softfilter Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 (edited) When i first seen title of topic thought it was PD as in "Plain Dealer" Cleveland newspaper. Van Halen II and Fair Warning and of course album one Van Halen my favorites (like II better) Didn't bother buying anything past "FW" lost interest. Edited September 28, 2007 by softfilter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vnhalen Posted November 30, 2007 Share Posted November 30, 2007 being a huge van halen fan, these were a pleasure to read. i do not have a lot to argue about. you seem to know your stuff. i agree with your sadly-forgotten/dismissed Van Hagar tunes. 5150 is probably one top 3 hagar era songs, if not #1. highly regarded by the vh fans but sadly not a whole lot of public may know this tune. easily the best on 5150 the album. the dream is over is another one of those you mentioned. fantastic song. i am glad to see others snjoy those nuggets as well. fair warning might be their best album though. the debut is groundbreaking but i think some of their best dave work is on fair warning. the first 7 songs are fantastic! i am partial to vh 2 myself. i think the backround vocals are topnotch on this disc. side 2 has some classic work on it. beautiul girls and women in love, genius. i havent read all your reviews in depth yet but i intend to, i just stumbled on to this board through a post on the van halen board. good stuff. oh and i am huge rush fan as well. first show was 1982 when i was 13. i liked rush before van halen. just a little backround info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metaldad Posted November 30, 2007 Share Posted November 30, 2007 push comes to shove is one of the best solo's eddie has ever done. f.w. is my fav album, then w.a.c.f. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metaldad Posted November 30, 2007 Share Posted November 30, 2007 by the way, i have seen v.h. 29 time's since 1981. if you took ALL the sammy album's and put them together, you have 1 good album. all that sappy love shit. everything they were not before dave left. the show's were longer but they only played the same dave era stuff because hammy would not sing them. if you were a old school v.h. fan and then went to see hammy this is what you heard EVERY f*ckin TOUR panama a.t.b.l you really got me [ f-n cover tune] as time went on they did jump - a few time's until the 2004 tour ,they did it the whole tour unchained - hammy REALLY sang this like shit somebody get me a doctor- m.a sung it just had to get it off my chest thank's for reading Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tangy Posted November 30, 2007 Share Posted November 30, 2007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tick Posted November 30, 2007 Share Posted November 30, 2007 Wow, what an awesome thread Presto D. I cant believe im just reading this now. Excellent job my friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goose Posted December 1, 2007 Share Posted December 1, 2007 QUOTE (metaldad @ Nov 30 2007, 10:38 AM) push comes to shove is one of the best solo's eddie has ever done. f.w. is my fav album, then w.a.c.f. I agree with your take on this solo. This one is artful, as well as technical. A lot of Eddie's solos miss this mark for me. Not mentioned in the review is the guitar work on Dirty Movies. that's a highlight for me, all the layering, variety of sounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Presto-digitation Posted December 30, 2007 Author Share Posted December 30, 2007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Presto-digitation Posted December 30, 2007 Author Share Posted December 30, 2007 http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/414ZemdlK5L._AA240_.jpg Track Listing: 1. Mine All Mine 2. When It's Love 3. A.F.U. (Naturally Wired) 4. Cabo Wabo 5. Source Of Infection 6. Feels So Good 7. Finish What You Started 8. Black And Blue 9. Sucker In A 3 Piece 10. Apolitical Blues Overall I'd say that the sophomore Sam Halen album is probably my least favorite of the bunch from start to finish, inclusive of all six DLR and four SH records. However that's with all things being relative. There's only one VH album I can honestly say "I DISLIKE" and fortunately this isn't it. OU812, a semi-clever retort to the DLR-titled Eat Em & Smile, a jab at his former bandmates, is probably the most mellow of all the Sam or Dave-led Van Halen albums. The musical diversity is pretty wide. The lyrics, however, are generally unclever and overtly sexual. Not that that bothers me at all, normally (I am a Kiss fan)...except the lyrics are so Goddamn dumb and boneheaded at times, they border on embarrassing. I much prefer when Hagar is writing about just about any other topic....(see Humans Being, Seventh Seal, Don't Tell Me, etc. Part of why I like Balance so much...). And he's really at his best when he's crooning about driving around and partying, because really, Van Halen is America's coolest party band. On that note, let's jump right into what works well on OU812. Feels So Good is, in many ways, very un-VH. Hardly a guitar to be heard and led by this bubbly, organ-esque keyboard riff. BUT what this song thrives on is an inescapable and wholly palpable vibe of summer. Atmosphere means a lot to me. I could buy a Slayer ballad and a death metal tune from Nelson if it simply feels right. So "wimpy" or not, Feels So Good is a nearly perfect song. It's very much in that Summer Nights (5150) and Take Me Back (Balance) vein...and it's just very cool. You are instantly wherever it is Sammy is talking about. Can't give it a higher compliment than "it takes me there." To a large degree Cabo Wabo does the same for me. I'm a bit torn these days because it sounds like one big ass commercial NOW...but at the time and to no fault of the song, it works for the same reason the above mentioned tunes do. Only now do I feel a tinge of shameless self-promotion...and beyond that, I'm f***ing TIRED of everything Sammy does anymore having some variations of "cabo" or "wabo" (Waboritas...? WTF?? STOP!!!). But again, no fault of an otherwise good song. Perhaps the best tune on the record is the opening Mine All Mine, which just zips and rocks right along. A bit of a darker tune with an infectious keyboard groove to start it off. Yet another big time keeper is Finish What You Started, which while borderline grossly cheeky in the lyric department, is made up for with some really spiffy f*ckin' work from Edwardo. The music is very much in that same style of a Take Your Whiskey Home....sort of that "written on the front porch" type feel. (And actually, it was!! The tune was written in the middle of the night on Sammy's porch after Ed came over, unable to sleep after coming up with a riff). So another tune high on vibe. Another song I like is the obligitory Van Hagar ballad. Yes, it's drippy stuff, but When It's Love...in all its contrivance...is still an effective and well-penned and performed radio magnet. I'm iffy on A.F.U. (Naturally Wired) and I simply loathe the title. But nothing offensive here. I feel the same about Source Of Infection, but again...cringe at the title and the lyrics. Musically it's pretty good and I love the chorus , which harken back to the album before with it's Get Up-ness and cooley high harmonies. The weakness of this record was the lead-off single, part of the final three sorry songs on the album. Until now we've had an effective mixture of sexy smarm, cool atmosphere, and musical variety. But we end with a lackluster and, frankly, way out of place blues cover of old Little Feat tune Apolitical Blues, the cringeworthy and almost entirely-woeful Black & Blue (sorry...just never took to this song, even from the first listen), and my least favorite song on the record, Sucker In A 3 Piece. The latter has almost no redeemable qualities to me, even musically...which is odd because even when the lyrics kill a VH song for me, the music is usually there. And this is a meandering, riffless, unmemorable mess. Overall there's probably not any more problems here than on Balance....and by my count, actually a song or so less, although that album's problems were as much couple short instrumentals rather than full songs. I suppose I'm just disappointed that the final three songs on a record with a lot of promise delivers lame fizzle. Overall even 3-4 "meh" tunes still don't take away from the good moments. What OU812 lacks in overall energy...sacrificing their usual blister pace for * (takes a toke) * a more laid back vibe...it still makes up for in places with some effective atmosphere. The lyrics are dumber than shit at times and quite frankly, that aspect of the album brings it down more than it ought to. I'm somewhere between a 3 and a 3.5 of 5 stars. I'd say C to C (+) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Presto-digitation Posted December 30, 2007 Author Share Posted December 30, 2007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Presto-digitation Posted August 15, 2011 Author Share Posted August 15, 2011 Since we're bumping VH related shit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Presto-digitation Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 Because, what the hell....we need another Van Halen thread near the top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metaldad Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 QUOTE (Presto-digitation @ Jan 12 2012, 05:25 PM) Because, what the hell....we need another Van Halen thread near the top. Remember about a year ago Treeduck started about 30 Kiss threads We need Ducky to start a few V.H. threads to piss the Kids off Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUSHHEAD666 Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUSHHEAD666 Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 QUOTE (Presto-digitation @ Jan 12 2012, 03:25 PM) Because, what the hell....we need another Van Halen thread near the top. Hell yeah! I love when certain bands take over MOTS!!! Glad you brought this one back to the top!! Great read!!! I will have to go through this thread tonight with a few beers in me while I crank some Van Halen!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjtull Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Excellent reviews My first time seeing this thread! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost In Xanadu Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 QUOTE (tjtull @ Jan 13 2012, 02:20 PM) Excellent reviews My first time seeing this thread! x2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmotionDetector Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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