In all the time we’ve been online here at The Daily Vault, I
\nhonestly can’t believe someone hasn’t tackled
\nVan Halen II<\/i>, the follow-up to Eddie Van Halen and crew’s
\nlandmark debut set.<\/p>\n
Maybe it’s because only one or two songs get any regular airplay
\nfrom this 1979 release. Maybe it’s because people fear hearing an
\nexample of the “sophomore slump,” or they’re afraid this album
\nwon’t live up to the high standards that were set on
\nVan Halen<\/i>. Maybe — just maybe — we’ve been so busy we just
\nhaven’t gotten around to it.<\/p>\n
Does this disc live up to what David Lee Roth and company laid
\nout on their first effort? No — and anyone who expected those
\nkinds of fireworks two times in a row has to be fooling themselves.
\nThis disc comes close to those highs, but the band does fall a
\nlittle short. Frankly, with the experimentation they do on this
\ndisc, I’d rather have them fall short and take chances.<\/p>\n
What kinds of chances do Van Halen take? For one thing, there’s
\nthe ubiquitous guitar solo “Spanish Fly,” on which Eddie Van Halen
\nproves he can work magic on any fretboard, electric or acoustic.
\n(If anything, hearing this made me want to hear Van Halen explore
\nthe world of acoustic guitars a little more.) You also have the
\nband taking the risk of covering Linda Ronstadt’s “You’re No Good”
\n— a curious choice to follow up their take on The Kinks’s “You
\nReally Got Me.”<\/p>\n
If all this weren’t enough, Van Halen dares to tackle a slower
\n— not quite, but close to ballad-like — track on “Women In Love,”
\nand doing a respectable job on it. There’s also the suggestion that
\nVan Halen were starting to branch out into commercial hard rock —
\n“Dance The Night Away” and “Beautiful Girls,” the two songs that
\nreceive any significant airplay, being the prime examples. (Thanks
\nto
\nSaturday Night Live<\/i>, I can’t listen to “Beautiful Girls”
\nwithout thinking of the commercial spoof featuring a gay-themed
\nbeer. Proof positive that television is warping the minds of
\ntoday’s youth.)<\/p>\n
If you’re ready to write
\nVan Halen II<\/i> off as a commercial effort, think again. Many
\nof the songs on this release aren’t necessarily aimed for the
\nradio, instead challenging the listener to break out of their own
\nmusical tunnel vision. Songs like “Outta Love Again” (with its
\nstacatto guitar solo), “Light Up The Sky” and “D.O.A.” all push the
\nenvelope for Van Halen.<\/p>\n
Does everything work? Honestly, no. “Somebody Get Me A Doctor”
\nand “Bottoms Up” both fall short of the mark, not living up to the
\nkind of song people were expecting from Van Halen even this early
\nin their career. And as much as I like the way Michael Anthony’s
\nbass solo was featured in its opening, “You’re No Good” just
\ndoesn’t work as a cover selection. (I also would have dropped the
\nthumping bass in the start — too reminiscent of “Running With The
\nDevil.”)<\/p>\n
But
\nVan Halen II<\/i> succeeds because they didn’t follow Van Halen
\nnote-for-note. When a song succeeds, it resonates in the listener’s
\nmemory. When a song fails, it fails triumphantly, having dared to
\ntake a musical chance that the group now felt comfortable with. It
\nmight not be the most recognized of Van Halen’s releases, but
\nVan Halen II<\/i> proves to be a worthy follow-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5673],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-37066","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-van-halen","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37066"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37066"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}