\nFair Warning<\/i>, the fourth release from Van Halen, comes as a
\nbit of a relief to my ears as it shows a greater degree of the
\naggressive, muscular sound I felt was lacking in
\nVan Halen II<\/i> and
\nWomen And Children First<\/i>. After the hard rocking masterpiece
\nthat is their debut album, the two follow-ups left me wanting more.
\nFollowing disappointing slop like “Dance The Night Away”
\nand”Beautiful Girls,” this album is a refreshing relief. Why?
\nBecause they put first things first, as they should be. Eddie’s
\nguitar is in the forefront almost every second of this album, right
\nwhere it belongs. The core of what made VH the success it was is
\npurely and simply the virtuoso playing of Eddie Van Halen, and this
\nalbum is a tribute to that talent.<\/p>\n
On the subject of the Brothers Van Halen, I want to give props
\nhere to Eddie’s big brother Alex, whom I consider an unsung hero
\namong drummers. He may not be the most technical player, but he is
\nrock-solid, consistent, and powerful. I like to compare him to John
\nBonham (Led Zeppelin). Bonzo was never an artiste per se, but he
\nhad incredible power and was a critical part of the sound of the
\nZep. Like Bonzo, Alex is top-drawer and will always rank among my
\nfavorites, and he kicks ass on this album. We now we return to the
\nalbum review already in progress\u2026<\/p>\n
The band seems to have lost a bit of the light-heartedness that
\nwas present on the first three albums, which may have been the
\nresult of tension that was growing between frontman David Lee Roth
\nand Eddie Van Halen. Eddie wanted to branch out musically, and DLR
\nwas trying to keep the band on the poster-children-for-partying
\ntrack. In the long run, it seems Eddie won this round, as
\ndemonstrated the complete lack of cover songs. DLR was a big fan of
\nthe covers, and was responsible in large part for their inclusion
\non many VH albums (or so the legend tells). Eddie, on the other
\nhand, reportedly hated the covers, and agreed to record them partly
\nto keep the peace, and probably for the commercial potential as
\nwell. Not a bad idea really; after all, it was their cover of The
\nKinks’ “You Really Got Me” that launched their career in the first
\nplace. Still, I have always felt that the cover songs were the
\nleast effective of any of their work. With a few exceptions, the
\ncover songs tend to leave me flat. So, I was happy to find them
\nmissing here.<\/p>\n
\nFair Warning<\/i> spawned two absolutely stellar hard rockers,
\n“Mean Streets” and “Unchained.” First, the album opener “Mean
\nStreets” showcases what VH always was, and always should be about,
\nthe badass guitar playing that put them on the map. The song begins
\nwith a blistering guitar intro, and Eddie lays down a nasty, funky
\ngroove that sets the standard for the rest of the album. This song
\nis classic VH and ranks among my favorites. DLR is in his element
\nas well, as this is the perfect vehicle for his particular style.
\nRoth never had a great voice, but more than made up for it with
\ngreat timing, attitude and knowing how to stay within his limited
\nrange. This song in particular shows Diamond Dave at his best.<\/p>\n
“Unchained” is another example of a timeless VH tune. A driving
\nrhythm, another original groove by Eddie, and lyrics that are
\ncompletely irrelevant. Everything I love in a VH track. DLR goes
\ninto one of his now classic smarmy voice-overs (“Hey man! That suit
\nis you! You’ll get some leg tonight for sure!”) that has since
\nbecome synonymous with the VH legacy. This is a great song, and has
\nbecome a staple of classic rocks stations, for good reason.<\/p>\n
The disc drags a bit when you hit the meandering “Push Comes to
\nShove,” but the boys get right back in the groove and hit it out of
\nthe park with the next track “So This Is Love,” a timeless
\nfull-tilt boogie. Why they bothered with the lackluster
\ninstrumental “Sunday Afternoon In The Park” is beyond me. It
\ndoesn’t even make a good intro for the closer “One Foot Out The
\nDoor,” which closes the album the way it opens, as it should, with
\nEddie shredding off into the sunset as only he can The other high
\npoints on this disc, “Sinners’ Swing” and “Dirty Movies,” are
\ntextbook VH tunes, hard rockers that are derivative of the VH
\nstandard template. The album in its entirety is guitar oriented,
\nhard rocking and showcases all four members at their peak. Probably
\nthe heaviest of any VH album, and one that bears revisiting. No VH
\nalbum will ever match their debut in my opinion, but
\nFair Warning<\/i> comes close to that level of power and
\nenergy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":26722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5673],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-37980","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-van-halen","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37980","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\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37980"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}