It’s the 9th eighties one out of 50.Another 80s album.....groan.
Sorry OB1 this band and album doesn't speak to me at all. I just don't like it.
4/10
It’s the 9th eighties one out of 50.
10 from the seventies.
12 from the nineties.
2 from the sixties.
4 from the 2000s.
11 since 2010.
2 others.
Quite a good spread that. Sixties and noughties under-represented a little.
after careful consideration, I will award your next choice 3/10. I don’t like it. :-)Makes me wish my week was next.
Listening to it now.
Not sure anyone will like it.
Van Halen are one of those bands that a couple of my mates like, but other than Jump I've couldn't really recall any of their songs. In all fairness, in the 80s I was too young for rock and by the time I became musically 'aware', I wouldn't have listened to them anyway. What my friends called "cock rock" just never appealed to me one bit. When some of them were into Van Halen, Bon Jovi etc I was more into hip hop, indie and house music.
However, I am aware that they are very well regarded. Jump is a masterpiece.
I've given this album a couple of listens now and to be honest, it's just not my cup of tea. In all fairness, I don't like much rock from the 80s as - in my opinion - it became over-produced and kind of lost it's....soul. I like my rock to be a bit more raw. The guitar solos are just technical for my liking and the songs just had it's power kicked out of it. I suspect if I saw them live I would change my mind though! I also didn't realise that Dave Lee Roth was the lead singer - Just Like Paradise is one of my (guilty pleasure) favourite songs!
All that said, I quite liked the opening track and I was hoping for more of the same. I also liked "Could this be magic?' but I couldn't help but compare it to something Led Zeppelin would do. And LZ would do that song better, with more soul and (sorry) just more "X Factor".
I'm glad I've listened to the album, it's not bad it's just not my cup of tea and brings back memories of people telling me he was an amazing guitarist when I was trying to copy John Squire, Paul Simon and Dave Gilmour as a spotty teenager :)
It's a 5/10 from me.
Well that's a better score than I was expecting from you :-). Not that I pick albums in search of points.On my first listen I was surprised at how much heavier this album was compared to the first two. This is a good thing. Or a bad thing if you had forgotten this fact when you bought the album and gave it it's first outing!
There are some nice tunes on here, 'Tora, Tora', 'Everyone Wants Some', 'Romeo Delight', 'Loss of Control'...even enjoying 'Take Your Whiskey Home'. Obviously it's quite samey, but you get that with a lot of rock albums.
My only gripe though is the production. No, it's not over produced, before OB1 jumps my bones, but it just doesn't feel right. Hurried maybe. It's got a garagey feel that doesn't sit right with some of the songs.
Still, enjoyable, darker Van Halen before the frippery that was to come in later years.
6/10
My immediate circle of friends were very much of the same mind. The Zep/Sabbath/Purple/Yes/Genesis UK bands were their pinnacle. They did like the American bands, but never seemed to believe they equaled those mentioned. (Lynyrd Skynyrd and Blue Oyster Cult excepted strangely)
VH were the band that really opened my eyes (ears) to the US side of things. I heard Alan Freeman play them on his 3-m Saturday show, and it was a real 'Wow!' moment. Like OB1, I had the album before seeing them supporting Sabbath at the Apollo.
I adored all their albums with DLR. Despite his shortcomings as a singer ... like I care in the slightest ... he was the icing on the cake that made them so unique. With him, they were Van FUCKING Halen!!!
Without him, they wasn't bad, but just another 'good hard rock band'.
I loved Aerosmith as much too. But not after their clean up/bland out, when they became likewise just another good rock band ... Also got to discover other more obscure (to me) US bands through a then girlfriend, and her brother's and mates who were into such as Starz, Angel etc. But VH were the pinnacle, and Women & Children First is an easy 9/10 for me.
Problem with this record isn’t EVH, God knows, or DLR. Problem is a number of the songs can’t hold a candle to VH I, VH II, 1984, Fair Warning nor quite a bit of Diver Down (which has some pretty dynamite covers). Opening two go into the canon, obviously, and I always liked “Take Your Whiskey Home” too. But “Fools” through “Loss of Control” aren’t much fun, and don’t really have hooks despite how scorching the solos and the fills are. But IMO it’s their weakest stretch of consecutive songs in the DLR era. “Could This Be Magic?” is the kind of tune that makes this band a little special though — goofy DLR, ridiculous chorus, and old acoustic Eddie (and Dave!) rolling along. “In A Simple Rhyme” is as “Rush-y” as they ever got with all the time signature changes and it’s a poor substitute, though okay for what it is. I’ve talked before about song vs sound bands, and the reason I like VH is that they’re a sound band who knew not only how to craft a lot of terrific tunes, but also because they picked great tunes to cover and made them their own.
But I think this is their thinnest collection of songs during the Roth era. Still it’s a 6/10 for the good ones, and that includes an extra point for every EVH show-off solo on the others.
For those of you who struggled with it, try the first two records, and I think you’ll hear something with just as many fireworks, but tighter, and with more hooks.
It’s just hard for me because I love the first two and 1984 so much that some of the songs here feel like barrel scrapings. But this is a top 20 band for me at the end of the day.Can't deny that WACF is not VH's best album but it's better than, the admittedly underrated Diver Down - the other five albums I rate and love almost equally and the latter is not exactly far behind.
I think 80s rock became over produced, certainly. By the time the late 80s were around the production definitely removed a lot of the "edge" I like in rock.You refer to overproduced albums but you surely don't think this album is overproduced. They recorded the backing tracks in fours days, many first takes, and took a bit more time with the vocals - six days.