Van Halen’s ‘A Different Kind of Truth' At 10: A Track-by-Track Guide

[Seshmeister]

That's definitely a drawback for ADKOT: be it either playing it through speakers or through headphones, when you crank it up it distorts to shit. It does have a dry digital sound even at lower volumes. Contrast that with the Fair Warning album, where you can crank that fucker right up and everything is still clear in the mix.

I've done two albums and mixes in the last 8 years so spent around maybe 100 hours recording in professional studios and I feel like i know far less about this than I did in the late 80s/90s doing demos.

Mixes used to be good or not good, Now it has to be compressed to fuck or it sounds stupidly quiet, it has to work on your headphones and an iPhone speaker and a TV and a good stereo. I don't understand it to the point of not even knowing what is good or shit - it's weird and unsettling.

All of that is an engineering/mixing issue though, John Shanks has to be given big credit as a producer for bringing out great performances by everyone and it not falling to bits in petty shit.

[ZahZoo]

I think a good mix can be done digitally without it being compressed to fuck... Most of the music I listen to wasn't remixed to today's standards and sounds perfectly fine through headphones, car stereos and an actual stereo with real speakers.

Nothing sounds great through earbuds, an iPhone, or stock TV with tiny speakers... why shoot for that as your standard output device.

[Seshmeister]

As I said, I dunno but they all do it.

Part of it I think is something to do with volume whereby there was some sort of arms race over the years that has made everything have to have all the frequencies maxed out.

Someone reading this must know...

[Never was]

I work with a Midas Pro2c digital console currently and it's got some of the best clean sound available that's as close to many of the high end analog consoles I've worked on. You can get great sound and excellent mixing capabilities out of digital with the right gear.

There's very little you can do to improve ADKOT with an EQ and great system... the problem isn't tone or warmth... it's the way it's mixed into a packed wall of compressed sound with literally no frequency space unfilled.

As I've said before... the best description of how the final mix of ADKOT is... they stuffed a size 12 woman into pair of size 5 skinny jeans. Fits so tight, it can't breath!!

Great way to describe it. They re-mixed after Henson at 5150 and when all was said and done the thing was way too compressed. It needed space desperately to let each part shine. The final brickhouse sound betrayed the material a lot as it was better than the end album sounded

[Silexxx]

Vinyl Rip on Youtube. It's not as compressed as cd / digital version.

Full album playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...hdAtMEQNa8zWu-

[Terry]

I'm pretty sure you are wrong but I agree it's a great album.

The 2 criticisms that people make of this album are pretty dumb

1) It stole from previous demos.
This is fucking stupid because

a) You can't steal from yourself
b) They reworked them a lot
c) They did the exact same thing throughout the first 6 albums,
d) ADKOT is much longer than the usual VH album and so has more original material on it than maybe all of them apart from VH1? That may be shit but it's not miles off.

and

2) Michael Antony isn't on it.
Ok yes but there is no conceivable way the album could have happened without Wolfgang so it is what it is. It's also arguable that Wolf brought some stuff on a number of tracks that MA would never have especially judging by the mediocre dirge of Chickenfoot*



*PMSL literally just had to google to remind myself of the name of Chickenfoot...

With the amount of reworked tracks on ADKOT, the one thing I did think was that it didn't seem a potential follow-up album would be forthcoming any time soon, in that they had 3 years after the 2007-2008 tour to make the album yet less than half of what was on it was recent. The upside was that many of the tracks on the album I liked the best were the reworked ones.

Yeah, Mike Anthony wasn't on it. But I tend to think we only got what we got out of the band from 2007 to 2015 because Wolfgang WAS in the band, and Eddie enjoyed working/playing with his kid. I suppose had Anthony remained in the group they may have eventually gotten back together with Dave anyway, but for whatever reason(s) Ed didn't want to work with Anthony anymore. I don't necessarily think what the band did live or in the studio from 2007-2015 would have sounded overall much better with Anthony there. It was what it was.

[Terry]

That's interesting, Sesh and Zah, re: the mix being undertaken as related to how it would sound through computer speakers, or headphones, or tv speakers or a smartphone speaker.

[Nickdfresh]

It was about wearing a Panamanian hat. Smoking the big ganja and the whole lifestyle revolving around that. It’s a Roth song. It’s not supposed to make any sense.

You're lapping up Al's nonsense. Dave said it was either about his car or a stripper (probably both). The hat thing is just jerkoff nonsense...

[Seshmeister]

I'm not an audiophile by any stretch but people playing music near me through the speaker on a phone actually makes me feel angry even if it's music I like. In fact if I like the music that maybe makes me angrier.

[Seshmeister]

Ted Templeman chose the track order of Van Halen back in the day and was so good at it even the Van Hagar went back to him.

I would love to know his tracking for ADKOT. I would have gone for Blood and Fire as the opening single...

[FORD]

Wish Ted had produced the album. The mix definitely would have been better. As well as the tracking order..... if Blood and Fire wasn't the opener, She's The Woman should have been...

[ZahZoo]

I'm not an audiophile by any stretch but people playing music near me through the speaker on a phone actually makes me feel angry even if it's music I like. In fact if I like the music that maybe makes me angrier.

That's because those tiny speakers on produce highs and high-mid frequency tones... high-mid frequencies in a specific range irritate the human ear and brain.

Think about it... the most primal music came from hollow logs covered with animal skins... drums. All low and low-mid frequencies. The local tribesman beating rocks with sticks got fed to the local predators...

[Kristy]

She's the Woman

A tune that mocks poverty and despair in America while these rich fucks drive around in their Ferrari's. Roth's Van Halen was always a Republican band with Ayn Rand idealism. Fuck them. A Different Kind of Turd was nothing more than a noisy, scattershot of canned tunes brought forth to soothe Roth's stupid ego. This was a record that required little to no effort to write, record, produce, and distribute. It's like the Led Zeppelin II of its time. Of course not one of you Roth sycophants will ever question its integrity you beaten over the head one too many times with the mediocrity carrot on the stick imbeciles. A Different Kind of Turd lays testament on why the music industry is so shitty these days and why people "download" absolute shit like Lobo and Cat Stevens because they wrote better songs.

Oh, and Roth's singing on that dismal slab is atrocious like a two year-old pulling on a cat's tail. Yet all of you overlook that fact of my theory of the fact based on another theory that alcohol, ciggies and groupie pussy led to Roth's demise that he never recovered from. It's quite noticeable here. "AiiEEEE YAWWW oooH EiiiEEE yaH"\ is not singing, people, it's 70's est therapy. A Different Kind of Turd should never be placed within the halls of the original Roth years VH cannon, okay?

[Kristy]

That's because those tiny speakers on produce highs and high-mid frequency tones... high-mid frequencies in a specific range irritate the human ear and brain.

Think about it... the most primal music came from hollow logs covered with animal skins... drums. All low and low-mid frequencies. The local tribesman beating rocks with sticks got fed to the local predators...

Jesus, not another fan of Pearl Jam.

[Kristy]

I've done two albums and mixes in the last 8 years so spent around maybe 100 hours recording in professional studios and I feel like i know far less about this than I did in the late 80s/90s doing demos.

Mixes used to be good or not good, Now it has to be compressed to fuck or it sounds stupidly quiet, it has to work on your headphones and an iPhone speaker and a TV and a good stereo. I don't understand it to the point of not even knowing what is good or shit - it's weird and unsettling.

All of that is an engineering/mixing issue though, John Shanks has to be given big credit as a producer for bringing out great performances by everyone and it not falling to bits in petty shit.

This post brought to you by the year 2005.

[Terry]

She's the Woman

A tune that mocks poverty and despair in America while these rich fucks drive around in their Ferrari's. Roth's Van Halen was always a Republican band with Ayn Rand idealism. Fuck them. A Different Kind of Turd was nothing more than a noisy, scattershot of canned tunes brought forth to soothe Roth's stupid ego. This was a record that required little to no effort to write, record, produce, and distribute. It's like the Led Zeppelin II of its time. Of course not one of you Roth sycophants will ever question its integrity you beaten over the head one too many times with the mediocrity carrot on the stick imbeciles. A Different Kind of Turd lays testament on why the music industry is so shitty these days and why people "download" absolute shit like Lobo and Cat Stevens because they wrote better songs.

Oh, and Roth's singing on that dismal slab is atrocious like a two year-old pulling on a cat's tail. Yet all of you overlook that fact of my theory of the fact based on another theory that alcohol, ciggies and groupie pussy led to Roth's demise that he never recovered from. It's quite noticeable here. "AiiEEEE YAWWW oooH EiiiEEE yaH"\ is not singing, people, it's 70's est therapy. A Different Kind of Turd should never be placed within the halls of the original Roth years VH cannon, okay?

Yes, but didn't you find Roth's concluding lyrical couplet in the second verse of ADKOT's She's The Woman - "Your I.Q. plummets fourteen points/Her thunder thong around your neck" - to be a delightfully nostalgic and wonderfully illustrative portrait of the age-old romantic pursuit re: men and women?

[Seshmeister]

She's the Woman

A tune that mocks poverty and despair in America while these rich fucks drive around in their Ferrari's. Roth's Van Halen was always a Republican band with Ayn Rand idealism. Fuck them. A Different Kind of Turd was nothing more than a noisy, scattershot of canned tunes brought forth to soothe Roth's stupid ego. This was a record that required little to no effort to write, record, produce, and distribute. It's like the Led Zeppelin II of its time. Of course not one of you Roth sycophants will ever question its integrity you beaten over the head one too many times with the mediocrity carrot on the stick imbeciles. A Different Kind of Turd lays testament on why the music industry is so shitty these days and why people "download" absolute shit like Lobo and Cat Stevens because they wrote better songs.

Oh, and Roth's singing on that dismal slab is atrocious like a two year-old pulling on a cat's tail. Yet all of you overlook that fact of my theory of the fact based on another theory that alcohol, ciggies and groupie pussy led to Roth's demise that he never recovered from. It's quite noticeable here. "AiiEEEE YAWWW oooH EiiiEEE yaH"\ is not singing, people, it's 70's est therapy. A Different Kind of Turd should never be placed within the halls of the original Roth years VH cannon, okay?

[Nitro Express]

Van Halen was a Southern California party band. They existed before political correctness and political division and silly social identity games. Nobody cared about your politics, everyone wanted to get laid and pass the Schlitz Malt Liquor.

[Nitro Express]

I remember when Jump came out, and the kids in my high school who had previously thought Van Halen was dumb rock for burnouts were all of a sudden saying how great Jump was, and I was puzzled at the time because Jump and I'll Wait were the tracks on 1984 I liked the least.

When Hagar joined the band a couple years later, those same "I like Van Halen: they did Jump!" high school kids - which were pretty much all either jocks, cheerleaders or class president types - REALLY started liking the band. They loved those synth tunes...they actually thought the band got better when Roth left.

Yeesh.

I started seeing this high school girl in my class in 1987. We'd go to her house after school, because both her parents worked, and we'd go upstairs to her bedroom and fuck around. She insisted we listen to either the 5150 album or Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet while we were fucking around. Subsequently, I heard both of those albums dozens of times that year.

About 30 years later, I looked her up on facebook. She put on (more than) a bit of weight. Sad. Made me wistful, because she had the greatest tasting pussy. That teen twat circa 1980s, back when many girls even in their mid to late teens hadn't had ten million dicks in them already.

Fresh pussy and getting slippery and wet while listening to Slippery and Wet. Nice memories! I don’t know if I could hold an erection while hearing Sammy’s voice so I assume you ate oysters when 5150 was playing.

[Nitro Express]

That's because those tiny speakers on produce highs and high-mid frequency tones... high-mid frequencies in a specific range irritate the human ear and brain.

Think about it... the most primal music came from hollow logs covered with animal skins... drums. All low and low-mid frequencies. The local tribesman beating rocks with sticks got fed to the local predators...

Then someone invented the damn flute.

[Nitro Express]

I work with a Midas Pro2c digital console currently and it's got some of the best clean sound available that's as close to many of the high end analog consoles I've worked on. You can get great sound and excellent mixing capabilities out of digital with the right gear.

There's very little you can do to improve ADKOT with an EQ and great system... the problem isn't tone or warmth... it's the way it's mixed into a packed wall of compressed sound with literally no frequency space unfilled.

As I've said before... the best description of how the final mix of ADKOT is... they stuffed a size 12 woman into pair of size 5 skinny jeans. Fits so tight, it can't breath!!

Yup. The mix down sucked. I said I added some color and depth back. I didn’t say I completely polished the turd.

[Terry]

Fresh pussy and getting slippery and wet while listening to Slippery and Wet. Nice memories! I don’t know if I could hold an erection while hearing Sammy’s voice so I assume you ate oysters when 5150 was playing.

Christ, at that age ANYTHING could have been playing, and oysters or little blue pills weren't even on my radar.

[Kristy]

slave SESH does it again. Defending the indefensible.

[Jérôme Frenchise]

I still skip China Town, never liked it.

I tend to let Bullethead unfold now. Used to dkip it too. Got that "different kind of truth line", the track makes it in retrospect.

I agree on Tattoo being an inadequate opener. Second or third would have fitted better.

She's The Woman kicks ass. Very old-school, but fuck those who don't like it.

You And Your Blues sounds like Van Hagar, but Dave's voice and lyrics make it very interesting. Love the slight accelaration before the solo.

As Is is a fucking great track. Hot for Teacher's lil bro. I really like the part with the slow, heavy as fuck riff.

I find Honeybabysweetiedoll more interesting music wise. Dave sounds like he's struggling to keep with the pace.

I've never liked The Trouble With Never a lot, though I love the bridge with the bass humming and Dave in that very low key.

Like Bullet Head, I've re-evaluated Outta Space. Not their most inventive track, but it's really powerful like a jackhammer.

Of course Stay Frosty will remain as their new Ice Cream Man. Masterful.

Big River has that highly energic groove.

I still love Beats Workin' and think it's a kick in the butt to Ki$$. Listen to that, Gene, and let the shit out of your filthy mouth.

[Kristy]

She's The Woman kicks ass. Very old-school, but fuck those who don't like it.

[Vinnie Velvet]

Fresh pussy and getting slippery and wet while listening to Slippery and Wet. Nice memories! I don’t know if I could hold an erection while hearing Sammy’s voice so I assume you ate oysters when 5150 was playing.

To this day I doubt anyone can hold an erection while 5150 is playing.

I mean, Van Hagar didn't make you wanna fuck but probably run to get your woman flowers and read her love poetry.

[Kristy]

Why is it you self-proclaimed hard core Rothy imbeciles keep on overlooking this masterpiece?



I can only surmise its due to your boring mind-hive collective that not one of you took the time to learn where Eddie was coming from on that album. Eddie, if you must know, was coming from a dark, dark place in his soul. He was an artist becoming and maturing into a blossoming flower of personal growth. As it has been said (because I just said it) if Eddie was the Sinatra of the guitar he needed to embrace the new, the uncharted and gain a new audience that was accepting of his craft.

All you aging muck rakes want to do is cling to the past. You live to polish the turd only a different kind of turd because it somehow nourishes your lack of will to accept the new. Praise Eddie. For he transcended his ego and allowed A Different Kind of Turd to be released to soothe the bloated ego of his highly annoying old singer who never gave a fuck about his band when he realized the cameras were on him. Roth is a Faustian idiot. He made a deal with the devil and pumped out crud - and don't get me started on the "bluegrass" shit. Eddie was in the process of rebuilding what he loved on Van Halen III but you fucking Roth tards, like Roth himself had to tear it all down.

Shame on you. Shame on all of you.

[FORD]

What VDIII proved beyond a shadow of a doubt was that Eddie Van Halen was a brilliant musician, but - by himself - a very poor songwriter. He wrote timeless classic rock songs with Roth, and commercially viable (at the time) pop songs with Hagar.... but apparently it was up to Dave or Sammy to shape those riffs into proper song structures. Cherone didn't have that same role. He just did the lyrics.

[ashstralia]

I’m forever jealous of you lucky #$&*’s who got to see/hear/experience RUSH in their prime.

[Nitro Express]

To this day I doubt anyone can hold an erection while 5150 is playing.

I mean, Van Hagar didn't make you wanna fuck but probably run to get your woman flowers and read her love poetry.

Or turn you gay to where you want to dump the girl for another man and a tub of anal lube.

[Nitro Express]

I’m forever jealous of you lucky #$&*’s who got to see/hear/experience RUSH in their prime.

Missed Moving Pictures but was at the front of the stage during the Signals tour. Alex would toss his guitar to the tech and the tech would toss another one out. They were throwing those guitars ten feet and never dropped one. Neil drummed with big ass can headphones on. I think that was the best Rush show I saw.

[Nitro Express]

What VDIII proved beyond a shadow of a doubt was that Eddie Van Halen was a brilliant musician, but - by himself - a very poor songwriter. He wrote timeless classic rock songs with Roth, and commercially viable (at the time) pop songs with Hagar.... but apparently it was up to Dave or Sammy to shape those riffs into proper song structures. Cherone didn't have that same role. He just did the lyrics.

Ed wasn’t much of a singer either. Yeah the guy was a very creative riff writer and really had the stardust in a live performance. I don’t think Van Halen would have made it without Dave. Bands are team efforts.

[Nitro Express]

VH3 was a product of Ray Daniel’s convincing Eddie he was the band leader. Dave Roth was the band leader and then Sam filled that role. Ray Daniel’s brought one of his clients in as singer. It was all about more money for Ray and VH3 is the result. I blame Ray for it all.

[Terry]

I still skip China Town, never liked it.

I tend to let Bullethead unfold now. Used to dkip it too. Got that "different kind of truth line", the track makes it in retrospect.

I agree on Tattoo being an inadequate opener. Second or third would have fitted better.

She's The Woman kicks ass. Very old-school, but fuck those who don't like it.

You And Your Blues sounds like Van Hagar, but Dave's voice and lyrics make it very interesting. Love the slight accelaration before the solo.

As Is is a fucking great track. Hot for Teacher's lil bro. I really like the part with the slow, heavy as fuck riff.

I find Honeybabysweetiedoll more interesting music wise. Dave sounds like he's struggling to keep with the pace.

I've never liked The Trouble With Never a lot, though I love the bridge with the bass humming and Dave in that very low key.

Like Bullet Head, I've re-evaluated Outta Space. Not their most inventive track, but it's really powerful like a jackhammer.

Of course Stay Frosty will remain as their new Ice Cream Man. Masterful.

Big River has that highly energic groove.

I still love Beats Workin' and think it's a kick in the butt to Ki$$. Listen to that, Gene, and let the shit out of your filthy mouth.

Didn't like China Town?!?!

Would you have liked it better if, say, Jerry Lewis had sung it?

[Jérôme Frenchise]

I'm sorry, never could bear that tune, except when I discovered the album through the mp3 I had purchased on the day before release.
The chorus, above all.
I'll give it another try soon.

It's too bad they never played Stay Frosty on stage, but just like a few other tracks you know the reason why. Ed, Al and Wolf would have been able to play them, but Dave would have had trouble keeping up and tally his studio performances. Not to mention singing in tune.

[Vinnie Velvet]

VH3 was a product of Ray Daniel’s convincing Eddie he was the band leader. Dave Roth was the band leader and then Sam filled that role. Ray Daniel’s brought one of his clients in as singer. It was all about more money for Ray and VH3 is the result. I blame Ray for it all.

Sam's role is interesting when he joined the band. Cause you know by that point Ed and Al wanted more control. Thus why they got rid of Ted, Noel and then made it impossible for Dave to carry on with them.

Sam exerted his control through his manager Ed Leffler who masterfully managed to get the drunken Van Halens to do his bidding. Once Leffler passed Van Hagar was all pretty much done.

[Kristy]

I’m forever jealous of you lucky #$&*’s who got to see/hear/experience RUSH in their prime.

Saw them at Red rocks in 2004. The first of out three times they played there. Rained, sucked, then rained some more. For a three piece they were a powerhouse of noise, excellent light show and of course Geddy can't sing worth a shit but he didn't need to. He's Geddy Lee and Geddy Lee "does what he's wanna."

[Seshmeister]

I'm sure it was discussed at length at the time but I had forgotten that by the end of the final tour the only song left in the set from ADKOT was 'She's the Woman' and for most of it the only other one was 'China Town'.

[Seshmeister]

Saw them at Red rocks in 2004. The first of out three times they played there. Rained, sucked, then rained some more. For a three piece they were a powerhouse of noise, excellent light show and of course Geddy can't sing worth a shit but he didn't need to. He's Geddy Lee and Geddy Lee "does what he's wanna."

The R30 tour, I would say they were still very much in their prime.

I couldn't get a ticket for the Scottish gig and had to fly to England to see it.

[Kristy]

Ed wasn’t much of a singer either.

He never claimed he was. What Eddie could do is shit out one hell of a tune - literally.