#8
January 9 1984
Van Halen
1984
5 out of 5
Highlights:
Jump
Panama
Top Jimmy
Hot for Teacher
Girl Gone Bad
This album SMELLS like the 80s. The opening track, an instrumental on synthesizers is a harbinger and wailing call that THIS is not like your older brother’s Van Halen records. This isn’t “eruption”, this is going to be a different ride. When “Jump” starts it’s electric pulsing it feels like, well, like it could be fucking Genesis. And then Diamond Dave starts his trademarked caterwauling and it’s rock. Pure and simple. Rawk.
In 2008 I wrote: “ Without David Lee Roth, Van Halen would never have existed. Well, that's not true, they just wouldn't have become megastars.
Roth is the star here. Screw Eddie. The truth is, Eddie's solos are boring as hell. Okay, not really *boring* just more about the virtuosity than the song. Songs are excuses for solos. That makes them boring.
Subsequently, this is the David Lee Roth show and he knew it.”
I haven’t changed my mind. While there’s some post-Dave stuff that I like none of it comes close to what the band was with him. “Top Jimmy” & “Drop Dead Legs” are excellent genre tracks, the latter could be a Leppard track but it’s all about what Dave brings to the show. He’s showman, shaman, avatar, sex god, rock god, all of it. A dollop of Vegas Schmaltz & a heaping portion of glam rock.
And I’m always surprised that the gigantic chaos that is “Girl Gone Bad” hold together. Everyone seems to get their moment. Nothing seems related to each other and yet it all sounds more like early VH than anything else on the record.
The early Van Halen albums all clocked in at under 35 minutes. This one is 33. It packs more in those 33 minutes than the bloated CDs of the future will.
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