It is interesting isn't it !? There is no CLUNKER on this album IMO all the music is really interesting. Hell she's the Woman might be the most boring song on the cd. And it's still cool. It's all on You Tube but 3 full songs at this point. The only one I havent heard all the way through is Big River. This album has passion and alot of balls !! It's couldn't be much better. Maybe put Mike on it but i'm not missing him. Wolf sounds great on it. I think his playing challenged Ed to push himself in a way nobody maybe even he could have dreamed of. If Wolf is the big reason Dave is back & Ed is playing so well then sorry Mike !! Love ya dude but.... !! Ed hasn't played good live since 98, looks like that has changed !! Chinatown will win a best song pole around here I would think. Need too set one up on Tuesday.
Last edited by 78/84 guy; 02-05-2012 at 01:58 PM.
I can't tell you how jazzed I am. Amazing songs, amazing singing, playing, lyrics, the works!! The total VH package. Wait until you read Dave's lyrics. The man truly is a rock and roll poet. Pure genius. The magic between these guys is undeniable. But what I really liked what was each band member was thankful for. I won't spoil the surprise, but I absolutely loved what Dave had to say.
You're all in for a treat...cuz the boys are back in a big way!
Go Giants!!!
and you couldn't post that in the review thread you attention whoring dumbass?
Roth Army Icon
First official owner of ADKOT (Deluxe Version)
Love ya too bro. My bad.
You know you could be BANNED for such offenses !?!!
I'm calling the DLR Web Police !!!
Hmmm I see no big deal here.....some secret IP or something?
Glad you are enjoying the Album!
Can't Control your Future. Can't Control your Friends. The women start to hike their skirts up. I didn't have a clue. That is when I kinda learned how to smile a lot. One Two Three Fouir fun ter thehr fuur.
Hey, that's al-qaeda behind the couch !!!
Give up your rights!! We need protection!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here's a great song by song review from MusicRadar.com
http://www.musicradar.com/news/guita...track-528131/1
It's been nearly three decades since the Van Halen brothers and David Lee Roth made an actual album together. During that time, they've split up, played with other partners, traded barbs, come together and broke up again, traded more barbs, and what have you.
In 2007, however, the VH landscape changed dramatically: Roth rejoined - for a real tour, not just a quickie track for a "best-of" collection - and founding member Michael Anthony was jettisoned in favor of Eddie's son, Wolfgang. All looked set for what might be some new music...and then it didn't. After a successful (and trouble-free) run of arena dates, the Van Halen camp went silent.
Early last year, though, word came out that Van Halen were recording an album, which sent naysayers and even an ex-band member (Sammy Hagar) into brickbat-mode. They'll never finish it. They're just recording old songs, they can't write new stuff...and on and on.
Well, that sound you hear, the one rising up to meet Eddie's chainsaw guitar, is of Van Halen - three guys in their late 50s (Ed, David and Alex) and a 21-year-old upstart (Wolf) - having the last laugh. A big reason for their glee might steam from the fact that what they've done here is unprecedented, actually, using demos of old, unused songs for the basis of a good portion of the new material, re-inventing and re-imaging themselves in the process.
It's a genius move, of course ("Hey, we can't write young, so let's take songs from when were young!"), and it makes you wonder why other acts haven't done it before. What's remarkable, though, is that rather than sounding like three AARP subscribers strolling down memory lane with "the kid," the Van Halen of 2012 comes off as age-proof, confident monsters, chewing up the scenery with the top down and flipping the bird to anyone who's got a problem with that.
Oh, and get this: there's not one wimpy "power ballad" to be found. You can place this album right alongside Women And Children First and not feel as though you've just committed audio sacrilege. A Different Kind Of Truth will be released on 7 February. On the following pages, we deliver the track-by-track verdict.
Sounds like it's written by a dork...
But at least it's positive...
I agree with this part of the Music Radar review and some of the observations about the songs. "The Van Halen of 2012 comes off as age-proof, confident monsters, chewing up the scenery with the top down and flipping the bird to anyone who's got a problem with that."
I, like others who have posted on this thread, have been taking turns with "my favorite song" on the record. As I write this, it's "Outta Space". Jesus H. Christ!
Some other quick thoughts... this is the kick in the ass that hard rock needed... again. Similar in style to the kick it received in 1978. I mean, this is a blowout. Nothing else in rock has been close to this in many years... wall to wall... first song to last song. As a musician, I sense this record having an influence for the next 10 years. No more looking at your shoes, whining that you're a loser baby so why don't you kill me, tuning down lower than the last guy, stale safe rock anthems that don't really mean anything.... and fucking let the guitar player melt faces, for christ sakes. Swagger is a word I read used here before. This record definitely has swagger. Not some pimp, jive ass bullshit. But real swagger. You gotta walk the walk swagger. James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley swagger. You know... "We got paid $1.5 Million to headline the US Festival 30 years ago and we're selling out every arena across North America in 2012" swagger.
I guess we know now why it took so long to get this record. Them dudes have been practicing. Wolfie is fucking KILLING IT. Ed deserves "Comeback Player of the Year", Diamond Dave is "MVP"... but Wolfie has got to be "Rookie of the Year". This is like Gale Sayers or Randy Moss in their rookie year. "Here I am, I DESERVE to be here, get out of my fucking way and there is no way you can stop me." Listen on your headphones to he and Alex behind the solo's... they are locked in the pocket and cooking with grease... then listen to he and Ed shred and match runs note for note... and then he is singing back ups, too. It really is ridiculous. This is like "Eat 'em and Smile" territory... they've laid a marker by which all other guitarists/bassists/drummers will be judged. I can hear people saying this over the next five years, "yeah, he's good... but he doesn't play like Wolfie." People will be saying that. He's that fucking good, dude. Remember when Dave opened the EEAS tour with "Shyboy"? I would love to hear them open with "China Town".
Dave expresses a lot of ideas on this record. I think it'll take me a few months to get all of them. And there is a passion in his delivery that is very pronounced. I read a review where a guy panned "Blood and Fire". The reviewer didn't mention the spoken part in the middle of the song. You CANNOT talk about that song and not mention that part. The way he says "SAY IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT" is spine tingling. Yeah, I'm drinking the Kool Aid... but you cannot listen to that song and not FEEL his meaning. Or on "Bullethead" when he spits out "yeah I'm rolling slowly... but I'm ahead of you"... can you feel it? I do. I think it's clear that this record means EVERYTHING to him and he reached way deep down inside... to places that only some people know about... and delivered this work of art.
But, it's not just him. It's the band, too. And the point/counterpoint between those two cats (Dave and Ed) is on a different level. It's organic and real and just can't be duplicated. It's like Lennon/McCartney. Great individually... but really special together. It makes sense that Ed has always played with his brother on drums and now his son on bass. The same flesh and blood with a sense of timing and rhythm that perhaps dudes with different genes just can't lock in on the same level. Then pour the best storyteller and world's most confident performer on top and you get "A Different Kind of Truth".
Other people have written what I'm about to write. This (new record, tour dates, etc.) means a lot to me. I have a connection to Van Halen that I can't explain to other people who don't have the same connection. It's like "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"... we gotta get to Devils Tower... but we don't really know why. Hearing this record...coming to the place in time we're at right now (new record, tour dates, etc.)... it is up there with getting married, having a kid, completing Ironman (4 times!) and work world success. It has made me very happy. I knew it was going to be great when it happened. But I didn't know it would be this great.
Last edited by riggodrill44; 02-05-2012 at 05:25 PM.
Its a fantastic album they made me wait 28 years but I'll be damned its a killer.
“A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.”
I'm drunk and covered Big river!!
LOL
Yeah!!! VAN HALEN!!! Cheers My vocals are funny.
Awesome fun. I haven't even heard the damn original, but now I've heard a cover.
I think in my line of work that would be called postmodern - i.e., where the before and the after get the hell mixed up.
Chicken? Egg ... Nah, bluemustard was first ...
THINK LIKE THE WAVES
Kickass song...LOL..
parker fly plays like butta...and im drunk
Dunno what that means, but I'm drunk, too ... !
And it's a friggin' school nite, and there is no more whisky in the jar ...
Parker is a guitar..plays fast.
All my weed and beer is gone.
3 am
Superbowlnight.
-20 outside..LOL
I'm doing fine.
HitFix.com gives the album a B-
A somewhat positive review, but the critic embarrassingly (now fixed) compared Big River to "Flirtin' With The Devil" (See comments). Really takes away any credibility.
http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/the-beat...-kind-of-truth
Van Halen’s first new studio album with David Lee Roth in 28 years is named “A Different Kind of Truth,” but the Feb. 7 release could have just as easily been called “I Will Not Go Quietly” “Truth” is a heavy slab of rock delivered on a concrete pillow.
As fans already know, most of the riffs/ideas for the new tunes are from never-finished songs of yore: “She’s The Woman” is from a tune originally demoed in the ‘70s, while obsessive fans instantly noted the similarity between first single “Tattoo” and “Down To Flames,” a 1977 song played live, but never released on an album. Roth told the Los Angeles Times that the band sought to link its past with its present by taking the most promising chunks of coal from four decades ago and polishing them into diamonds.
That sets up the challenge inherent in the John Shanks-produced “Truth”: how to create an album that doesn’t sound like retreads. And to Van Halen’s credit, the band largely succeeds, but there are some serious gaps.
The good new (actually the great news) first: Eddie Van Halen lets loose on some riffs on “Truth” that will make longtime fans cry with joy. If he’s no longer in tip-top form, he’s still close enough that there are many moments throughout the album to dazzle Eddie wanna-bes. Plus, there seems to be no style that he doesn’t pull off here. If you’re an Eddie acolyte, you will not be disappointed. Alex Van Halen thumps the drums a plenty: just check out the crunchy opening of “As Is” to hear the brothers VH spreading some of that genetic magic that siblings seem to mysteriously share (and check out Eddie’s solo around 2:20). Roth’s voice is not the soaring, singular rock wonder that it used to be, but he’s still got plenty of horsepower under the hood and he’s not afraid to unleash it.
The bad news is the songs are largely hookless. There are great hints and ideas that trail off into nothingness or into guitar solos to distract from the fact that the song is on a bullet train to nowhere. For example, “Blood And Fire” opens to exciting promise with light, very catchy playing by Eddie and a strong verse filled with harmonies, but there’s never a sturdy enough chorus to hang any of it on, so instead, Eddie shifts into a ripping solo. It’s exhilarating, but can’t they do both any more?
Too often, in what perhaps is emblematic of their relationship, Eddie and Roth seems to be working on different songs and competing with each other instead of complementing. For example, Roth’s first words on “China Town” are a take-off on the most famous New York Post headline of all time: “Headless body found in topless bar,” but the rest of the song is all Eddie’s, from his mad-scientist opening to breathtaking solos. Roth’s words never fit in with the song. They don’t need to be a lockstep on each song—for example, on “Outta Space,” Roth is going on about this Facebook page (yeah, that’s not going to sound dated), but whatever Eddie and Alex are doing around that works just fine, instead of fighting against it.
Many of the songs, including “Tattoo,” “The Trouble with Never,” “As Is,” “Frosty,” and “honeybabysweetiedoll,” feature spoken interludes by Roth. It reaches the level of parody on “The Trouble With Never,” an otherwise fine song (one of the album’s best), when Roth drops his voice down an octave to talk about his “wicked, wicked ways.” Sure, his talking break worked to iconic effect in “Panama,” but that’s not a device that wears well generally.
“Big River,” the album’s penultimate tune, sounds like everyone’s finally rowing the same way, plus it has a “Runnin’ With the Devil” opening vibe. Great vocals by Roth, inspired playing by Alex, and guitar wizardry by Eddie all meld into something strong.
The Van Halens and Roth throw every guitar lick and vocal yelp that made someone love the band 30 years ago in here, but they’re competing with a mighty, mighty past. As I wrote earlier this week when reviewing Van Halen’s show in Los Angeles, the three new songs played that night fit in perfectly in concert as glue between the past hits and I don’t mean that as a diss. In some ways, that’s the very best they could have hoped for. Given all band’s past dramatics, “Truth” could have been a train wreck of epic proportion and it’s far from it, but it just has enough flashes of past brilliance to wish that the same care that seemed to go into the performances had gone into the songs.
Last edited by 78/84 guy; 02-05-2012 at 10:20 PM.
I somewhat agree with that last review...
There are so many good songs on this thing....I've had the chorus's stuck in my head for days, and that's a damn good think.
Dave's amazing on this record, I did not honestly think he had it in him,so happy to be proven way fuckin' wrong.
One of my favorite lines so far is:
"Pick up a sea shell, hear the sea"
"Pick up a beer glass,that river belongs to meeeeee"
"Big River"
Ta too Ta too!!
Talk Classic Rock - The Official Message Board For Classic Rock -- Now on XenForo!
Blood & Fire has a very "sturdy chorus". What is this guy talking about?
Maybe nitrodave23 is a Hagarita?
Yeah, I sense sarcasm. Hagarita for sure.
I could not agree with you more. Well said.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)