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| Van Halen - Fair Warning Band: Van Halen Tracks: - Mean Street - Dirty Movies - Sinner's Swing! - Hear About It Later - Unchained - Push Comes to Shove - So This Is Love? - Sunday Afternoon in the Park - One Foot Out the Door A hacked off Edward means a killer album Legend has it that during the recording of "Fair Warning", Edward Van Halen would sneak into the studio with Donn Landee during the night to lay down his guitar tracks. He was apparantly quite hacked off with his bandmates telling him what to play. The result is the absolute pinnacle of modern rock guitar. "Mean Street" opens "Fair Warning" with Eddie doing one of his tapped harmonic runs with a funk slant before merging with brother Alex and Michael Anthony on the main riff. His guitar solo burns with a White hot intensity combining feel and fury. On "Dirty Movies", Ed plays slide guitar and conjures up another sleazy, down and dirty riff. "Sinner Swing!" finds David Lee Roth leading The Band through another hyperactive boogie before giving way to an outrageous guitar solo. "Hear About It Later" shows that Roth could actually sing when so inclined. The melody in the sections before and after the guitar solo is quite strong. "Unchained", with its headbanging, drop-D riff, is perhaps the most famous song off this album, but it can't compare to "Push Comes To Shove", which in my opinion contains Edward Van Halen's greatest guitar solo (yes, better than "Eruption"). Everything about this song is perfection, from Roth's hurt mutterings about the one that got away, to Anthony's credible funk bass playing and Alex Van Halen's surprisingly subdued drums, playing with a spartan discipline which perfectly compliments the track. "So This Is Love?" is another up-tempo boogie romp, but Edward opens his lead with some mellow blues runs and proceeds through a relaxed solo. If there any weaknesses on this record, they are "Sunday Afternoon In The Park" and "One Foot Out The Door", which eat up just enough time to finish the album. The latter does contain some great playing from Ed, but doesn't Truly gel. "Sunday Afternoon" is a lumbering instrumental snoozer that loses its novelity after 2 listenings. Other than these last two pieces, this may be the Van Halen album where Edward finds the balance between guitar acrobatics and Strong songwriting/arranging. He seems quite comfortable in the studio by this point, using overdubbs effectively without going overboard. This is essential Van Halen. EVH + DLR = head bangin' rock! First off, let me say that the last two or three songs brought this album down from 5 stars. It was almost there, but the last couple of songs were pretty bad. Aside from that, this album straight rocks. Eddie's solos just make you want to crank the volume on the stereo and play air guitar (Bill & Ted's anyone? :) David Lee Roth just lets it loose on most of the tracks on this album. His hyperactive vocals just Mesh so well with Eddie's axe work...I Love it. I'm hoping the rumors are true that they've gotten back together...AGAIN! This is a classic Van Halen album that every fan should have. A great example of prolific actually being good for a Band Van Halen came along at a time when bombastic heavy metal was supposed to be on the way out. The punk movement of England was seeking to get rid of the excessive, flashy hard rock that bands like Van Halen stood for. But in 1978, Van Halen's debut album was a huge hit, spawning hits with a cover of the Kinks' "You Really Got Me" (much better than Robert Palmer's cover of the same year), "Runnin' With The Devil", "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" and "Jamie's Cryin'" (which would become better known as the song being sampled on Tone Loc's hit "Wild Thing"). Turns out the combination of the magnetic stage presence of frontman David Lee Roth and the guitar pyrotechnics of Eddie Van Halen (my 2nd favorite guitarist of all time) was irresistable, for VAN HALEN has sold more than 10 million copies since 1978. 1979's VAN HALEN II continued the commercial winning streak, as did 1980's WOMEN & CHILDREN FIRST, which showed a certain growth in the band's overall style. What was an important Change for Van Halen on that album continued with what is my vote for the best album from the David Lee Roth-era of Van Halen, 1981's Fair WARNING. One of the pluses of all those albums was that they clocked in at under 35 minutes, which for then was ample time for a classic LP. And the fact that Fair WARNING knows where to begin and end also gives them a point towards being their best album of either era. It certainly is a darker approach to music than their "nothin'-but-a-good-time" sound on their previous albums. Eddie's guitar does indeed sound a Fair warning of things to come on the opening "Mean Street". Imagine my surprise after hearing this song that Van Halen was certainly not a one-track mind with their music. Even the backing vocals have a tinge of darkness to them. A song like "Dirty Movies" could have been another opportunity for David Lee Roth's flamboyant lyrics and personality, but the music once again makes things a lot less playful than would be expected. The way Roth sings "Lights, Camera, Action" is enough to discount the song's seemingly lighthearted nature. Other songs with a darker hue to them include "Hear About It Later", "Unchained" (sadly the only song from here to appear on THE BEST OF VAN HALEN, VOL. 1), the loungy "Push Comes To Shove", and the paranoid closer "One Foot Out The Door". Who'd have known David Lee Roth could sing about his usual subject matter with a less colorful tone? Songs like "Sinner's Swing" and "So This Is Love?" are the only ones that demonstrate some sort of levity, and they're on songs that are lesser tunes on an otherwise masterful album. But a lot of bands would kill to have less important songs as good as those two. Not only did Van Halen turn out excellent albums in just over a half-an-hour, but they released them within Buy Van Halen Fair Warning at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.comJamster - the latest ringtones for your phone! |
