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 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.

Why Does Anybody Think This Van Halen Reunion Will Work?

Look, I am a fan of Van Halen. I have been for many years. I own all the albums, I listen to them regularly, and I love all aspects of the band's history, Roth, Hagar and even Cherone. You cannot downplay the influence of Edward Van Halen on the guitar, even today.

Yet...This picture fills me with nothing but dread.

And I'm amazed that it makes anyone else excited. Yeah, yeah, I get it, Roth's back. New album with Roth.

It was the same when they launched their nostalgia tour in 2007. I was curious, I'll admit, but I also wasn't going to pay $100+ for seats behind the stage. There was also the issue of Michael Anthony being summarily dismissed, to be replaced by Eddie's son, Wolfgang, because he DARED to, A: want to work, and B: remain friends with Sammy Hagar.

But, see...When I look at videos from the 2007 tour, I see a tired act. I see Roth pulling the same jackass shit he did in 1981, and it feels old. Roth was a superstar of his time, of that moment. I remember when his A Little Ain't Enough album hit in 1991 it was just utterly ridiculous. He, and the album, were openly mocked as Spinal Tap come to life, and this was before the Grunge revolution.

It's one thing to be true to yourself, it's another to act like you're 21, when you're pushing 60. Of course, his core fanbase doesn't give a shit. I tend to believe most of them wish it was still 1981.

Eddie, too, seems a shadow of himself. The 2007 tour was full of embarrassing videos of him playing off time or out of key. I compare those videos to the last time I saw him on stage, in 1998, with Cherone, and it's night and day.

The core point is, there's a lot of people out there who have a lot of energy committed to the idea that this album is gonna be "like 28 years never happened." Well, it won't be. It can't be, and if you want it to be, I'm predicting a lot of disappointment. It'll be The Phantom Menace all over again. It's exceedingly rare that anyone can recapture something that was unexpected and organic the first time.

Plus, they've all changed as artists. Eddie spent 13 years with Sammy Hagar, who had a much more elastic voice, and a wider acceptance of musical styles, than Roth. Oh, Roth lives for "Jump," now, but Eddie had to fight to get any keyboard song on a Van Halen record. I hazard to guess he's less apt to walk away from that wider palate of expression the years with Hagar afforded him.

Roth isn't even "Roth" anymore. The whistlestop scream is gone. He was never much of a vocalist to begin with, but he's even more limited now.

I'm also not down with Michael Anthony being persona non grata. This is no critique of Wolfgang, who's obviously talented. I've seen videos of him working multiple instruments with skill. That said, let's not whitewash how much of the "Van Halen sound" is Anthony's backing vocals, in any era of the band.

The most unsettling element of this entire deal is. really, that it feels all amazingly half-assed. The album has been the center of swirling rumors for almost six months, now. It's finished, mixed and mastered. It's finished except Eddie and Roth are fighting about the vocals. It's finished, but we want a new label deal. (I find it funny that, according to rumor, anyway, Cherone was let go because Warner Brothers records demanded it, and then, when Roth comes back (which is apparently what WB demanded), they jump ship to Interscope (because they're a "hipper" label, which smells like Roth thinking).

I also see a lot of people excited online because, reportedly, the band has put promotion and marketing in Roth's hands. OK, fine, but...what, exactly, outside of the 2007 Van Halen reunion tour, has Roth been successfully involved with promoting, recently? Each of the 4 solo albums he's released since 1991 have met with increasing public apathy. His tenure as a radio host was somethign of a non-starter. He ended up as a Vegas lounge act for a while.

The last year has also been marked with announcements involving the band that are later withdrawn, cancelled, or ignored. With the actual band response being mostly the latter. They were announced to headline the Soundwave Revolution Festival in Australia during the summer of 2011. The shows were promoted, tickets sold, then the entire festival was cancelled. The official line was that a "unannounced co-headliner" dropped out and forced the cancellation. Rumor was rampant that Van Halen dropping out was the real cause. Van Halen public response? Zip.

Then the band signed with Interscope. The news broke, and the ONLY acknowledgement from the band was the above picture. Let's take a look at it again;

 

Y'know what I notice? Roth's distance from the rest of the band. I've taken enough publicity photos in my time to know that you put thought into what's the focus of your image. The strong choice, and one that any respectable publicist would make would be to put the band, as a unit, in the center of the picture. They are the reason everyone's there. Yet, we see this gulf between them. 

Then our latest, the Grammy Awards Nominations concert, and the official announcement that a "reuniting band" would be making an announcement. The Grammy twitter account even gave this hint, 'Who do u predict the reuniting band will be...Does this hint make u wanna “Jump” & “Dance the Night Away”?'

Well, that's pretty obvious, isn't it? Other people thought so, too.

Of course, the band didn't show up. And it's left to the Grammy people to make excuses. Not word one from the Van Halen camp, who had to have known those press releases, tweets, and hints were going out. It's utterly ridiculous. It feels smug. It feels condescending. It feels like a band taking it's fanbase for granted.

In short, if the album is "finished," and has been finished for months, then what the hell are you waiting for?

Personally, I'm of the mindset that this album will never come out, the tour will never happen, and that we've seen the end of Van Halen. The internal ego battle between Eddie and DLR will drone on and on, and the delays will continue until the whole thing just dies. I also find myself very much OK with that. I think, at this point, I'd be more excited to see a new group with Wolfgang Van Halen and other musicians his own age. His father and uncle could make guest appearances, or produce the album, but that would be something new and fresh.

Instead of feeling like I'm waiting for the corpse to start rotting.

It'll be another week or so....

But a little something that is amusingly stuck in my head today...



Amsterdam
by Van Halen

Lookin' good through the window
Shinin' red and blue light, yeah
A little thick in the bottom
But still lookin' alright, yeah

Got a pocket full o' money
Got me a long night ahead
Quick stop by the Bulldog
Score me some Panama Red, yeah

Oh, wham bam, oh Amsterdam (Yeah yeah yeah)
Stone you like nothin' else can (Yeah yeah yeah)
Woo! Hot damn, roll an Amsterdam (Yeah yeah yeah)
She can't then nothin' else can

Uh! Caught a plane outta Moscow
Spent one cold night in Berlin, yeah
It's a long hard way but I'm a-comin'
Back again, yeah

Oh, wham bam, oh Amsterdam (Yeah yeah yeah)
Stone you like nothin' else can (Yeah yeah yeah)
Yeah, come on up, roll an Amsterdam (Yeah yeah yeah)
If she can't then no one else can

(Yeah yeah yeah) Woo-hoo
(Yeah yeah yeah) Ooo-hoo
(Yeah yeah yeah) Ooo-hoo

Oh, wham bam, oh Amsterdam (Yeah yeah yeah)
Will stone you like nothin' else can (Yeah yeah yeah)
Yeah, hot damn, roll an Amsterdam (Yeah yeah yeah)
If she can't then no one else can (Yeah yeah yeah)
Woo! Wham bam, oh Amsterdam (Yeah yeah yeah)
Don't have to worry 'bout the man (Yeah yeah yeah)
Woo! Hot damn, uh, burn an Amsterdam, yeah (Yeah yeah yeah)
Stone me like nothin' else can (Yeah yeah yeah)

Van Halen III

I was reading one of the blogs I follow recently, and the discussion was about how the author tries, on regular occasions, to listen to The Clash's Sandinista, and like it. No matter how many times he does, he can't. He also asked about what albums his readers don't like, but feel they're supposed to. Bob Dylan's Time Out Of Mind was offered as an example.

This started me thinking about the albums I'm not supposed to like, but I do. Yeah, Chinese Democracy sprung immediately to mind, but I really think the king of this particular hill, for me, is Van Halen III.


Now, I'm not going to sit here and try to claim this is a perfect album, because it most certainly isn't. However, this one an only outing with the third version of Van Halen really is a blueprint for what could've been a rather interesting new direction for the band. Certainly more interesting than where it actually went. This 1998 album is the last original recording the bad has ever released. Last full-length record, anyway...Yes, there were a couple of new tracks on the Best of Both Worlds greatest hits collection in 2004, but, as far as an actual, honest-to-God, album, nada.

That's really pathetic. I'm sorry, but it is. The band has toured three times since the release of this album, with each of their lead singers, and grown more depressingly into a nostalgia act with each go-around.

That, however, is another rant.

The sad fact is that this record has been completely washed out of the Van Halen history. It looks like it's still in print, but, like anything not involving David Lee Roth, it's been completely scrubbed from the official Van Halen website. Which doesn't even feature an official discography, at all, or any other features you'd expect from a band's official website...it's a glorified sales gateway for "official EVH products."

Anyway...the album.

This album was released at a very tumultuous time for Van Halen. Sammy Hagar had left the band under a swirl of nasty comments in 1996, leading to a first "Best of" greatest hits album in that same year, which included two new tracks with original singer David Lee Roth. MTV arranged for the band, with Roth, to appear on the Video Music Awards show, and hyped the event with commercials using the Welcome Back Kotter theme over images of Roth in his VH-heyday.

Well, things didn't work out. Almost coming to blows backstage at the VMAs. Whatever plans were brewing for Roth to return, they were scuttled. The sense of disappointment, and anger, with many Van Halen fans was palpable.

I'm still convinced that no singer could've come into this situation and succeeded. Also that any Van Halen album without one of the original vocalists, and probably without Roth, period, was doomed. I was on the internet at the time, and there was a general sense from many people that they had been "ripped off" with some sort of bait-and-switch with Roth.

Which is just about one of the silliest, stupidest, things I've ever heard. This whole situation is a nasty glimpse into the mind of a hard core fan. The sense of entitlement, the feeling that Van Halen "owed" their fans something was really ugly to behold. The nascent internet community was a really difficult place to be rational in back in those days.

In the middle of all this is the actual album, and new vocalist Gary Cherone, who had been with the funk/rock band Extreme (and would again.) There have been rumors of other vocalists in contention, but that's never really been officially confirmed. I was very excited about the record at the time of release. I'd liked Cherone a great deal in Extreme, and I was hungry for new Van Halen. I was open to a new sound from the band, and perhaps most of the record-buying public wasn't.

Even now, when I listen to the album, I am struck by an adventurousness in the songs. I tend to believe that this was Eddie Van Halen at his most free. Roth and Hagar were both very much "hit singles" guys, while Cherone, in Extreme, had been more adventurous in the styles and genres he's worked with. Plus, without a doubt, Cherone was not a "name player" like Hagar, or a founding band member like Roth, so perhaps Eddie was able to force things on him more. Either way, I can't imagine Hagar or Roth going for a torchy number like "A Year to the Day," or a delicate song like "Josephina."

There are a LOT of good songs on Van Halen III. Maybe not the fist-pumping cock-rock that was expected from the band, but in it's place was adventurous arrangements and interesting lyrical compositions from Cherone. For myself, I can listen to "Without You," "One I Want," or "Fire in the Hole" an enjoy the hell out of them. "Dirty Water Dog" is, flat out, one of my favorite VH songs, ever. They function in a way that Hagar's straight-ahead pop/rock sensibilities, and Roth's scat-attack rantings never did. They're rather personal, and open up with meaning if you want to think about them. There are some stinkers, of course. "Once" just kind of plods along, and the less said of "How Many Say I," with Eddie on vocals, the better.

There are some big, big downsides to this record. First and foremost, Cherone is kinda trapped by the specter of Hagar. I tend to feel like Eddie was so used to writing for Hagar's voice at that time, he had some trouble shifting gears. More often than not, Gary isn't allowed to sing like Gary, but more in the Hagar mode. It's not bad, but you can tell he's straining at points. This is one area where I really love this record more for the potential is represented, rather than what was on the CD. I feel like the band would've become more and more comfortable with what Cherone could do well, and vice-versa. That stuff takes time, and one album ain't always gonna do it.

Second, the production is horrendous. The whole thing feels so muddy and Cherone's vocals feel way too hot and jarring on the final mix. He seems like he's screaming all the time, when I know he isn't. When I saw this lineup live, he sounded fantastic. The vocals could've done with some treble taken from the mix. No doubt that specter of Hagar influenced this as well, with the straining I mentioned above. Eddie does some of his best playing in years on this album, and it just feels sludgy. I don't know how much of this to lay on Producer Mike Post (he of dozens of TV themes) and how much to put on Eddie himself, playing with the knobs. Somebody dropped the ball, I would guess in mixing or mastering, and it hurts, a lot.

The popular perception is that the album was an utter failure upon release, and certainly it wasn't as financially successful as other Van Halen albums, especially in the Hagar era. It did, however, reach Gold certification, and "Without You" was the #1 rock single for 6 weeks. The tour also proved to be less than triumphant. Which is a damn shame, I saw this lineup at Sandstone Amphitheater in Bonner Springs, Kansas, and it was one of the best shows I've ever seen. With Gary they could mine the entire Van Halen catalog and do it well. Cherone also has stage presence and physical agility to spare.

Cherone eventually left the band in 1999, after they had worked on a number of songs for a follow-up. At least one track, or the lyrics, anyway, "Left For Dead," ended up on Cherone's follow-up project Tribe of Judah. I'm pretty well convinced that this stuff will never see the light of day, as the era has been scrubbed out of the band's history.

A couple of interesting postscripts to this are in the fact that Eddie Van Halen went into an utter tailspin after this lineup dissolved. He virtually disappeared, with a cancer battle and divorce providing a major explanation, but he's also alluded to the idea that Warner Brothers Records (their label at the time) basically demanded they eject Cherone. The inference being that one of the two popular vocalists had to return. I sometimes wonder about that event, and Eddie's subsequent lack of interest in original material are connected. If, in fact, Van Halen III is an Eddie Van Halen freed to produce the music he wanted without restrictions, maybe going back has little interest for him. That's utter and complete supposition on my part, of course.

Also, though Gary Cherone was not inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the rest of the band, leave it to the always class-act, bassist Michael Anthony (himself ejected for Eddie's son in 2006) to mention him warmly in his acceptance speech.

At the end of the day, Van Halen III has a lot of problems, and I'm not trying to hold it up as a "lost masterpiece," or anything of the kind. I do, however, think of it as an underappreciated part of Van Halen history. An album that could've been a doorway to something a hell of a lot better than what we ended up getting. Plus, I really dig a lot of the tunes.

So, when I hear people talking about how terrible it was/is, I just can't agree.

Ahh, what might have been....

Remember when Van Halen made records? Waaaay back in 1997, when they did their one, and only, album with Gary Cherone? I know I'm probably the only one, but I loved that lineup. The Album had problems, but I think there was so much potential.

The tour was amazing...one of the best shows I've ever seen. A highlight was the version of "Mean Streets" VH did with Cherone. I love that song, and I loved the way Gary sang it.

Well, Cherone is back with his original band, Extreme, now, but "Mean Streets" is back too...



Love that video. Apparently, they recorded a DVD at their Boston gig. Hopefully this song will be included.

Oh, the joys of last-minute decisions...

Chickenfoot is playing the Chicago Theatre tonight. This, if you do not know, is the "supergroup" cosisting of Sammy Hagar (vocals), Joe Satriani (guitar), Michael Anthony (bass), and Chad Smith (drums). The debut self-titled album came out in June.

Of course I picked it up. I love Satch, and, "hip" or not, I always preferred Van Halen with Sammy over Roth. I know, I know...It's not like I DISLIKE the Roth stuff, I just felt like Sammy was a much better, and versitile singer. That Van Halen's ability to do different sorts of things increased. I like bands that are versitile.

Anyway, Chickenfoot...

I think there's only maybe 3 clunkers on the album. The opening track ("Avenida Revolution") had me worried, as it's probably the worst on the disk. (why you would open the album that way...no friggin' clue) The rest is good, solid, melodic hard rock. It's entertaining and fun, no more, no less, and they all sound like they're having a great time.

Satch isn't all over the place like on his solo stuff, which some people have complained about. Thing is...of course he isn't, he's playing behind a vocalist! I really appreciated hearing Satch play in the pocket, instead of being the main show. Hagar sounds fantastic, for a guy as old as he is, his voice is still sharp as hell. Anthony gets to actually play for probably the first time in his career, and Smith turns out to be a incredibly powerful hard rock drummer.

I read somewhere, and I think it's pretty apt, "Van Halen went and got a better guitarist and drummer, and changed their name to Chickenfoot." (and yeah, I think Satch and Smith are much sharper than the Van Halen brothers at this moment) I would MUCH rather see this band than VH, and their nostalgia-rama, now. Especially at one third the ticket price.

So, I dropped by the theatre today, to see if anything was left. Of course, I know from having a friend in ticketing (ha-ha) that they almost always have some house seats left. Especially for one person. I'm in the handicapped seating area, back of the main floor, but pretty much dead center. Bonus points for buying direct from the box office, no Ticketmaster charges!

What I also realized just a bit ago is that this is the first time I'll get to see Joe Satriani play live, so that's cool.

I dunno, I thought about going to see the GI Joe movie, or having dinner (which I still may), but I wanted to get out and do something cool. CByrd's out of town this weekend, so I'm not stuck in that "what will both of us like to do?" mode. Not like she wouldn't go to this show with me, but, yknow, I don't like to make her see stuff she's not excited about.

So, anyway...Have a weekend everybody. Avoid Grant Park, that Lollapalooza's a bitch for traffic. Which reminds me, I'll have to ride the train out of downtown with those people....