Van Halen

Van Halen III

2-1/2 star average?!? Geez, it ain't THAT bad!

Review Score:

(8/10)
It's one of the most unjustly slagged CD's in the history of rock n' roll, and yet upon further examination you can understand people's frustration. The problem lies not within the songs, the playing, or the singing (or who is doing the singing), all are excellent. One of Van Halen's most understated strengths is their ability to write and arrange great songs with meaty hooks, top-notch arrangements, and soaring vocals. And instead of being a hack retread of previous work, the songs on VH3 sound pretty inspired, particularly in comparison to 1995's flat "Balance". The influence of modern rock and grunge that overtook all other bands of a previously-different ilk doesn't seem to have impacted VH's style that much, and yet they still come up with new variations on their tried-and-true themes, like "One I Want", "From Afar", "Once", and "Dirty Water Dog". The production is sufficiently raw and gritty to give it an added edge.

The problem lies not with the new lead singer, it's the fact that the band, the producer, the record company, or possibly all three seem to be completely EMBARASSED by their new lead singer. Gary Cherone's voice is buried deep in the mix to where the lyrics are fairly unitelligible. And there seems to have been a concerted effort to make him sound as little like Gary Cherone and as much like Sammy Hagar as possible, both in terms of production and vocal style. I have a couple Extreme CD's and I can say that the voice on this CD and the Extreme CD's are definitely similar, but the similarity between it and some of my Sammy Hagar CD's are even more so. It all came off as an obvious sign of weakness, and people were more than ready to jump all over the band for this.

The bad PR surrounding this CD pretty much sealed its fate before it was even released, but if you can listen to it at face value and remove yourself from the politics surrounding it, it's actually a lot better CD than most people give it credit for.

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