New Van Halen Record - A Different Kind of Truthiness

I bought the newest release from Van Halen today. I paid actual money (cash no less) for a disk of music that was made after 1994. That in and of itself is notable. But I suppose I kinda have to buy this album, because if you wanna give your favorite band a real chance to bowl you over, you have to get the disk and hold it in your hands. I even forked over the extra 5 bones to get the deluxe edition with the DVD.

Don't buy the deluxe edition with the DVD.

It just isn't worth the money. It's just the four of 'em playing acoustic versions of some new and some old tunes. And it's not very good. Ed doesn't really have the hands to play an acoustic fluidly anymore. He looks like an old man cowering behind a large guitar he can barely control. And Dave doesn't really have the voice to be exposed live like this either.

HOWEVER

The album is another story altogether. It is not good like the old albums are good, but with the possible exception of ACDC, they do a better job than any band of their era has done with a new album since you stopped writing 1999 on your cheques.

This album features many of the things that a classic VH album should have. There's lots of "Hot for Teacher" fast shuffles, there's plenty of killer guitar playing, lots of "arm out the window driving to the beach in the summertime" backing vocals and there are LOTS of songs from the famous 51 song demo.

A little background on just what the hell I'm talking about:

When Van Halen were signed to a record deal in 1977, they recorded what they thought were their best 51 original songs at the time, and then chose the songs that would appear on the first album (Van Halen released in 1978). They continued to take material from this demo recording for each subsequent album until somewhere around 1986 or so. I have heard lots of songs from this demo, and lots of THOSE songs are on this new album, with lyrics changed. Tattoo, She's The Woman, Bullethead, Big River and Beats Workin' are re-worked from the 1978 tape (originally Down in Flames, She's The Woman, Bullethead, Big Trouble and Put Out The Lights respectively).

So in a lot of ways this album was made to satisfy the demand for a "classic" VH record. And it SEEMS like it should be able to do that. But it doesn't really. And it's not for lack of speed, intensity or bombast.

It's the songs. They're just not good enough to compete with anything in the previous Dave era VH catalog. In fact they're not even good enough to compete with "Can't Get This Stuff No More" from the greatest hits record of 1997. The thing is, they're not far off at all. Just a LITTLE more tweaking, a LITTLE more editing, a LITTLE more thought put into the lyrics, and this COULD be an album on par with 1980's Women And Children First. The reason it's not, in my opinion, is that these guys can't argue with each other anymore.

The confrontation between Eddie and Dave is the stuff of legend. Two very different personalities, both extremely talented, opinionated people, battling it out for the role of leader of Van Halen. Well, so many years later they're grown-ups who don't NEED to work as musicians anymore, and so if they get to fuedin', one is gonna kick the other out of his studio (Eddie) or call his band mates out in the press (Dave). We have seen this play out no less than 3 times since Dave last recorded an album with the band back in the oh so golden year that was 1984.

It basically means that they have to leave the songs as they are after everyone has put in their first draft contribution. No picking the other guy's ideas apart and making them better. And that shows. It shows in the lyrics (the first and second verse of Tattoo and the pre-chorus of You and Your Blues). It shows in the song arrangement (there are lots of solo sections and other little parts that really drag the songs down). The songs are not the tight atomic bombs that were a staple of the early VH material.

But for all it's shortcomings, it does have some magic moments. The afformentioned You and Your Blues is one of the nicest songs on there despite it's lyrical stumbling. Blood and Fire brings the band closest to duplicating the fun of their classic Dance The Night Away. Outta Space is the one rare tightly written song. And Big River is my favorite riff from the 1977 demo tape. So there are some high points.

Buy the record, because it's good as compared to everybody else's records (which as you all know are mostly aweful ... ahem ... Nickelback), but it's no vintage VH.

And now I'm gonna go listen to it for the 4th time today.