Van Halen

So with the new album by Van Halen out i figured this is as good a time as any to have a conversation about them. After having enough time to absorb it, i'd say its up there with their best, even better than fair warning or 1984 (which are usually considered their best albums by some, though im still partial to the s/t from 1978 as the best). Seriously, songs like Chinatown, Blood and Fire, and Stay Frosty are excellent tunes, and i was surprised that DLR's voice still sounds good (that may be due to studio trickery of course).

Overall I have a positive opinion of Van Halen, but I haven't ended up digging too far into their discography yet. I've got the first album and 1984 - beyond that I mainly know the hits.

All I've heard of the new one is that ridiculous "Tattoo" song, but then nearly every time I see a positive reaction to the album, the same person also notes that they made a poor choice for a lead single, so I guess I can't really judge from that track alone.

Oh yeah, also I just read an old music writing anthology that included an article with an entertaining take on Van Halen - basically it imagines an alternate history where punk was the most popular form of rock music in the 70's, and as a result Van Halen were a critically beloved band but were ignored by the general public.

edited 27th Mar '12 6:07:50 PM by MikeK

Yeah, that's pretty much the inverse of what actually happened xD Most of the distortions of history in that article I found quite amusing... but not the fact that they called Nirvana "metal".

As for Van Halen themselves, I listen to 1984 every once in a while. It has the irresistibly catchy, so-cheesy-it's-good "Jump" and the even more catchy "Panama" (da da-DA DA! DA DADA DEWEW) but also some of the loudest Hard Rock songs I know, including "Hot For Teacher". A very enjoyable album overall.

I'm not going to try any more of their stuff, though. Although the genre has a few good songs, I really hate Glam Metal's attitude and aesthetic - so it remains a Guilty Pleasure for me, to be consumed sparingly.

A Different Kind of Truth was okay. Not so good as 1984, but I can't say I expected it to be. Roth sounds older (still good, but not quite himself; indeed, he sounds a lot like Hagar to my ears), but the rest of the band makes up for him; I'd say it might be their hardest rocking record ever, thrashy and wild but still a little stupid. Middle of the road in their total discography though.

I was introduced to them when I was very little.

I was kind of bummed when I learned you where supposed to hate Glam Metal.

You should like what you want to like, not what other people say you're suppossed to like.

Also, Van Halen weren't really "glam metal". They didn't wear glam attire like Poison, Twisted Sister and Motley Crue did. They could be considered Hair Metal, depending on how you define "hair metal".

Yeah, even with all the hair & spandex, VH had absolutely nothing even vaguely androgynous going on—and mild androgyny strikes me as one of "glam metal"'s defining criteria. They always struck me as your basic party-guy music ... nothing deep, but nothing to turn one's nose up to if it's done well. And they did it very well, indeed, for what it was.