Hagar and bass player seek a fan to phone them

[FORD]

Beats Working is an old one, right? Maybe that's why it's catchy

Yep, it goes all the way back to about 1976 or so.......

...except the lyrics, of course.

[Igosplut]

about unrequited love affairs with alien proctologists.

Where the fucks a good alien anal probe when ya need one???

[Jérôme Frenchise]

"Beats Workin'" has that slight Kiss vibe... But I'll have it over anything Kiss ever made.

Maybe Dave could have sung it lower and left the higher tone to the backing vocals - just like in the good old days,
back when it sounded just perfect.

The solo and outro kick some serious ass.

[Terry]

I think the pussification of VH would have been greatly slowed down if not prevented by Roth staying at the helm.

With Roth still in the band you don't get Templeman replaced by a limp wristed balladeer or the rush to the soccer mom demographic by the dwarf master of cheesy mediocrity.

The conflict between singer and guitarist continues bringing the best out of both so that you don't end up with grown men pastel onesies and lyrics about unrequited love affairs with alien proctologists.

I'd have to agree that had Roth stayed a CVH follow-up to 1984 probably wouldn't have sounded like 5150, even from an instrumental standpoint.
Van Halen always had a degree of pop sensibility even when Roth was at the helm...one would imagine that the synth-creep wouldn't have been quite as upfront had Roth stuck around, and the non-synth tunes would have a bit more distinction and personality to them: outside of the 5150 title track, none of the non-synth tunes are distinctive to my ears.
I'd also agree that the very presence of Dave in the band would have pushed the Van Halens to play a little harder, even if mostly out of anger and desperation. The band got very comfortable very quickly when Hagar joined, and a lot of the sonic fury was lost as a result.

[Hardrock69]

Where the fucks a good alien anal probe when ya need one???

I am sure Spambot could point you in that dubious direct-shun.

[Terry]

I don't think ADKOT is what it could have been/should have been when it comes to songs. Maybe what they had as songwriters has faded. I think they realize that themselves considering that they are using old material.

Not too sure about that. As Is, which as far as I can tell wasn't reworked from any old demos, was a pretty excellent track.

Going forward, I wonder if the lukewarm reception ADKOT got in terms of sales would put a damper on the band even wanting to bother with another full-length album.

[Igosplut]

I am sure Spambot could point you in that dubious direct-shun.

I meant HIM, not me Rock

[DLR Bridge]

Going forward, I wonder if the lukewarm reception ADKOT got in terms of sales would put a damper on the band even wanting to bother with another full-length album.

I don't follow any of that stuff. Was it really only lukewarm in sales? I'm sure all of the free downloading didn't help.

[Hardrock69]

Well, you gotta figure as well that spreading it around the net just gave it a better reputation, and I bet it had better sales as a result, as it IS a stellar album!

[Zing!]

Is 500,000 sold lukewarm these days? I thought that was shithot sales in the download age? Am I wrong on that? Unless you give your album away for 99 cents like Chickenscatch, a half a mil ain't easy to come by anymore unless you're an autotuned corporate slut. Yes or no?

[DLR Bridge]

Sounds good to me. Not the .99 Chickenshit, the other thing.

[Halen High]

Is 500,000 sold lukewarm these days? I thought that was shithot sales in the download age? Am I wrong on that? Unless you give your album away for 99 cents like Chickenscatch, a half a mil ain't easy to come by anymore unless you're an autotuned corporate slut. Yes or no?

Someone at the Links was tracking sales for VH and other major hardrock/metal artists throughout 2012 and 2013, and I think ADKOT turned out to be the best selling hardrock/metal album released over the last two years. The last figures I saw for ADKOT were a few months ago...about 420,000 (US) and 1m worldwide, or getting close to that globally. So yeah I'd say that in the current climate of diminishing sales/popularity for hardrock/metal, ADKOT did very well commercially.

[Halen High]

Sounds good to me. Not the .99 Chickenshit, the other thing.

I believe the rules have since changed and albums discounted to that level are no longer counted as official sales?

[Halen High]

I don't follow any of that stuff. Was it really only lukewarm in sales? I'm sure all of the free downloading didn't help.

Same here but I was curious this time to see how an album like this would go in today's market, and after all these years without Dave. It was an album for the hardcore fans - we love it and that's what really counts.

[DLR Bridge]

Totally agree HH. It came with virtually no "top 40 hit" material what so ever. To have nearly a million in sales based on minimal air play of Tattoo and a few building banners (lol), I'd say they did alright.