View Full Version : Can i Have a review of Skyscraper?
I have all the classic VH cds and eat em and smile. i was gonna buy skyscraper but someone told me it wasnt that good. Can i get a review for it?
teamaa104
12-19-2004, 07:43 PM
boo, they lied
What do you think everyone is going to tell you on a site like this? They're going to tell you it's awesome. I like "Damn Good" but could take or leave the rest of the album.
Mezro
12-19-2004, 07:58 PM
Great songs but the production kills it. If you like a glossy/layered sound then Skyscraper is for you.
Mezro...go buy ALAE instead...
academic punk
12-19-2004, 08:07 PM
The worst mis-step of Dave's career. He clearly took note of Van Hagar's COMMERCIAL success with 5150 (an album that sucks ASS), and wanted to emulate that.
Instead of building from Eat 'Em and Smile (which I think is one of the top 3 albums of Dave's CAREER), he took a complete turn in the opposite direction. Songs like "Just Like Paradise" and "Stand Up" aren't that far removed from the pop of "Why Can't This Be Love?", and, come on, there is NO comparison between the opening moments of EEAS with Dave and Steve Vai's guitar having a conversation and then EXPLODING into Yankee Rose and that lame plink-plink-plink on Knucklebones. Talk about phoning it in! Same thing with Shyboy as opposed to The Bottom Line - MAJOR disappointment as far as what the guitar'n'bass duel offered on the follow-up.
Damn Good is worthwhile, as is Hina. I've always HATED Hot Dog and a Shake and Perfect Timing.
So there you have it - the bulk of the good stuff (and some of the crap) is on The Best, abut the two very best songs aren't.
Bill Lumbergh
12-19-2004, 08:11 PM
Yeah, the production screams "80's hair band", but most of the songs are GREAT. Definitely worth buying........highlights for me: Damn Good, Knucklebones.........get it.
PHOENIX
12-19-2004, 08:33 PM
Sending this the DLR/VH forum.
Vivian Campbell
12-19-2004, 08:43 PM
I’ll lend my thoughts in the context of EE&S V. Skyscraper. In the sum of its parts, Eat Em is by far superior. There is more energy and it sounds like a cross between Van Halen II and WACF. Skyscraper, on the other hand, is very uneven. “Stand Up” is full of cheesy and uninspired lyrics. I can’t believe Dave thought this song was video worthy. “Skyscraper” is a poor excuse for a title track. “Hina” boarders on lame. With that said, Skyscraper has more memorable songs than the more even handed EE&S. “Just Like Paradise,” “Bottom Line,” and “Hot Dog & Shake” are some of Dave’s most enjoyable songs of his solo career. The show stealer is without a doubt “Damn Good.” This song will bring a tear to your eye because the lyrics are heart felt and will instantly remind you of moments that you’ve spent with friends and family. This song, alone, is worth the ten bucks spent. Steve Vai’s guitar playing on Skyscraper is superior to his work on EE&S.
All in all, I would suggest that you buy the album. It isn’t Dave’s best, but you will enjoy a good portion of it - especially “Damn Good.”
Seshmeister
12-19-2004, 09:19 PM
Originally posted by academic punk
He clearly took note of Van Hagar's COMMERCIAL success with 5150 (an album that sucks ASS), and wanted to emulate that.
Much of the rest of your post is valid but that sentence is complete fucking unadulterated shit.
Skyscraper is far too complex to be described as commercialism like 5150.
Even Just like Paradise is just a step too far for the 30 year old housewife in Tuna Fish Wyoming to get never mind the rest of the album. It's stupid to confuse the (over)use of keyboards with an attempt to join the genre of Journey/Loverboy/Insert name of US City.
Are you seriously saying Stand Up is in the same mould as Dreams or Damn Good is an attempt to sell singles to the same people that bought Love Walks In?
Toilet talk - how dare you.
It's weakness in many ways was it's lack of commercialism and how in places it went up it's own ass. At a different time in music history it would have been put down as an interesting experimental album but with hard rock coming to an end and grunge on the horizon it just died.
On EEAS Roth and Vai tried to create the ultimate Van Halen album.
On Skyscraper they tried to create the ultimate rock album drawing on all of their combined influences which ended up being too disparate and just a little too much.
On the whole I really like it with a couple of exceptions but the public at large was never going to. They needed a producer to tell them that.
Cheers!
:gulp:
dave_is_vh
12-19-2004, 11:40 PM
Skyscraper is by far Dave's best CD. It is also better than any Van Halen CD, with the possible exception of 1984.
DLR7884
12-20-2004, 10:25 AM
Originally posted by dave_is_vh
Skyscraper is by far Dave's best CD. It is also better than any Van Halen CD, with the possible exception of 1984.
Let me guess....Culture Club is one of your favorite bands.
DLR7884
I hope your post was a joke.
academic punk
12-20-2004, 09:53 PM
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Seshmeister
[B] Much of the rest of your post is valid but that sentence is complete fucking unadulterated shit.
hey, we're all friends here, tell me how you really feel...
Skyscraper is far too complex to be described as commercialism like 5150.
really? I think there's a difference between "complex" and "disjointed". Like 5150, Skyscraper opens with a rocker, then the pop tune, then a fast rocker, etc etc. but a major difference is that 5150 was the first Van Hagar album, and from the minute I heard it, I knew it was over for me and that they now sucked ass. With Skyscraper, I realy wanted Dave and the Yankee Rose band to go deeper intro what they explored on EEAS - which if you think about it, also explored a lot of textures and genres: the difference is, it did it with a consistency of vision and GREAT songs.
Even Just like Paradise is just a step too far for the 30 year old housewife in Tuna Fish Wyoming to get never mind the rest of the album. It's stupid to confuse the (over)use of keyboards with an attempt to join the genre of Journey/Loverboy/Insert name of US City.
It's not just the keyboards, it's the chord sequences themselves, and the melodies and lyrics. Nice sentiment, but "Stand Up/Stand Up/Put your head in the clouds and your feet on the ground" doesn't hold a candle to "Pistons poppin'/Aw, ain't no stoppin' nowwwwwwww!"
Are you seriously saying Stand Up is in the same mould as Dreams or Damn Good is an attempt to sell singles to the same people that bought Love Walks In?
Yes to the former, uhm.....kinda to the latter.
Toilet talk - how dare you.
As Johnny Cash might say, In the toilet of your heart, I have been flushed.
No, but seriously, I'm happy that you like the album. It just served as a major disappointment to me, as it obviously did for the band, since the only one left by the end of the tour was Bissonette.
TwoFoolsAMinute
12-25-2004, 11:45 PM
In the context of time, the album was great when it was release, but it is dated now. it has it's ups and downs. But, it still has Vai and Sheehan, so it has fantastic guitar and bass work. "Stand Up" kinda sucks, I will concede that, but I love every other track on that record. Put on your headphones, close your eyes and listen to it in the dark, by the end of the title track, you'll be glad you came.
Tony whitfield
12-27-2004, 01:32 PM
ITS GOOD TRY IT
COOL SONGS
JUST DAVE BEING DAVE!!
JacktheRipper
01-12-2005, 12:01 PM
i think this will some it up
eat em and smile was a Dave cd with steve vai playing guitar
shyscraper was a steve vai cd with dave singing
wombattt
01-30-2005, 01:29 AM
Originally posted by JacktheRipper
i think this will some it up
eat em and smile was a Dave cd with steve vai playing guitar
shyscraper was a steve vai cd with dave singing
I disagree. Steve Vai left this DLR because of the direction of this album.
BTW Knucklebones, Damn Good & Hina are killer.
Loons The Great
06-29-2006, 05:23 PM
Damn good times...
DavidLeeNatra
07-01-2006, 04:37 AM
yeah...this album is out of rotation most of the time in my cd player...
thome
07-01-2006, 08:21 AM
YFLM is Daves Most Dave CD my preff for first place in the -Dave
does his own thing-.
EEAS is on top of this in second place with some overlaps in finess.
they are from two totally different times,the influence of the passage of time and place is evident in all things including Daves
Music if you want twenty versions of Jump call Spam or any # of
80 hair bands.....
Skyscraper is a very close third place with some very strong overlaps of greatness that put all music in the rock journal to shame.
These three CD are the Bomb anyone that sais diff is a Dik.
Hah!!!!!!!!!!---------------I RULE U.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
audiospectrum
07-04-2006, 09:32 AM
Originally posted by Seshmeister
Much of the rest of your post is valid but that sentence is complete fucking unadulterated shit.
Skyscraper is far too complex to be described as commercialism like 5150.
Even Just like Paradise is just a step too far for the 30 year old housewife in Tuna Fish Wyoming to get never mind the rest of the album. It's stupid to confuse the (over)use of keyboards with an attempt to join the genre of Journey/Loverboy/Insert name of US City.
Are you seriously saying Stand Up is in the same mould as Dreams or Damn Good is an attempt to sell singles to the same people that bought Love Walks In?
Toilet talk - how dare you.
It's weakness in many ways was it's lack of commercialism and how in places it went up it's own ass. At a different time in music history it would have been put down as an interesting experimental album but with hard rock coming to an end and grunge on the horizon it just died.
On EEAS Roth and Vai tried to create the ultimate Van Halen album.
On Skyscraper they tried to create the ultimate rock album drawing on all of their combined influences which ended up being too disparate and just a little too much.
On the whole I really like it with a couple of exceptions but the public at large was never going to. They needed a producer to tell them that.
Cheers!
:gulp:
Shesh I agree with most of everything you've said. This album really is a cut above the rest of the tripe at the time - as always Dave sails through the music world in a yaught. I think to the uninformed and maybe the uninspired "stand Up" just doesn't sit right, but those 'simple' lyrics as people like to say are far more complex than they appear. You have to take the song in the context of the album, and this is a great album. Buy it, and one for your friend so you can shoot opinions off each other. Dolemite motherfucker!
Dave had changed a lot, he became fat, bloated, wrinkled and his hair fell out at he front! I think nthis was caused by Dave`s rumoured smack addiction!
binnie
03-23-2009, 04:20 PM
It's the album that has aged the worst. It sounds so............odd
Some great tunes on there though.
Diamondjimi
03-23-2009, 04:22 PM
Dave had changed a lot, he became fat, bloated, wrinkled and his hair fell out at he front! I think nthis was caused by Dave`s rumoured smack addiction!
Fuck off Kuntie
katie
03-23-2009, 07:57 PM
Dave had it in his head that he was going to produce it - Wrong
Vai thought he was co producing - Wrong
The whole record is a battle of production ideas that just dissappear up it's own arse, with Vai playing a load of widdly widdly shit whenever he gets the chance.
Plus the mix is terrible
A few years earlier Dave had a pop at Ed for keyboards........
hideyoursheep
03-24-2009, 07:31 AM
Show us your tits.
hideyoursheep
03-24-2009, 07:32 AM
All 6 of 'em.
chefcraig
03-24-2009, 11:16 AM
It's the album that has aged the worst. It sounds so............odd
Some great tunes on there though.
A couple of years ago, FORD mentioned to me that some alternate mixes of this album exist that are far less processed, with Sheehan's bass turned up in the mix in all of it's ratty detail. I'd love to hear those mixes.
Skyscraper is still my favorite Roth solo album, and I believe it actually holds up better than the garage rock on EEAS. Admittedly, it isn't for everyone's taste, as the sound of Vai and Dave butting heads makes for an at times confusing outcome (the Plant/Zeppelin-like experiments on the title track are a bit over the top), yet I feel the musical highlights outweigh the negative aspects.
Diamondjimi
03-24-2009, 11:37 AM
Show us your tits.
All 6 of 'em.
BWAHAHHAHAHAHAAAAA ....CLASSIC!:biggrin:
katie
03-25-2009, 07:59 PM
It's the album that has aged the worst. It sounds so............odd
Some great tunes on there though.
It has aged badly and I can't think of one song that really kicks ass on it.
Shame cos two years before Dave set the bar really high with EEAS.
bueno bob
03-26-2009, 02:08 AM
It's the album that has aged the worst. It sounds so............odd
Some great tunes on there though.
I agree.
Honestly, over the years it's become my least favorite DLR album. I'm slanted, because I've never been a Steve Vai fan either, but with the horrid mix and the ideas going all over the place, what could have been a far more solid album than even EEAS was ended up being a bit of a mess idealistically.
IMO, ALAE is a far, far superior album.
Panamark
03-27-2009, 04:23 AM
I like all Dave's albums except Van bluegrass and Diamond Dave...
Skyscraper is no exception.
Call it what you will, but I still get a smile everytime I hear the opening
notes to Just like Paradise on the radio....
Same as I do when they play Gigilo.... Hey its Dave in the mainstream !
Better than hearing fucken Dreams !!!
hideyoursheep
03-28-2009, 08:01 AM
It has aged badly and I can't think of one song that really kicks ass on it.
How have your boobs aged?
Your teets.
Let's see them.
katie
03-28-2009, 08:23 PM
I like all Dave's albums except Van bluegrass and Diamond Dave...
Skyscraper is no exception.
Call it what you will, but I still get a smile everytime I hear the opening
notes to Just like Paradise on the radio....
Same as I do when they play Gigilo.... Hey its Dave in the mainstream !
Better than hearing fucken Dreams !!!
I overlooked Just like Paradise
Great pop song, great video.
ELVIS
03-31-2009, 01:09 PM
Much of the rest of your post is valid but that sentence is complete fucking unadulterated shit.
Skyscraper is far too complex to be described as commercialism like 5150.
Even Just like Paradise is just a step too far for the 30 year old housewife in Tuna Fish Wyoming to get never mind the rest of the album. It's stupid to confuse the (over)use of keyboards with an attempt to join the genre of Journey/Loverboy/Insert name of US City.
Are you seriously saying Stand Up is in the same mould as Dreams or Damn Good is an attempt to sell singles to the same people that bought Love Walks In?
Toilet talk - how dare you.
It's weakness in many ways was it's lack of commercialism and how in places it went up it's own ass. At a different time in music history it would have been put down as an interesting experimental album but with hard rock coming to an end and grunge on the horizon it just died.
On EEAS Roth and Vai tried to create the ultimate Van Halen album.
On Skyscraper they tried to create the ultimate rock album drawing on all of their combined influences which ended up being too disparate and just a little too much.
On the whole I really like it with a couple of exceptions but the public at large was never going to. They needed a producer to tell them that.
Cheers!
:gulp:
I totally agree with Sesh here...
I liked a few songs when it came out, but now I dig it all. It's very complex and I would say the production is more modern sounding than a lot of late 80's crap...
Skyscraper is a great song, Hina has cool guitar and sounds Van Halenish, and Two Fools a Minute is awesome and fun to listen to...
I also like Stand Up..It totally thumps my car stareo almost a decade before the Hip Hop gang got the idea...
Perfect Timing is not good at all...bad timing and a bad idea for sure...
But all in all, it's worth buying...
:elvis:
Seshmeister
03-31-2009, 02:09 PM
My post is a classic case of an over-stablization.
You try and shift the hangover from the Saturday night before Xmas night out and you end up overdoing it.
Next thing you know you are posting a rant at 3:20am local time on the Monday morning... :)
Glad it still made some sort of sense.
Seshmeister
03-31-2009, 02:09 PM
My post is a classic case of an over-stablization.
You try and shift the hangover from the Saturday night before Xmas night out and you end up overdoing it.
Next thing you know you are posting a rant at 3:20am local time on the Monday morning... :)
Glad it still made some sort of sense.
GreenBayLA
03-31-2009, 04:02 PM
Skyscraper has a more commercial feel which caused Billy Sheehan to bail and form the commercial weasel band Mr Big, Huh?
I strongly disagree that Skyscraper is a reaction to 5150. Dave likes to switch things up. 1st 4 VH albums alternated between harder and softer approach, I, WACF (hard) II, FW (soft) so that's what Skyscraper is to me. Worth the price of admission for Hina.
sonrisa salvaje
04-07-2009, 05:02 PM
Perfect Timing is a hell of a lot better than Hot Dog and a Shake. That is the first song DLR ever did that i didn't like - ever. Of course, then came Shoot It off of ALAE.
Antman
04-12-2009, 09:10 PM
Just buy the fuckin CD.
PETE'S BROTHER
04-18-2009, 03:08 PM
Just buy the fuckin CD.
what he said:hitch:
WesGriffin
04-18-2009, 03:44 PM
As I have been reading all of these replies; I agree and disagree and still don't care. I actually went to the record store last week and on the way didn't know for sure why I was going. Wanted something new or something I hadn't had in a while. As I was looking around, thoughts of "Skyscaper" popped into my head a few times. I used to have the cassette years ago(and I did like it)until my car got stolen with it in the deck. Over the years I have wanted to replace it but have always put it off. I was going to get it this time. This piece of shit store didn't have it. I settled with something that I'm embarrased to mention(Another Animal),because it sucked! Point is: Go get the damn thing!!! Don't be like me and go to Hastings Books and Music.
ELVIS
04-23-2009, 07:52 AM
Order it on ebay for $2.99
At0micPunk
04-28-2009, 11:10 PM
Skyscraper had it's moments and some good songs. I actually had this on the other day. When Hina came on I thought to myself"damn this tune is awesome, how is it I forgot about this tune!?" and then it got the chorus and I remembered why. lol
UK ROCKER
10-19-2009, 12:36 PM
I know this is a Roth board but i hated that LP when it came out and im not that keen now, but I like the 'just like paradise' single though.
PETE'S BROTHER
10-19-2009, 12:45 PM
damn good times.....love that tune
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