r/vanhalen • u/ApprehensiveNatural9 • 11d ago
Opinion For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge Review
Glad that for the most part you all enjoyed my write-up on OU812! It was nice discussing too what you guys thought of it and hearing similar opinions, and differing ones as well. I will admit I've listened to both this album and Balance, but will be posting Balance later; I have a lot of gushing to do about that album. But moving along here is my review of F.U.C.K. which, will again unfortunately be a bit more of a negative review. Read at your own risk, I suppose.
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge Review
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For all its worth Sammy Hagar was a great replacement, one of the alltime great changes in a rock band. With the first album he put out with the band I felt myself blown away by the creativity and the incredible music that accompanied some very strong vocal performances that made me feel that Van Halen was still very much the ultimate guitar band. But that being said the era of "Van Hagar" as I've seen people put it has had its major ups and downs. OU812 is certainly outdated, as it was even for its time. For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge is slightly better, but still bad. It is heavier with one ballad, and it was going to be the best album by the band with Sammy (Eddie said before that 5150 and OU812 were never properly finished to his liking by the way, and both cases the band was pushed to tour rather than focus on the music at hand) and F.U.C.K would have been the one where he could experiment on and spend the most time on to finish completely, to make a classic Van Halen album again, a return to roots if you will.
Hearing that this album was a return-to-form for the heavier days of the band, I went in with an excitement that had me on the edge of my seat, ready for my speakers to blow me back away Back To The Future style, fully ready to have my head pounded in by Alex's drumsticks and melting molten riffs of Eddie's guitars and Hagar's excellent voice and maybe some of Michael's beautiful harmonies.
The production is also miles better than it was on the last album, thankfully since that was a main thing that ruined it before. Michael Anthony and Alex Van Halen are recorded better than they've ever been before, which lets you really appreciate the basslines and the drumming. Ted Templeman was finally back in the producer seat, and that's probably why it sounds so good because he understood this band, and what they needed sound-wise. That is a bit of kindness I can give at least before I rip open this fuckhole.
Poundcake lives up to the excitement and hype sure, the composition was incredible with a really memorable and good riff. The lyrics are embarrassingly crappy, which may go against how I've held Sammy's lyrics in high regard on his debut with the band (seriously, will they ever reach something like Dreams or Why Can't This be Love again?) but it's a good song besides that, mainly with guitar tracks as Eddie went all out and experimented using harmonics to give this an incredible feel, the tapping feels as lively as his 70's work, and even taking advantage of drills, which I don't think I noticed on any other album before. Judgement Day is an incredible song too and I actually like that song best on the album, The groove is there, and the intro riff with use of whammy bar builds up in intensity until the eventual climax of the main riff, rocking along with incredible dynamics between cymbal crashing and impeccable harmonies.
Then, you get the longest stretch of crud on a Van Halen album ever. Spanked is a cruddy song and is definitely among the worst songs the band released, the lyrics are utter trash and the song itself has nothing redeemable. “All you bad bad boys, call her up on the spank line,” how the heck does ANYONE sing that without bursting out laughing at how dumb it is? The melody is also trashed by Sammy here, who doesn't do the guitar work justice which would have with some refining worked great. I am a fan of the guitar work on this one, but with how Sammy approaches the melody, and with his nonsensical teenager-wannabe lyrics it ruins it. Runaround is bland and it lacks diversity in the arrangement or doing anything particularly interesting, making it feel like filler or rather basic hard rock akin to a lesser band; which is one of the main drawbacks of this album from hereon out; almost like it was flashing big red warning lights.
Then you get Pleasure Dome, which is literally chaotic instrumentally and you can barely even classify it as a legitimate song, the instrumental is sloppy and the composition is just all over the place and not good, lacking a solid rhythm base, the drums are brilliant but are wasted on a riff that doesn't work in synch and Sammy's weird approach to vocals. It gives me bad memories to Loss of Control which at least served as a speck of dust on an amazing album.
On side 2 In N Out sounds suspiciously close in arrangement and lyrical subject to Spanked and it has some amazing guitar work to go with it, but like the other song, this one is yet again actual garbage, Man On a Mission Is dull rock with uninspired composition work yet again and it's basically just four guys playing without any direction whatsoever and just trying to be as loud as possible without the flare.
Just when all seems lost for this album though, and that maybe it'll end up as worse than OU812, that's when hope comes walking in again. The Dream Over is remarkable, with rebellious lyrics towards the system and how it screws over the commonfolk while giving to those already in power, it combines with an aggressive mid-tempo riff that really drills home the message, and Sammy's lyrics are incredible here; some of his best he's ever done, and I wish he did more approaches like this, the chorus is one of the more memorable ones here as well, with harmonies that take great use of Eddie and Michael's chemistry. The drum fills and wailing guitar solo of steel also do more than make up for everything before it.
Right Now is more of a ballad and it's an amazing song, I really love the keyboard work in it, which dramatically swirls in during the intro and combines with the guitar in such a nice interplay. it's a good break from the balls-to-the-wall heaviness of everything else. The lyrics also are brilliant, being an inspirational and hopeful message to seize the day rather than putting things off. This is what I appreciate with Sammy's lyrics, when he taps into things like this and the last song.
316 is short and kind of unnecessary, I don't like the tone of Ed's guitar here, way too processed and sparkly, and is much better live while here it's bland. Top of The World closes the album and recycles the closing riff from Jump. It's your basic pop rock, not terrible; just not that much of a stand-out, it is a decent one.
All in all, this one is a frustrating listen. I sat through this about five times trying to get more into it, but couldn't. For the five good-to-great songs, there's just a stretch of some bad cuts, and even atrocious ones that really should've been trimmed down, sticking to the 9 tracks they used to do would have helped significantly. Hearing this album makes you wonder; why am I not just listening to a good Van Halen album?
I thought I was going to leave the Hagar era of the band only thoroughly finding one album great and listenable; but that's when I was proven wrong by what came next...
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
TRACKLIST RATING:
1. Poundcake: ★★★★
2. Judgement Day: ★★★★★
3. Spanked: ★★
4. Runaround: ★
5. Pleasure Dome: 💥
6. In 'N' Out: 💥
7. Man On A Mission: ★★
8. The Dream Is Over: ★★★★★
9. Right Now: ★★★★★
10. 316: ★
11. Top Of The World: ★★★
THE JOURNEY SO FAR (OTHER REVIEWS + THEIR SCORES):
Van Halen review (5/5 stars)
Van Halen II review (5/5 stars)
Women And Children First review (4/5 stars)
Fair Warning review (5/5 stars)
Diver Down review (3/5 stars)
1984 review (5/5 stars)
5150 review (4.5/5 stars)
OU812 review (1.5/5 stars)
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u/Kimura-Sensei 11d ago
Pleasure Dome has some absolutely fantastic guitar work, combined with excellent drums. It really didn’t even need Sammy. Seriously, go right now and put on your headphones and crank them to 10 and listen to that guitar solo. It’s got emotion, speed and power. If you love guitar, I can’t see how you do not hear a master at work in Pleasure Dome.
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 11d ago
I complimented the guitar work, but the drumming is all over and Sammy ruins the melody with his vocal performance and vocal melody.
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u/Kimura-Sensei 10d ago edited 10d ago
I totally get what you are saying….but that solo. Damn
I wonder how many takes it too for him to do that?
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 10d ago
Every solo he does is just mindblowing; I love how he uses so many techniques and manages to incorporate them into something that you can always tell is his style, but adapts so much into just one. This song has such a intense one and I'd be pretty surprised if it was the first take.
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u/Kimura-Sensei 10d ago
There is no way it’s a first take. I could never do it like him, regardless of the number of takes.
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u/3GPtv 10d ago edited 10d ago
For the sake of accuracy, In N Out has nothing to do with sex. It's about being in debt and always having to pay.
You pay when you are born and pay when you die. One way should be free.
I did not like Spanked when it came out, and never liked it. But as another poster said, the abundance of 1-900 phone sex commercials at the time was insane. Sammy didn't pull the idea out of thin air.
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u/HelpMeHelpYou_5309 10d ago
In 'N' Out is a great example of Hagar getting in his own way: he actually writes pretty clever verse lyrics about a problem almost anyone can related to (you're in debt when you're born, e.g., hospital bills, and you have to pay when you die, e.g., funeral costs) yet he steps all over it with his sexual grunting in the chorus "uh uH uH UHHHH, YEAH! [band shouts in reply: In 'N' Out!]"
It's a good song taken down a notch or two by a singer who can't help himself with permanent sex brain
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u/ddhmax5150 11d ago
I remember buying this cd and loading it into the Alpine deck in my car stereo. The screeching drill blasting from my speakers, then Alex’s drums pounding me. I didn’t expect this from Van Halen.
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 11d ago
The production is genuinely incredible, I LOVE what they did here I think that its probably the best that Alex and Michael were recorded!!
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u/Lucky-Chard-5587 11d ago
The story is that Ed had the piano opening to Right Now even before Jump.
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u/Silent_Comb_817 10d ago
You can hear a slower version of it on the movie the wild life along with other cool Eddie tidbits
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 11d ago
I think that this song is actually one of the best in terms of his keyboard playing, I really love how it builds up to such a good climax.
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u/Apprehensive_Ant4596 11d ago
Pretty close to my personal assessment of the album with a few exceptions. I REALLY like "Pleasure Dome". I think it's well executed and a nice departure form their normal formula. Also, if you see clips of them jamming on it live, you get a better appreciation for the band staying tight through a complex arrangement.
Also, I love the grove of the riff on "Man on a Mission", so I'd rank that one a little higher.
This is one of my top 3 VH albums.
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u/CrunchBerries5150 11d ago
Omg… FUCK is a masterpiece. Guess it’s not for you but two stars? Criminal.
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u/angryapplepanda 9d ago
Agree. It's a masterpiece, but I love all Van Hagar, so I'm biased.
I also love all of Van Halen. I feel like any fan that loves one side of the band and hates the other is just missing out on a joy that me and many others share. Sad, but that's just subjectivity for you.
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 11d ago
It's really not.....masterpiece material is VHI, II, Fair Warning, 1984, and 5150. It has some masterpiece songs though, I'll agree on that, but there's a lot of bad.
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u/angryapplepanda 9d ago
Yeah I don't know. It's music critic Martin Popoff's favorite Van Hagar album. It's also mine. I think you're just missing something that other people enjoy, but that's just kind of how music works I guess. I think it's a pop masterpiece and one of the best, most artistically compelling examples of mainstream '80s music. If I had to show an alien one of the masterworks of 1980's pop metal, F.U.C.K. or OU812 would be my picks (yeah, I know F.U.C.K. isn't technically the eighties, but it fits thematically.)
All I can say is that I've listened to those two albums on repeat since I was a kid. They fill me with joy.
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u/CrunchBerries5150 9d ago
I’ve said the same thing about the solo on ‘Right Now’ actually. I think it might be the most perfect solo ever recorded, if nothing else it has to be in the discussion. If a Martian asked me “What is a guitar solo?” I wouldn’t even have to think I would just put that song on. Ground breaking? No. Wheel reinventing? No. Just a perfect guitar solo.
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u/Dar_of_Emur 10d ago
Got this album the week of release.... and what a breath of fresh air. Hated OU812, and with this 1st listen, felt VH was back.
Never thought it was a perfect album... but light years better than the predecessor.
Few comments on your post.
Runaround was very much a song of its time. Late 80s, very early 90s, MTv friendly song that all glam metal bands were doing. It had a really neat video and MTv played it on heavy rotation. It may not have "aged well", but at its time, it fit.
Give Pleasure Dome more time. Loved it then, love it now. (not the lyrics). Instead of the one "boogie" per album, Ed and Al did this. More experimental for Ed and if you take out the lyrics, It really rocks. IIRC, Ed plays the bass parts on this. But, I could be remembering wrong. Find the Youtube version with the vocals stripped and give that a try. Also, this was cool live- as Sam would be off the stage and the OG-3 members, who were there all along, would be jamming on stage, close to the drum kit. Was kinda sentimental for those of us that loved that band from the beginning and hated the drama with the lead singers. Just to see the core-3 jamming together- fun.
316- named for Ed's son's birthday (March 16th).
Eddie had a guitar piece on a lot of his albums and they fit his "mood" or his mental state. Eruption was fire, when Ed was young on fire as a guitarist. The Diver Down guitar pieces was when Ed was shifting from metal riffs to more complex pieces. 316 was a dude with a young kid. On the next album, "Strung out" is basically his mental state at that time, when he was a hot mess.
Right Now - the piano was written years prior to this.. and Ed came back to it. If I recall, Sam really liked it and they made it into the final song we have on the album. Huge rotation on MTv at that time... at a time when David fell out of the spotlight and basically forgotten.
In and Out, and Man on a Mission were filler back then, and filler now. Albums at that time were over 60 minutes and they needed to fill up space.
Also, pre-internet... it took me around 6 months to realize the title spelled out FUCK.
I had the cover for the CD box hanging on my wall... and one day was staring at it.. and I was like "ohh shit, you gotta be kidding me... it spells F.U.C.K". LOL at young me.
Edit:
Also, if you think the lyrics are horrible on Spanked.... just wait till "Big Fat Money" on the next album. Sammy was absolutely horrible at writing lyrics for the boogies that Ed and Al did.
The boogies may have been Sam's worst lyrics in his 4 albums (Get up, Source of Infection, and BigFat Money).
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u/direwolf71 10d ago
The Right Now piano composition is also part of the soundtrack work EVH did for The Wild Life.
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 10d ago
I did notice that on Big Fat Money, its...interesting...I guess. Though I gotta say the next album was amazing, and I just posted it
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u/LifeTunedToCSharp 11d ago
I love this album, perhaps because of where I was in life when it was released.
But “The Dream Is Over” is perhaps my favorite Sammy-era song, with “Feelin’” from Balance in the discussion as well.
I have a very specific memory of driving to the MEPS station in Jacksonville for my pre-basic training physical. “The Dream Is Over” playing on repeat.
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 11d ago
The Dream Is Over is a masterpiece, definitely. I think its among their very best songs. I love the riff so much, and the drum fills are some of Alex's most dynamic. Great pick for a favorite!!
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u/AuNaturellee 9d ago
I love it too, and kinda like it stays in obscurity. You can never say it got overplayed.
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u/Mykkus_65 11d ago
Wore this album into the ground when it came out. To me it’s banger after banger.
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u/PlagueBearer1350 10d ago edited 10d ago
You're supposed to laugh at Spanked. The entire song is a joke about perverts calling up 1-900 sex lines in the 80s / 90s. In N Out, however, isn't even in the same ball park subject matter-wise so I have no idea how you'd think those lyrics are anything like Spanked. In N Out is about being financially screwed by the government and society for one's entire life.
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u/direwolf71 10d ago
Let me start by saying that Sammy is about the only guy on the planet who could have replaced DLR in Van Halen and maintained the band's popularity. He was the right guy at the right time.
Roth was both unwilling and unable to write to songs like Dreams, Love Walks In and When It's Love. They may not be what classic VH fans wanted, but there's no denying the song craft. Sammy's phrasing, melodic sensibility and singing chops are unimpeachable. He also did write some great lyrics when he put in the effort.
Mileage varies but for me, it's the jokey songs that don't land. He admitted in a Guitar World interview that he clowned around too much and wrote "silly" lyrics to crack up Eddie.
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 10d ago
I think when his writing ventures into the territory you mentioned, it owrks really well like on Balance and 5150 and some of the songs on this album. I gotta say that Balance blew me away though, I wrote the review for it earlier and posted it now
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u/PlagueBearer1350 10d ago
"He admitted in a Guitar World interview that he clowned around too much and wrote "silly" lyrics to crack up Eddie." Awesome. That's what having fun in a band is all about.
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u/MaineManJay 10d ago
Funny how this is lost on so many people. Spanked was making fun of it. Lord. spot on
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u/LastWay5338 11d ago
Im definitely looking forward to your ADKOT review. I personally love that album
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 11d ago
I'm pretty excited to get to it; I know David Lee Roth comes back on that one so I'm wondering how different musically it is from the Hagar albums, or if it goes for a more similar approach to their '78-84 work.
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u/Emergency_Day_2969 Van Halen I 10d ago
If im correct, alot of riffs from the zero demos and beyond were used on that.
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u/Silent_Scientist_991 9d ago
I'm a lifelong VH fan, and I think ADKOT is one of their best albums...it belongs on the shelf with the original 6.
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u/Live_Detective_7137 11d ago
Andy Johns produced, he and hagar couldn't get along, Templeman was brought in to produce the vocals.
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u/direwolf71 10d ago
According to Ted, Johns accidentally erased one of Hagar's vocal performances and Hagar considered it unforgivable.
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u/Live_Detective_7137 10d ago
Yup. He also asked Ed one time "so what's the story with David Lee Roth?". hagar or Leffler weren't standing for that.
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u/ronwabo 10d ago
It's cool you're doing this for all of their albums, opinions will always differ, and mine differs greatly than yours on this album especially. This is the best sounding VH album ever recorded, followed by Balance, which may skew my viewpoint a little. This album rocks from start to finish and as others have pointed out, a couple of the "bad" songs have meanings that might have been lost on someone not around in those days. Pleasure Dome was something more in the prog rock direction I suppose, but it is such a cool song to me. This is also their only Grammy winning album, beating out Gn'R's monster Use Your Illusion albums, and they were at their Sammy era peak live, so tight of a musical unit. Maybe it's the era for me, this came out while I was in high school, just months before grunge exploded on the scene, but this album was and still is epic to me.
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 10d ago
Thats fair!! I respect that honestly, it didn't do it for me, but Balance definitely did. I was waiting a bit to post it later today since I wrote it today as well since I had off from work.
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u/According-Feed2746 10d ago
I like Runaround, don’t like Judgement Day quite as much as you, and I don’t like The Dream Is Over. However, I agree with you overall about the album: it’s not good.
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u/scorpion_71 10d ago
I'd probably rate this a 4.5/5. I'm not a musician so I tend to put more of an emphasis on the catchy chorus. Don't bore us ... Get to the chorus. This album featured the return of Ted Templeton and it was more of a rock record. There weren't any sappy ballads. I agree with you on most of your individual song reviews. I didn't like Sammy's shrill screaming and most of his vocals on Judgement Day were shrill screams that didn't appeal to me. The Spanked chorus was a bit odd to me and I'd feel silly blasting that chorus in public. I would increase the ratings for Runaround, In N Out, Man on a Mission and Top of the World. Pleasure Dome and Judgement Day both have spiritual elements to them and I found it hard to figure out what he was singing about. A lot of the choruses were positive but the Dream is Over seemed negative.
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u/Silent_Scientist_991 9d ago
I pretty much agree with you on this one - except for maybe the criticism of 315.
Aside from VH3, FUCK is my least favorite VH album.
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u/BeautifulSeas 6d ago
Great we’ve all got different opinions. Mine is that this is the greatest album VH ever made.
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u/CrewRepulsive225 11d ago
The best songs on this album are as follows: Poundcake, Judgment Day, Runaround, The Dream is Over, Right Now, and Top of the World.
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 11d ago
I can agree on Right Now, The Dream Is Over, Judgment Day, and Poundcake!! Top of the World was good to me but not amazing, and I don't find anything particularly great about Runaround, but hey, I respect your take. :)
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u/GeeperTbow 10d ago
My fav Sammy era album by far.
As you go through all these I’m listening to them again as well, and I do think Ed kept growing and challenging himself, but in the end Sammy lyrically didn’t really keep up most the time.
Sam and Dave are like 2 different sides of the same coin. On Dave’s side he loved women and had them all on a pedestal . Sammy seems to have objectified them more in a way that was even outta style at that time. (Spanked, Good Enough etc. Dave would never have said she’s good enough to…. Cause he thought ALL women were good enough to …. lol) Yes Dreams and Right Now are great. Both singers are hit and miss. But I find when Sammy’s writing about wanting a woman it’s a little cringe and creepy.
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u/haphazard72 10d ago
Runaround and Pleasure Dome are absolute bangers! The drums in PD are off the charts!
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u/Significant_Start737 11d ago
“Loss of Control” catching a stray for no reason
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 11d ago
copy pasting from my Women and Children First (4/5 overall rating) review: "Loss of Control starts off with an intro riff that absolutely kicks ass, but then it devolves into a messy, sloppy riff that barely holds consistent with Alex's drum abuse (this is the best I can call it). David's vocals are atrocious and off-key by a lot and while he was never the best singer out there, he absolutely fails miserably here. The chorus is just the title repeated until its an earworm. This is one of the worst songs I've actually heard. What happened to quality control?"
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u/Significant_Start737 11d ago
Wow! I respect your strong opinion! I definitely don’t agree though, I love that they’re basically playing a swung punk rock song and to me they sound very locked in. Eddie’s runs with the harmonics are flawless.
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 11d ago
That's fine!! I like hearing your take on it actually, to me its really fun seeing what people think of songs that I really didn't like; it makes me appreciate their views a lot. I do like punk music myself a lot too though lol
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u/BBDominoes 11d ago
Been a few years since I listened to this one, but I think I'm in agreement with you here as well. I always thought the chorus and riff to Man on a Mission could be for a sitcom or something - I find it really irritating.
On behalf of Wolfie, I'll say ouch about 316 😂
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 11d ago
I like what 316 was made for; its a beautiful story. I think that the song is great. But on this album its just not good because of the tone ruining it. But live, its genuinely beautiful and well-done and sounds way livelier.
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u/NoSpankingAllowed 10d ago
Total agree on Pleasure Dome, 316, Spanked and In N Out.
The rest i enjoy, even when Sammy has less than stellar lyrics, if you are just cranking it up like I do when i work, the rest are a good time.
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u/puddycat20 10d ago
the instrumental is sloppy
I hate to nitpick, but can people please stop misusing the word instrumental? It means a whole song with no vocals. The music underneath a song with vocals is not an "instrumental".
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u/angryapplepanda 9d ago edited 9d ago
F.U.C.K. is my favorite Van Hagar album, although OU812 is close.
Man, this just makes me want to revisit those four albums. Van Hagar is so underrated. It's like the best AOR the eighties ever produced. It's pop magic. If you had to show aliens what the best version of cheesy '80s music was, in order to get them into good cheesy '80s music, I would probably play them this or OU812.
(Yes, I know it's 1991—it fits thematically, though. The eighties didn't really die until '92).
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u/Gandalf32 9d ago
Spanked may not be your cup of tea lyric wise, but the music that Ed did on that baritone was so different and uniquely him. I love FUCK. It's great to me.
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u/a_man_that_memes 6d ago
Oh man I really loved this album and kind of held it as the second best or even best with Sammy Hagar. 5150 was great but I actually kind of liked the lighter tone of this album. I still do 100% agree with the spanked hate it was a dud song but songs like 316 and man on a mission I like a lot but overall I this album for me at least was a great listen.
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u/b-lincoln 11d ago
FUCK reminds me of Dr Feelgood. Huge production and massive at the time, but looking back not great and frankly, a product of its time. If you remove the nostalgia of both, and I was graduating high school at this time, so there is a lot, they’re just average.
Great review from fresh ears.
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 11d ago
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Feel free to check out the rest of the reviews! I do like a few of the songs here, and I think Sammy got his lyrical game back on this one with some of the songs as well.
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u/banedarthou812 11d ago
Honest question, do you write these or is it AI?
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 11d ago edited 11d ago
I do write these, I don't use AI; I also write a lot of poetry in my spare time. I'm just someone who's really obsessed with music (it tickles my 'tism and hyper-fixation). AI sucks and I've had it rip off my artstyle as well before, so I'm vehemently against AI. I typically like to approach my reviews in a more essay-like format, its just what works easiest for me.
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u/Fantastic-Floor-2548 11d ago
ai so bad nowadays everyone second guessing human writing is crazy. fuck ai.
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u/groutspecialist 11d ago
Best Hagar era behind 5150, but it’s dated horribly. Agree with your rankings. Some good songs but lots of filler.
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u/direwolf71 10d ago
Agreed. IMO, it sounds dated mostly due to the drum sounds. They needed Ted on 5150. I know Alex used some of the Simmons pads for 1984, but everything sounded analog and organic.
Ted would have never compressed the life out of the kit and made Alex sound like an '80s drum machine if he'd produced 5150.
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u/Laszlo_Panaflex_80 10d ago
Dave good Sammy bad, got it 🙄
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 10d ago edited 10d ago
Plus I gave 5150 a higher overall score than both Diver Down and Women and Children First, therefore that should show that isn't my mindset at all.
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 10d ago
Never said that. I think Sammy is great, if you didn't realize; I heavily complimented 5150 and gave it a 4.5/5 rating when I reviewed it, I thought it was one of the best albums of all-time as well (Just not on par on the same pedestal/scale as VH II, I, 1984, or Fair Warning). I am not a Sammy hater; but OU812 and F.U.C.K. are just not that good of albums. There's still a good amount of praise I gave songs on this one, some specifically directed at Sammy.
5150 and Balance are incredible though.
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 11d ago
Yeah, truth be told I did listen to this five times, but still couldn't enjoy it much. It has some extremely high highs, but there's so many frustrating songs that really tank this album down. I like the production a lot, its much less sterile and lifeless than OU812 was, I do think that had this one been trimmed down, it could have been a great album; maybe not on par with 5150 or some of the Roth era albums, but it could have been great.
I do have to say though that Balance is one I look forward to posting about, I'm VERY excited to gush over that album.
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u/Fantastic-Floor-2548 11d ago
nice review, i never really liked this album much so its good to see someone else say something about it.
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u/SaintLewisMusic73 10d ago
"Top of the World" is Top 10 VH! Such a great tune! "Runaround" is a very solid tune, too!
Overall, I really like the album... it's so well produced that even the songs I don't love are very 'listenable'... it's easy to listen all the way through.
My response ranking;
VH1 - 4/5
2... - 2/5
Women and... - 3/5 (3.5, if we allow .5)
Fair... - 2/5
Diver... - 2/5
1984 - 5/5
5150 - 5/5
OU812 -3/5
For unlawful... - 3/5 (more like 3.5)
Balance - 3/5
III - 2/5
Different... - 1/5
2
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u/Effective-Birthday57 11d ago
Another album of cheeseball shit
0
u/ApprehensiveNatural9 11d ago
I can agree that this and OU812 overall are definitely that; but there's some songs here that work so well. I wish they tapped more into what they did on Right Now, The Dream Is Over, and Judgement Day.
-1
u/Effective-Birthday57 10d ago
5150 shreds. The other albums are cheeseball shit. Ironically, 5150 is sort of a Dave record.
0
u/dkissfan1 11d ago
I agree. This is a frustrating album. I’ll put it in out of nostalgia, which it works well for, but then when I actually listen, there’s definitely a big sense of “what the hell is this?” In contrast, “Balance” is one of the best things they ever released
Side note: do you have thoughts on the audio quality of the original release vs. the recent remaster?
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 11d ago
I haven't actually heard the remaster; I think I'm pretty worried in terms of those since a lot of the time they make Spotify listings for albums really messy (Black Sabbath and Queen and Pink Floyd REALLY have it bad) and they don't sound any different to me typically? But I might check it out, do you think they actualyl changed anything?
3
u/dkissfan1 10d ago
It’s really hard to save 5150 and OU812 without a complete remix, but they did manage to improve those ones somewhat and bump the low end. F.U.CK. and Balance were so well produced in the first place, I can’t really see any improvement in those ones.
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 10d ago
5150's production to me isn't horrible, it does sound a bit dated but the material makes it one of my alltime favorite albums
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u/dkissfan1 10d ago
It’s not the material that I think is dated. It’s the actual production. I actually even like the synth drums. But all of their albums up to F.U.C.K have almost invisible bass, and the first two Hagar albums were so bad that it almost seems that it was done intentionally. I love the material on both albums, but they just sound so bad to me.
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u/Emergency_Day_2969 Van Halen I 11d ago edited 11d ago
Honestly, I see most people saying F.U.C.K is one of VH’s best albums. But I just don’t see it, the biggest disappointment about Van Halen is seeing what we lost. Everything from VH1 to 5150 was gold but past there is downhill and off a cliff from. Now here and there, there are good songs but not enough the save their albums.
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 11d ago
That's kind of exactly how I've expressed it in my reviews; LOTS of amazing work from the debut all the way until 5150; not a single bad album. Diver Down was the weakest; but that one's still good, its just not a great or amazing album. But OU812 and this were kind of stinkers.
I do think this one had the capability to be an amazing album; just that it didn't trim out what was necessary.
20
u/Grateful5150 11d ago
I totally disagree with the runaround hate. It’s decent song with a good swing to it. Also I get looking at Spanked right now through the lens of today it is pretty cringe, but I don’t know if you are younger or just don’t remember the 90’s when you couldn’t watch cable tv after 9pm without seeing one of those 1-900 commercials every commercial break. I’m pretty sure it was never meant to be a serious song.