I'm OK with it. The real keeper on the record, however, is the following track, "Big River," which is just epic. It's the one point you can hear, then point to and say, "they still can do it, and make it feel fresh." Sadly, after that track, "Beats Workin'" is really anti-climactic.

There's general things I can go into a well. There are tracks that feel like Roth solo material, and I think that can go right back to the fact (that many people have run into the ground) that Michael Anthony's backing vocals are sorely missed here. Other than that, Wolfgang Van Halen acquits himself well. Eddie is on fire on most tracks, and Alex is as solid as ever. The problems that I have with the album have nothing to do with musicianship.

I'm sure I'll get hate mail for this review. That's fine. As I've blogged about before, I point out a few weaknesses, and suddenly I "hate" the album, or movie, or whatever. I don't. I certainly don't hate A Different Kind of Truth, I quite like it, but I think the people spouting off with "it's like 24 years never happened" are deluding themselves. This is a solid album, which, if we're honest, is probably more than we could ever have expected. I'm just used to more than solid from Van Halen.

Top Tracks:

• Big River
• You and Your Blues
• Blood and Fire
• She's the Woman

Van Halen - "A Different Kind of Truth" First Impressions

So, I got up this morning and, first thing, downloaded the new Van Halen album A Different Kind of Truth.

Now, you may wonder why I would do this, as I've been pretty vocal about my fears for this "reunion" and album. I've also been up front about my lack of enthusiasm for the material that's been released so far. Frankly, the reason I've been disappointed is that I hold Van Halen to a pretty high level. I am a fan, and have been a fan of every version of this band. I don't indulge the Hagar/Roth/Cherone bitchfest/battle, because I feel like all the version of the band brought interesting things to the table. Yes, I have personal preferences, but I certainly don't think that my favorite era should be everyone's, or that it makes the other eras irrelevant.

So, when I began my trek to work this morning, I cranked up A Different Kind of Truth on the headphones for a first listen. What I'm presenting here shouldn't be considered an in-depth review, but my basic reactions. I'm sure to listen to this album a lot more, have further thoughts, but right now, this is where I'm at.

First, the good. The band sounds good, production is crisp, and everybody's pulling their weight. Assuming Wolfgang actually played bass, and Eddie didn't pull a Mike Anthony on him and do the parts himself, he acquits himself very well. Alex, for all of his medical problems, sounds just as powerful as ever.

Eddie delivers on 15 years of waiting. The guitar is on fire, and he's playing his ass off. Roth's abilities have slid, the voice ain't what it used to be, I don't think anyone can claim otherwise, but he amps the charm and the attitude and pulls it off. It's clear this is a group of musicians that can do what they want, when they want...

Which leads us right to the bad. The material. I can't think of a single track on this album that even approaches a "great song." OK? High-energy? Moments of greatness? They're all there, but they don't coalesce into a powerful whole. Trying to look at it objectively, "Tattoo" probably comes the closest, and, to my ears, it's just on the dull side. "Bullethead," in particular, sounds like "Van Halen for Morons."

At this point, it seems the band is all but admitting these tracks represent re-workings of demos and discarded tracks from the early 80's/late 70's. I can't help but feel this was a huge mistake, and I also can't help but wonder if the band couldn't stand to be around each other long enough to actually write new songs. Almost every track feels more-or-less like a half-baked version of one of their classics, making the entire affair feel like the worst kind of reunion project. All the parts are there, but the spark? The magic? I haven't found it yet.

I will keep looking for a while. My opinion has been know to change, sometimes radically, as I spend more time with an album.

Van Halen Give Us a New "Tattoo"

*sigh*

I love Van Halen. I have loved Van Halen for many years. Even during the darkest times, when I felt like loving that band was akin to enabling an abusive relationship. Fourteen years of nothing, after an album that I actually liked, but most people didn't. All we really got in that time was three new tracks with Sammy Hagar for a greatest hits package.

Then, David Lee Roth comes back, Michael Anthony gets kicked to the curb, and replaced with Wolfgang, Eddie Van Halen's son. There's a big reunion tour in 2007-2208, that sells well, and everyone's excited.

Then...more crickets. Album in the works. Eddie needs surgery on his hand. Tours scheduled. Tours cancelled. Rumors of album finished. Rumors of fights over mixing. Blah, blah, blah.

Then, finally, a video on van-halen.com (still, even now, the absolute worst website for a major, "active" artist, ever. Led Zeppelin has a better website.) announcing an announcement on Jan 10th. I have to tell you, this thing going on now, announcing that there will be an announcement...LAME.

Anyway. Long story short. Single and video on Jan 10th (along with tickets on sale for the tour), and a new album, ultimately announced as titled A Different Kind of Truth, on February 2nd.

I'd like to tell you I was excited. I can't tell you that. In fact, I just had a sinking feeling. Maybe that was unfair, but it was my gut reaction. I've learned to trust my gut.

So, it's the 10th, and the single, Tattoo, was released today, with a video. Apparently, they're not going to go iTunes exclusive with the single. I've listened to it several times.



Here's the deal. It's not a BAD song, it's just a dull one. (It's also, apparently, a re-working of a demo from the late 70's called Down in Flames, that, frankly, is a better version.) It's exactly not the sort of track they should've released to hype the fans for a new album. There was a comment on a message board, "I wanted Van Halen at 10, this is Van Halen at 5." I think that's about as apt a description as I can come up with. The real problem is, I don't know that Van Halen, with Roth, has a 10 anymore.

It reminds me of the last go-around with Roth, that produced Me Wise Magic (which is just OK) and Can't Get This Stuff No More (which just kinda lies there). Tattoo just doesn't feel like it has much drive. I described it, right off the bat, as "this song/clip reminds me of a 80-year-old man in a Ferrari. He's cruising around, feeling like he's the coolest cat on earth, but he's in first gear, going 40 on the freeway."

A huge part of that problem is just Roth. He's become a walking parody. You're almost 60, dude, there has to be some modulation between the "Diamond Dave" routine and a rest home, and you just, can't, find, it. The gags are old, and you can't fall back on your voice, because it was never there to begin with.

Say what you will about Sammy Hagar, but the reunion tracks he did with Van Halen in 2004, It's About Time, Up for Breakfast and Learning to See, while not the greatest Hagar tracks, blow all of this stuff out of the water. That's pretty simply because Hagar, and I'm not getting into the debate about which albums were better, here, is far beyond Roth in terms of technical ability. Hagar is a vocalist, Roth is a personality, and the problem there is that when the personality get to be a parody of itself, you have a problem.

My profound hope is that the other twelve tracks on this disk display more energy than what they chose to show us right out of the gate.