Van Halen

Best of Both Worlds

Learning to See

Review Score:

(10/10)
Oh my. 3 new Van Halen songs with Sammy at the helm. Will they have a hip-hop beat or add new sythesized effects or trickery? Will the be overwrought emotional confessionals about hating ones parents as with so much nu-metal out there today? Will Sammy rap anything to give Linkin Park a run for their money? No, no, no. Just Eddie on guitar, Mikey on bass, Alex on the skins and Sammy screaming his freaking head off. Oh my, so Van Halen. So totally, unmistakably Van Halen. Like many posters I was way into "It's About Time" right off the bat, and "Up for Breakfast" has a nice "Carnal Knowledge" vibe to it, but take a moment with "Learning to See." Eddie noodles. Then Eddie explodes. Then Eddie relaxes, with Sammy singing, and there's time changes and guitar changes and layered solos and just when it's getting back under control Eddie and Sammy explode with an outro unlike any other VH song I can think of. It's a heavy riff-- a big, monolithic, heavy riff that sounds like one guitarist only. It ends with this bloodcurdling scream and I go, "Was that just as good as I think it was?" I swear I've listened to the song over and over and I'm willing to say that "Learning to See" might be my favorite song of the Sammy Hagar era. But then, I'm a fan of the minor chord stuff like "Don't Tell Me" and "Humans Being." Dark Eddie makes me happy, and "Learning to See" is Dark Eddie at his best. If you're a "Beautiful Girls" or "Top of the World" Halen fan, maybe "Learning to See" isn't for you. But if you think "Fair Warning" is as good as it gets, "Learning to See" should do the trick.

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