After five decades in the business\u2014lately including a new high-profile interview seemingly every other day\u2014you might expect that Sammy Hagar has lost the capacity to surprise. Through a trio of huge bands (the groundbreaking Montrose, the iconic Van Halen, and latter-day supergroup Chickenfoot), a notable solo career, and multiple successful business ventures, Hagar has built a personal brand that at this point no longer requires introduction; he\u2019s just Sammy.<\/p>\n
A few years back Hagar decided\u2014since a guy in his position can pretty much do what he wants\u2014to put together a touring band capable of playing any song from any phase of his career. Power trio The Circle includes bassist\/harmony vocalist\/BFF Michael Anthony (Van Halen, Chickenfoot), ace guitarist Vic Johnson from Hagar\u2019s solo band The Wabos, and drummer Jason Bonham bringing some Led Zeppelin thump to the bottom end. Successful touring led to the recording of 2019\u2019s studio debut Space Between<\/i> and now the new studio album Crazy Times<\/i>.<\/p>\n
For all his success over the years, Sammy Hagar has rarely been mistaken for a deep thinker. Across his lengthy songwriting career, the vast majority of his tunes have addressed one of four topics: sex, cars, partying and\/or aliens. So it comes as a genuine surprise when Hagar suddenly manifests a new persona: instead of the familiar head-banging party-on-the-beach Sammy, Crazy Times<\/i> introduces us to serious, reflective, mature Sammy.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Several elements came into play in the development of this record. First, the pandemic; Hagar and The Circle kept busy during the worst of it with a series of remotely recorded \u201clockdown covers\u201d of classic rock tunes shared on social media, the band seeming to grow even closer while apart. Second, Hagar officially reached his mid-70s during the writing of this album, turning 75 a couple of months ago. He still doesn\u2019t sound or act his age most of the time, but the years do eventually carry some weight for even the sunniest of souls. Finally, Hagar went into the studio intending to make a quieter, more acoustic-focused album, but producer Dave Cobb\u2014a Nashville scene veteran better known for working with Americana acts like Jason Isbell and Chris Stapleton\u2014was eager to crank it up and rock out in classic Sammy style.<\/p>\n
What emerged, then, is a rangy brew of these influences: an album that\u2019s alternately quiet and loud, gentle and hard-rocking, and consistently\u2014now here\u2019s a word I haven\u2019t used in many Hagar reviews\u2014thoughtful. Whether he\u2019s reflecting on his age on acoustic opener \u201cIntro: Beginning Of The End\u201d or bringing the thunder on mid-tempo pounder \u201cSlow Drain,\u201d it\u2019s a more serious Sammy than we\u2019ve grown accustomed to. The latter opens with the image of a man \u201csittin\u2019 on top of the world just countin\u2019 your money\u201d while the world burns around him, hammering away at this detached figure for caring only about himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cFeed Your Head\u201d continues the heaviness while flipping the script, pulsing backbeat and scrungy chords powering a tune about the need to pay attention to what\u2019s going on in the world around you. If there wasn\u2019t enough adrenalin in your system by now, the next track should take care of that. Strange as it sounds, Hagar and company\u2019s cover of the Elvis Costello nugget \u201cPump It Up\u201d\u2014originally a mocking New Wave answer to mainstream rockers like Hagar\u2014is transformed into an all-out assault that offers a giddy moment of celebration and release. <\/p>\n
Hager\u2019s original intentions for the album come to the fore with \u201cBe Still,\u201d a contemplative, self-aware, acoustic-and-electric number that takes stock of his life while singing about the vital nourishment he gets from giving himself \u201ca moment to chill.\u201d The tempo jumps again right away on the big-boned, loose-limbed rocker \u201cYou Get What You Pay For,\u201d and then we\u2019re into the title track. \u201cCrazy Times\u201d is an airy, livewire number fueled by a sizzling core riff that the band plays with genuine fire as Sammy essays the insanity of the world we\u2019ve lived through these past few years while reminding us that \u201cwe\u2019re all gonna die\u201d one day.<\/p>\n
It’s a hint of what\u2019s really on Sammy\u2019s mind\u2014his own mortality\u2014but before we get all the way there, he\u2019s got one more curveball to throw. Raucous funk-rocker \u201cFunky Feng Shui\u201d sounds like a Chickenfoot leftover, all playfulness and pizzazz and precious little substance. Only then do we get to what you suspect Sammy originally envisioned as the centerpieces of the album. \u201cFather Time\u201d is a solemn, soaring, initially acoustic ballad about reaching a certain age and looking back on your life, knowing \u201cit ain\u2019t over yet\u201d but accepting that there\u2019s more road behind you than in front.<\/p>\n
Album finale \u201cChildhood\u2019s End\u201d is dressed up in familiar hard rock trappings but might be the most serious song here, a hard-nosed self-assessment and summing-up:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s not what you thought or what you’ve been told
It’s about growing up, not growing old
It’s not what you think, it’s more what you feel
Don’t question your heart, this is real\u201d<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the most familiar territory for a guy who made his name singing about \u201cCruisin\u2019 & Boozin\u2019\u201d on a \u201cRock \u2019n\u2019 Roll Weekend\u201d\u2014but it works. Hagar and The Circle sound energized and fully committed to these songs, and Cobb does a great job from the control room of capturing and focusing that enthusiasm.<\/p>\n
Plenty of folks reach the top and figure they have nothing left to prove, so why keep trying so hard? Sammy Hagar takes the opposite fork in that road here, pushing himself and his band to make something that\u2019s more than just entertainment, that has real heart and a healthy dose of self-awareness. Hagar is unlikely to ever win any awards for his lyrics, but there\u2019s no doubt he\u2019s a doggedly sincere songwriter, and in Crazy Times<\/i> he and The Circle have delivered an energetic, melodic, and surprisingly powerful statement about living life fully all the way to the end. Long may they run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9790],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-46514","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-sammy-hagar-the-circle","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46514","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46514"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}