Van Halen - A different kind of truth

So back in 1996 when that "greatest hits" thing came out with 2 new songs featuring Dave, it was pretty much the greatest thing people could have imagined.  Sammy was out on his head, Dave was back in making new music, and for the first time in a decade, Van Halen was gonna be the party it had been in its heyday.  Then we found out Dave was back out and he was replaced by that (ugly) nincompoop Gary Cherone from Extreme.

Fast forward another 11 years.  Cherone's tenure was mercifully brief and his career has deservedly been ruined by the everlasting grudge that basically everyone on earth with a pair of ears holds against him for presuming he was up to the task.  Sammy rejoined and got re-kicked out.  Mike Anthony also got the boot.  Then, bliss: VH was reforming with Roth as frontman.  But wait: what's this shit about Eddie's kid playing bass?  Uh oh.  Yeah, so they toured and there was this fat spoiled little asshole tagging along and pretending to be part of the band.  The tragedy is that Mike Anthony's background vocals were kinda key.  So that happened, and then finally they came out with this new album and yep, it's kinda what I thought would happen: The different lineup has a different chemistry.  Part of it is that those background vocals are just not there.  Part of it is the last 25 years since they released a whole album with Dave.  The songwriting is more like Van Hagar than actual Van Halen.  Also, Dave doesn't screech and yowl!  They used to have separate vocal tracks for his singing and screeching, and then a separate "woo!" track.  I guess his pipes are blown out, and he ends up doing a Ken Nordine deep voice thing on a bunch of tracks instead.  So there you have it: Van Halen went and got old.  OLD, YOU GUYS.

That said, there's at least a couple of good parts/aspects to pretty much all the songs.  In fact, I really kinda can't help myself from liking "As is".  Still, there isn't much to actually grab you and make you listen.  Van Halen, it seems, have become the world's foremost Van Halen cover band.  You can really hear this in "Outta space", where Eddie recycles an entire solo, just about.  In fact, you hear reheated licks of yesteryear all over the record.  How sad.