The cover of the new Van Halen release, which is titled either "3" or "III" depending on if you are looking at the spine of the CD or front cover, depicts the by-now cliched picture of the fat guy getting shot in the gut with the ball shot from the nearby cannon. But this is a nice analogy for the album as a whole, so let us just run with this one.
If you are a Van Halen fan, "3" is going to hit you hard and leave you floored, but it's your call if you stay down and out or stand up and beg for Wolfgang to light the fuse again.
First of all, Halen fans, the new singer is, yes, Gary Cherone, a.k.a. "the guy from Extreme." My clearest memories of Extreme is that "More Than Words" song and that horrendously bad album title "III Sides to Every Story" so it was a little surprising hearing this guy trying to sound like David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar (the band's previous two vocalists) rolled into one tight package of machismo. Does it work? It's hard to tell.
Cherone is full of energy -- he is the young guy in a band that's actually getting kind of old in years -- and the real test will not be until they take this show on tour and we get to see him try to sing Dave and Sammy's old tunes.
On this album he sounds all right: he yells loud and sings pretty but has yet to really establish a real vocal identity. This is going to be hard to do, as he is often way too low in the mix and there is often way too much midrange in his sounds. As a result of this and in combination with an omnipresent hiss on the unaccompanied guitar parts, the album sounds a lot like a demo, something your friend Rattdog brought home from his trip to the metal bar in LA.
Many fans have already complained the album just doesn't rock hard enough, but it does have its heavy moments. First, there is still some technically dazzling guitar work, loud drums and even some neat electric sitar stuff.
Then there are tunes like "Fire in the Hole," which, despite all the annoying guitar clipping, is a classic rocker, starting with what sounds like an approaching chopper and ending with what sounds like a Halen parody of the old guy yelling at the end of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall."
Album promo materials call "One I Want" a "pounding rocker," which it is, though it is probably the first of its kind to contain the lyric "candyman, yeah the candyman can." And "Without You," the first single, is a great song opening with a blisteringly fast-and-fantastic Eddie lick and then moving into the heavy bass drum and cymbal hits that those kids still wearing the "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" shirts are looking for.
What the fans are complaining about is the "new" Van Halen sound -- the kind of new-age tone some of their songs have taken. We're talking about a song like "Once," which, from preliminary reports, is either everyone's most hated or loved song. Reminiscent of "Right Now," it opens with a solo piano but includes some Teshian electric drum parts and a cheesy organ synth that I swear I saw Yanni playing on TV. "Once" is not a bad song, but it is not what one expects from Van "5150" Halen.
Perhaps the most intriguing track comes at the album's end. It again opens with piano, but, for once, its the scratchy out-of-tune voice of Eddie himself singing what sounds like a song of compassion for the underprivileged. The song is unlike anything else they have ever done. The weak but honest sound of Eddie's voice mixed with the piano produces what could almost be called a lush prettiness.
It is a band laid bare. It is not a Van Halen song, but it doesn't care, and that is the best thing about it.
All this has produced a definite rift within the hardcore Van Halen fan base. It feels like a scene from the middle of the Who's rock opera "Quadrophenia." You have got the Mods on one side who are cool with these new directions and the Rockers on the other, who just want to hear Eddie play really loud and stuff.
This is not a bad thing: I still love the songs of the David Lee Roth Days and was personally disappointed when they announced he would not retake his title of King Of the Rock, but some of this stuff just is not what you would expect from this band.
So where does this leave the album? It's good if you realize that this is a different band with different people who are trying new things. Oh, and for that cover art being indicative of the album as a whole, here are longtime drummer Alex Van Halen's views on the allegorical nature of the album cover: "I think it's fkin' funny as st! Here's this guy getting blown away by a f**king cannon and I think what makes it interesting is that it's for real. It's not staged." Here's to keeping it real.
