Van Halen

Balance

Sorry, naysayers; this is still vintage VH!

Review Score:

(10/10)
Why all the criticism of this album? If you are a VH fan of the Sammy years, then this album should be right up your alley with the rest of them. This album is better overall than "OU812" and right in there with "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge".

In this day and age, I give classic bands high marks that are able to keep their original sound while blending in the best of some contemporary elements--as opposed to totally selling out their sound or remaining exactly the same as they were 20 years ago. While grunge was still plaguing the rock music scene when this album came out, the VH guys moved forward with an album that was both true to their sound and yet contained just the slightest hints of modern rock. Take the guitar riffs on the first single "Don't Tell Me (What Love Can Do)". Clearly this song rocks, but it has that slightly modern rock tinge to it. Don't let that mislead you if you haven't heard the track--it sounds good. "Can't Stop Lovin' You" was the second single and a great power ballad. I prefer this song to "When It's Love" off of OU812, although the latter was a much bigger hit. While some will say this track has a "been there, done that" feel to it, to me it is an improvement on that type of track.

Onto other songs, many of which made it on to rock radio as a needed breath of fresh air in 1995...."The Seventh Seal" is an epic rocker with searing vocals and a catchy guitar riff to lead off the album. "Aftershock" is a nice rocker later on the album. "Not Enough" is one of the softest track VH has ever done, but it is heartfelt and nice with a strong keyboard backing that sounds more like piano than synthesizer. "Feelin'" is an awesome epic of an anthem to close out the album...not that heavy but not soft either. The instrumentals are all decent to excellent as well, as is the other ballad on the album "Take Me Back"--which is more guitar-based than keyboard-based and another heartfelt track.

That leaves my two least favorite tracks on the album. "Big Fat Money" just isn't that musical, although it is rocking and whimsical. Definitely a heavy track, just not as excellent as most VH songs. And my least favorite track is "Amsterdam", just because of the silly lyric and kind of annoying chorus ("wam bam Amsterdam???"). At least it is still a reasonably rocking song.

I bought this album the month it came out in 1995, and I just had to revisit recently in light of the great (I think) news that Sammy is returning ti the VH fold. For sure, it still sounds as good to me now as it did then. Rock music fans seem to sour on bands' later efforts no matter what they put out. In the case of such artists as Aerosmith, I understand the criticism. But for these guys...please. This album is right there in quality with the rest of them (except for VHIII, of course). Definitely a must-own for me as a longtime VH fan.

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