Van Halen Returns!

[Alrik]

^
Amen, I'm with you.

AP
^

Simple answer. Who cares....(although, I think the talent is there to do it. I'm hearing enough new is old again from ADKoT that seems to support that). In '85 I thought VH was over. When Sammy hit the stage, I knew it wasn't over, but classic VH was. When Sammy left and VH3 hit, it really did seem like it was over. I never thought that for as long as I lived, I would ever hear a 'new' classic VH sounding album again. Well its 2012, and hear it is. If this is all we get, so be it. Its way more than I ever expected. I'm just happy that they were able to get it together and step up to the plate one more time.

And it may just be my humble lil ole opinion, but I'll take re-worked, unrecorded/unreleased, classic Van Halen over most of the crap that tries to pose as Rock these days. BTW, can ya tell I'm diggin this new stuff?

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Maybe the reason this album sounds so good & vintage is because it is. What if they can't write anything that sounds this classic any more?

That may be. We won't know unless they make another album sometime in the future.

But for right now, this really kicks ass. I think they've really done well here. Better than I expected, to be honest. I don't care when the songs were written. They were recorded now. That's good enough for me.

JMHO

Obviously, I'm hoping for more than the one album, but time will tell if they can get along for one tour, much less the couple years it would take to get to another album.

 

[1001001]

Maybe the reason this album sounds so good & vintage is because it is. What if they can't write anything that sounds this classic any more?

That may be. We won't know unless they make another album sometime in the future.

But for right now, this really kicks ass. I think they've really done well here. Better than I expected, to be honest. I don't care when the songs were written. They were recorded now. That's good enough for me.

JMHO

Obviously, I'm hoping for more than the one album, but time will tell if they can get along for one tour, much less the couple years it would take to get to another album.

I'm expecting this to be a one-off thing. I mean, it is Van Halen...



Anything after this would be gravy.

And you could certainly be right, regarding their ability to produce new material. I'm just going to enjoy this while it lasts.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ I agree. And at least it's better than the likes of the so-called Thin Lizzy, touring without the soul of Lizzy (the late Phil Lynott) and living off old glories, recording absolutely no new material (mainly because there's no Phil to write for them!)

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

^ I agree. And at least it's better than the likes of the so-called Thin Lizzy, touring without the soul of Lizzy (the late Phil Lynott) and living off old glories, recording absolutely no new material (mainly because there's no Phil to write for them!)

Is there even one founding member in Thin Lizzy?

 

[Pingfah]

Their new frontman Ricky Warwick used to be in a kickass band called The Almighty, they had a couple of really good albums in the mid 90s. I wish he'd just go back to them, instead of fronting Thin Lizzy. He is actually a good writer and performer in his own right.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E1TAoAxOB4[/yt]

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ I agree. And at least it's better than the likes of the so-called Thin Lizzy, touring without the soul of Lizzy (the late Phil Lynott) and living off old glories, recording absolutely no new material (mainly because there's no Phil to write for them!)

Is there even one founding member in Thin Lizzy?

Brian Downey, the original drummer. IIRC, he wasn't originally involved in the reunion - so at that stage there were no original members - but he later did join

 

[Kirby]

What if they can't write anything that sounds this classic any more?

I never expected them to actually make another album, so I'm not going to worry about the next album for a long time.
I love what I've heard so far, and think Tattoo is the weakest of the bunch, which makes it an odd choice for the first single, so this is a real treat. If there is anything after this album then I'll deal with that when it comes.

 

[IcecreamLtDan]

Good god almighty, I would hate to be the engineer who's doing the work on Diamond Dave's voice these days.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

What if they can't write anything that sounds this classic any more?

I never expected them to actually make another album, so I'm not going to worry about the next album for a long time.
I love what I've heard so far, and think Tattoo is the weakest of the bunch, which makes it an odd choice for the first single, so this is a real treat. If there is anything after this album then I'll deal with that when it comes.

Are you the guy that runs www.melodicrock.com/ ?

What you said about Tattoo is almost word for word what's in the review of the album

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Tattoo is definitely the weakest track I've heard so far so why is it the first single? Why knt release a better track? It's weird.

 

[Kirby]

What if they can't write anything that sounds this classic any more?

I never expected them to actually make another album, so I'm not going to worry about the next album for a long time.
I love what I've heard so far, and think Tattoo is the weakest of the bunch, which makes it an odd choice for the first single, so this is a real treat. If there is anything after this album then I'll deal with that when it comes.

Are you the guy that runs www.melodicrock.com/ ?

What you said about Tattoo is almost word for word what's in the review of the album

That's funny, I've been reading that site off and on for years, but not too much lately. Great minds think alike I guess.
I would have released She's The Woman first. After the first run through of the songs that's my favorite.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

^ That is the one with the music & lyrics intact. Truly old school.

 

[1001001]

Tattoo is definitely the weakest track I've heard so far so why is it the first single? Why knt release a better track? It's weird.

Probably because it is the most "mainstream" song.

The rest of the album (as far as I can tell) is blistering hard rock. Maybe they figured Tatoo would be a more palatable, accessible single to start out with??

 

[Alrik]

^

Very possible. The one that is running high on my list right now is Blood and Fire. No doubt its new material, but the sound is very old school. Also have to give props to Big River, You and Your Blues, She's a Woman, .... oh never mind. Props to the whole damn thing. Not a song on it not worth listening to over and over again. Welcome back Van Halen! Missed ya!

From a long, long, long time fan.

 

[1001001]

I've listened to Outta Space about 100 times now. It's like crack to me.

 

[1001001]

So I gave the album two full listens after a trip to Best Buy yestreday.

Just brilliant, IMHO.

Chock full of gooey hard rocking goodness.

I love it.

The Mighty Van Halen is back, baby!!



I can't wait for the tour. Should be awesome.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^

Very possible. The one that is running high on my list right now is Blood and Fire. No doubt its new material, but the sound is very old school.

In this album's entry on the iTunes Store, one of the commenters says that there is no actual new material on this album, and that all of the songs are reworked versions of songs that the band wrote from 1975-77. This link seems to confirm it:

Throughout the album, the band has gone back and excavated pieces of unrecorded songs, lyrics from old notebooks and half-pursued concepts to build the 13-track collection.

"It's material that Eddie and I generated, literally, in 1975, 1976 and 1977," Roth said.

 

[1001001]

That is true.

Me personally, I don't care where they come from.

This album rocks hard. I really like it.

 

[Kirby]

In this album's entry on the iTunes Store, one of the commenters says that there is no actual new material on this album, and that all of the songs are reworked versions of songs that the band wrote from 1975-77. This link seems to confirm it:

I have no problem with that. This album is fantastic, and I'm glad they put it out with the material from back then because those first VH albums were fresh, hard rocking and fun to listen to. The new album takes me back to the first time I heard all of that.
Thank god they didn't find any notebooks and demos from the Gary Cherrone era, or at least had the good sense to burn them if they did.