is this a legit bopper or just overrated by boomers? feels like albums by motley crew, guns and roses and bon jovi are more relevant from 80s metal scene
>>131448433Legit bopper and legendary album. If you hate it, you just hate guitar music and having sex.> feels like albums by motley crew, guns and roses and bon jovi are more relevant from 80s metal sceneIt came out in 78 and mogged all of them. Guns and Roses debut is the only one even near the vicinty of it. Learn your history.
>>131448433>bopperIt’s not for you
>>131448433all of those bands would not exist without van halen
>>131448433>more relevant from 80s metal sceneThis album came out in 1978. But what could be more relevant than one of the greatest debut albums in rock history which we the stage for the 1980s and influenced a million guitarists?Besides its an absolute bangerhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EllEztdbBhg
>>131448433Great debut and probably their best too, and I love G'n'R as well. Second best is either Women And Children First or 1984.
>>131448433It's fine. I'm not a guitarist so I don't know anything about how influential Eddie's playing was. I love David Lee Roth as a frontman and he brings a lot of energy to the album. Van Halen has some good stuff but just listening as an untrained music listener who likes songs I'd rather listen to AC/DC or a number of NWOBHM bands. I think I like VH2 and Fair Warning more actually
>>131448433banger album from start to finish. for heteros only, unfortunately for op's case.
>>131448433Good album ruined by bad panning. Guitar should be centered if you refuse to double track it.
>>131448433Even if you don't like the music, you can't ignore what Eddie did for guitar. All my life everybody always talked about Hendrix and his boring ass music. Ed made rock allot more interresting desu
Van Halen [Warner Bros., 1978]For some reason Warners wants us to know that this is the biggest bar band in the San Fernando Valley. That is an understatement--all new bands start as bar bands unless they're Boston. The term "bar band" becomes honorific when the music belongs in a bar. This music belongs on an aircraft carrier. C
>>131451712what does any of this even mean?
>>131451712>hipsters don't understand hard rockmore news at 11.
>>131448433I only listed to it when I want to hear eddie
>>131451712i don't care if he's a senior citizen now he should never stop getting stuffed into lockers every day
>>131451761English can be hard as a second language. Let’s work through it together.>For some reasonChristgau is signaling a sort of aloof, blasé dismissal of what he’s about to say.>Warners wants us to know In the ‘70s, written reviews of albums often were made after listening to a promo copy of the album from the label, which came with a short press release with some context to use in your review. In this case, that…>this is the biggest bar band in the San Fernando ValleyA “bar band” is a band that plays mostly paid gigs at drinking establishments. The San Fernando Valley is the geographically large residential section of Los Angeles, often called “the Valley.” Among Californians, it’s seen as a bit unhip and suburban, not “with it.” For a New Yorker like Christgau, it’s not only contemptible for being in sunny CA and therefore somewhat shallow and materialistic but is also a place where cookie cutter homes and cul de sacs exist. Double gross!>That is an understatementNot only are they a band bopping around the lamest place Christgau can conceive of, they may even embody the locale in their own populist unhipness >all new bands start as bar bands unless they’re BostonThis is one of his classic jukes where he takes a pot shot at a different band. In this case, he’s accusing Boston of being an industry plant that didn’t have to work its way up. No idea how this relates to Van Halen>the term “bar band” becomes honorific when the music belongs in a barChristgau, who spends most of his time in his apartment surrounded by promo albums, books, his own stench, wistfully thinks of bars as places where the cool congregate. It’s where “the real stuff” gets made and put on display. Van Halen aren’t that, as we’re about to see. They…>belong on an aircraft carrierNot satisfied with being a full continent away from these guys, Christgau wants them out in the Pacific, where the lame butch guys fight wars
>>131452116it's too bad that little schmuck didn't get drafted for vietnam. he sure as fuck would not have made it back
>>131451761He's saying Warner is trying to market them like a club act but their outsized music clearly fits more on an aircraft carrier deck and so it's dum to call them a bar music. Also he's saying Boston are industry plants and didn't really work their way up from the club scene.
you guys need to remember this was back when New Wave was the hot thing with critics and they absolutely did not like hard rock or AOR at all
>>131451712>This music belongs on an aircraft carrier. Cthat sounds like a good thing but then he rates it a C? unless that's a C for Cool or something i don't get it
Van Halen II [Warner Bros., 1979]Let no critic say formalists can't change--in the wake of Kiss and Boston, this is heavy metal that's pure, fast, and clean with a minimum of myopthea and bombast, while the guitar features are defined strictly as that. So why then don't pure formalists love the shit out of these guys? Not because they're into dominating women, that's for sure. C+
>>131452320critics are the worst thing that ever happened to rock music
The bands you listed are barely a step above ACDC while Van Halen is almost as good as s band like Led Zeppelin. Eddie could chain together rhythmic and lead playing masterfully in a way like a more technically gifted Hendrix. I think 1984 is the best demonstration but 1,2 WaCF, and Fair Warning each have massive highs aswell
>>131451761Best reply to Christgau I ever read. Pin this to the top of /mu/.
>>131452363That would be red hot chili peppers
>>131452363another vg comment coming out of this thread
>>131452348tl;dr they're faster and not as campy as Judas Priest or something and some hard rock people don't entirely embrace them for some reason, but it's clearly not because they aren't cockrock
>>131452348dumbass never fails to make a fool of himself with each review and again with the nonsensical score? review reads as mostly positive but then he gives it C+?what does he mean by "formalists"? he says that twice for some reason. also "myopthea" isn't a word. did he mean myopia? he tried to be an intellectual using big words and only exposed himself as a retard
>>131452404it's a glib way of saying myopia. he also uses it in the review of Cheap Trick's In Color.
>>131452348I'm puzzled by the fact he seems to consider Boston to be heavy metal. he did not get bullied ENOUGH
>>131452467He should have been raped more he's clearly been raped just not enough
>>131452404Formalists I think meaning hard rock cliches.
i like elvis costello. sure he's good and all. but who the fuck would rather listen to that over VAN HALEN? these critics need to get some fucking taste
>>131452529EC was ok on his early punk-flavored albums, but then he decided he was Frank Sinatra and should actually try to sing that kind of material with his limited voice.
not a big Boston fan but tf ever thought they were metal?
Women and Children First [Warner Bros., 1980]Eddie VH's quicksilver whomp earns the Hendrix comparisons, and he's no clone--he's faster, colder, more structural. David Lee Roth adds a wild-ass sophistication to the usual macho--no mortal arena singer would even think of the goofy country blues takeoff that provides the title. But the message of the music isn't the exuberance of untrammeled skill, it's the arrogance of unchallenged mastery. Without being pompous about it, which is a plus, these guys show as little feeling for their zonked, hopelessly adoring fans as Queen. They're kings of the hill and we're not. B
>>131452615that's who he really hates. it's not even the bands it's the fans. the hard rockers, the punters. all the kids with long hair who are cooler than him and make fun of him.
>>131452615oh god, he is so jelly that VH got laid more than him
>>131452772There are two kinds of artist which catch his ire every time:>Attractive, arty chicks who would never touch him>Long-haired chads who could easily bag those arty chicks, if they cared to
>>131448650It was the album that moved rock away from 70s boogie riffs. Some people will say the 80s was really 78-87 rather than 80-89.
>>131452348Sounds like he resigned to admit theyre good. If he didnt hate the lyrics hed give it a B
>>131452615wow a B from that little pissant. what a feather in Van Halen's cap
Neal Schon: "[Van Halen S/T] was the first album I'd heard where I couldn't figure out exactly what the guitarist was doing."
>>131452615This one is very complementary
>>131452615does this guy have a black dildo glued to a chair that he sits on when he types reviews?
Fair Warning [Warner Bros., 1981]Pretty impressive show-off stuff--not just Eddie's latest sound effects, but a few good jokes along with the mean ones and a rhythm section that can handle punk speed emotionally and technically. At times Eddie could even be said to play an expressive--lyrical?--role. Of course, what he's expressing is hard to say. Technocracy putting a patina on cynicism, a critic might say. B−
>>131452930>but a few good jokes along with the mean ones andlol cause the song is called "Mean Streets" get it? XD
>>131452822i mean it's pretty obvious he was a nerd in school that got shoved into lockers
>>131448433best albums1. Fair Warning2. Van Halen
>>131452982he admitted it in that column "Elvis: Aging Rock" that he got his ass kicked by 50s greaser jocks so he hates any music he imagines his old bullies might listen to
>>131452973naw, he's talking about the "Aw, dome on Dave, give me a break" part
>>131452930Typically 1981 rock release in that they're trying to sound like Back In Black.
>>131452984For me 1984 despite being poppier has insanely good blend of rhythm and lead on tracks like Drop Dead Legs. Their first 3 are the other best, always felt Dance the Night Away is the perfect pop rock song
>>131452930I swear he had pics of David Schneiderman on Epstein's island. How else did he last so long?
>>131448433Nah those first few Van Halen albums are absolute kino. There's good stuff on the Hagar-era stuff and Roth's first few solo albums as well, but EVH and Roth's songwriting chemistry, despite the fact that they absolutely loathed each other, is what made early Van Halen so special imo
>>131452348too bad Eddie never could recreate the guitar tone he had on the first two albums again
Diver Down [Warner Bros., 1982]Less impressive, if only because hangloose covers like "Big Bad Bill" and "Happy Trails" are for more attractive bands. More attractive, if only because the Ray Davies and Roy Orbison covers are so carefully conceived. Attractive sexist original, unatttractive (hence unimpressive) sexist original, guitar as cathedral organ. And so it goes. B−
>>131453193>Why couldn't Al Green or the New York Dolls cover those songs instead?
>>131453193Jan was a beast on that clarinet considering he had a missing finger and dentures
>>131453193This just keeps getting better and better, man.
Eddie is God level. A struttin
>>131450284Eddie is the most copied electric guitarist since Jimi Hendrix. In truth, he's more influential today than Jimi.
>>131453193it's proof of how massive they were back then that a shitty covers album could still go platinum
1984 [Warner Bros., 1984]Side one is pure up, and not only that, it sticks to the ears: their pop move avoids fluff because they're heavy and schlock because they're built for speed, finally creating an all-purpose mise-en-scene for Brother Eddie's hair-raising, stomach-churning chops. Side two is consolation for their loyal fans--a little sexism, a lot of pyrotechnics, and a standard HM bass attack on something called "House of Pain." B+
