So they went and did it. They blew the roof off of the faltering rock scene with their whooping displays of showmanship, virtuosic riffage, Michael Anthony's fantastic background vocals, and a whole bunch of really tight pants. So what does a band do next? This! This is what they do next, they do much the same thing, only this time it's even more of a party. Plenty of hard rockers on this one, and Ed responds to "Eruption" with the classically tinged "Spanish fly". It's cut from the same cloth as their first, but there's just a bit more in the way of pop sensibility that comes through in the bridges and stuff. "Dance the night away" is just a try at writing a song that girls will like but that has enough rock in it not to get heckled. It works. "Somebody get me a doctor" is one of the rockingest riffs you've heard in your life, has an awesome solo, a crazy harmonic run, and is the very song that came on the radio immediately after I signed out of the army and played as I sped away off-post, never to return again. Talk about your life-affirming moments. "Beautiful girls" is stupid in all the right ways and everyone loves it no matter what. "Out of love again" features a second vocal track strictly for Dave to go "Woo!" on. Beautiful. Every song on this is solid. It's their best as far as I'm concerned. I used to ride around with my friend JJ in his van (that had a tuck-and-roll interior and a mirrored ceiling) listening to this album, mooning people and honking at girls and throwing our empty beers out the windows while smoke billowed out as well. There is no better soundtrack for that sort of thing, although ZZ Top's "Deguello" comes close. And no, I'm not even remotely making the Spiccoli high-jinks up. It happened.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Van Halen - Van Halen II
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4 comments:
I don't think it's as good as their debut, but it's still pretty damn good. The party aspect is what was always endearing about these guys, but I thought it was more apparent (and potent) on their debut, whereas it's a bit more heavy-handed here. That said, whatever. It's still a good album.
The reason I like it more than the 1st album is that I can listen to it without getting bored. I can't listen to the 1st one any more. It's all played out for me, and has been for years. Not so with VHII. I really do need to get another copy of Women and children first, that's a great one as well, and I miss it.
Dude, you know what? Anything with Roth is great. Sure, this or that album may be better in this or that way, but once Sammy came, everything went to hell. WACF is sooooo good. "Loss of control" is fucking sick. Fair Warning, even Diver Down is awesome, and it's almost all covers. Roth-era VH is sweet. Period.
Yeah, Loss of control is my favorite from that one. It's like a pot of water getting hotter and hotter until it finally boils over and there's dave all "aaaaaoooowwwwww!" and ed's just grinning like an idiot as usual with some retardedly rockin' riff. It's like having your head stuck in a pinball machine.
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