Van Halen

Van Halen III

VH fans, take the time to read this.....

Review Score:

(6/10)
This album is very much maligned. The main problem is how different the overall sound and feel is from typical Van Halen material, the most obvious difference being the short lived presence of Mr Cherone. Obviously that large portion of society who idolise DLR to the point of paganism and spend their lifetimes aiming incoherent vitriol at any efforts by his 2 successors (with or without the band)will be none too impressed. However, there are some out there, who, like myself, are willing to acknowledge the modest contribution made by some guy named Eddie to the overall sound of Van Halen, and not disregard all his work because the voice on it sounds a little different. (For all I care Donald Duck could be the singer as long as EVH is still around). Yes, there is something different about this album, its hard to pin it down exactly...the songs dont sound as polished, and there's more of an experimental feel, in terms of guitar, it sounds more spontaneous and live than earlier material, the songs are also much longer than you'd expect from this band. It sounds as if Eddie is trying to create more intricate and expansive pieces. (Also to be fair the production isn't great). The main message is, i guess, the band are no longer trying to write radio hits. This, for the hard rock fan, should not be at all unwelcome news. To sum up I guess you could say the band has grown up. Fair play, they're pushing 50. However the overall quality of the music has not diminshed. The presence of Cherone as singer to my mind simply makes this album sound more distinctive and interesting. Yes, he writes mature, political lyrics, but not all the time and when he does they work. To those who think all hard rock needs to be about sex and cars I'd remind you of a band called Led Zeppelin who invented the genre and who disagree. In other places the band actually produce some mature and serious love songs, without synthesisers, a new side to the band which isn't too bad. The quality of guitar is great of course, although the sound has changed slightly. Change has been a constant in Eddie's style, of course. On this effort it sounds slightly more bluesy I think. There are the riffs and solos you'd expect. Actually memorable riffs are a little thin on the ground, and i can't say that the album is consistently good throughout, but then VH have often produced slighty patchy albums, thats nothing new. I recommend this to the sane VH fan whose wiling to try out something a little different. A word of advice, its a grower, dont dismiss it on first listen. The highlight is Year to the Day, a nine minute epic of the style only the Cherone "era" could yield. Its great if you can be bothered with it.....This is definately better than most of the Dave era, ie. Women and Children first, Fair Warning (VH and 1984 excepted of course). If you own all the other VH works i'd say its worth completing the set.

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