Van Halen - Fair Warning
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Free Music Notes for Fair Warning
Free Music Review: Ladies and Gentlemen....The Mighty Van Halen!
Hit: 5 Stars
Yes...mighty is as fitting a word to describe this band as any word found in Webster's. Just when the 'listening public' was starting to give up hope of finding a group that could "dish-out" some serious Rock (ala, Led Zeppelin, The WHO, Etc...), along comes Van Halen with their 1978' self-titled debut that shattered any myths that 'good time' Rock-n-Roll was a dying breed. All of a sudden, the 'Hard Rock' bands that I grew up loving such as KISS and Aerosmith, took a 'backseat' to this new "entity". As a quick sidenote, 'Hard Rock' is something of a 'tricky' musical genre to define....personally, I can think of only a handful of groups that I would label as such----AC/DC, Aerosmith, KISS, The Cult and of course, Van Halen. Of course bands such as Kansas, Boston, Et Al. could certainly qualify as 'Hard Rock' as well, however, I group those bands in other catergories. Likewise, I would classify groups like Motley Crue, Def Leppard and many of the "Hair bands" as 'Hard Rock'....But I'm here to talk 'Classic Hard Rock'...and it doesn't get any better than "Fair Warning"! Please....name a song that pulverizes the "rock senses" like "Unchained" or "Mean Street"...I'm waiting! These guys had every ingredient of a great Rock group---- talented individual musicians; driving, though catchy rhythms and lyrics; a 'Front Man' that was nothing short of Unstoppable; and a stage prescence and show that was something not to be forgotten (remember the city back drop lined with Marshall stacks in the "Unchained" and "So This is Love" videos....impressive to say the least). As for talent, each one of the guys "had it going on". Besides the obvious innovations of Eddie and David (which have been much praised in most other reviews), one must NOT dismiss Alex and Michael's contributions to the band's sound. Being a drummer myself, I can say that Alex was "instrumental" to my own personal development as a drummer----his convincing double-bass beats, his left-foot 8th note Hi Hat accompaniment, his "choking" and "riding" of crash cymbals, and the overall 'bombast' of his playing style (not to mention the sheer massiveness of his kits). And Michael...besides contributing some of the higher register back-up vocals in Rock's history, he added a 'pounding' low end that was the foundation needed for all involved---- one of the thickest, rumbling bass sounds heard since Squire and Entwhistle. As much as I would rather not use a certain phrase to describe what this album means to me, I feel its more than fitting----this is definitely one of the "Soundtracks to my Life". It brings me back to a specific time in my exsistance that I wouldn't trade for the World...and leaves me 'snickering' to myself every time I hear it. These said "Soundtracks" are albums that are very "near and dear" to me, and seems to never grow old to me. They are also albums,that 9 times out of 10, I will happily listen to from start to finish----Me skip a song on "fair Warning"....NO WAY! "FW" will always rank right at the top of my VH collection, though ALL releases from the Roth-era VH belong in any Rock Fan's collection. Enjoy this one with your "buddies", the Ladies, and of course, your favorite drink!Free Music Review: Darkest one
Hit: 5 Stars
Eddie against rest of band - this situation ended with "Fair warning" - best VH album in Roth era.
1 Mean Streets - powerful hard rock/funky rock song opened with amazing intro - Eddie doing fast and furious taping - is one of best VH songs ever - 10/10
2 Dirty Movies - dark and gloomy climat in this song, great guitar licks around(we have sometimes two guitars at one moment- result of Ed's involvement in album production). I like that part where we can hear people clapping. 10/10
3 Sinner's Sing - fast song, but the first one not in dark climat - 7/10
4 Hear about it later - great, restless, climatic song with cute fast solos and nice drumming. Nice ending too.- 10/10
5 Unchained - classic VH rocker, maybe too short, nice part when Ted Templeman(producer) can be heard. 9/10
6 Push comes to shove - strange song with pop flavor 7/10
7 So this is love - funny fast song/nice solos, vocals-but this climat of joy doesn't fit to climat of the album 9/10
8 Sunday afternoon... weird instrumental in dark climat, 7/10
9 Second strange song in a row, something like futuristic rock, not the best way to finish so good album - 7/10
Free Music Review: Falling on hard times
Hit: 4 Stars
By this time, Eddie and Dave were not getting along too well. Eddie wanted to branch out and experiment, while Dave wanted to stick to the same sound the band always had. So what we got was an album that was overall darker and moodier, but still just as great! Mean Street is an awesome rocker. It starts off with very fast playing by Eddie, you can practically hear the frustration and anger when he plays this. I love when Dave goes "Lord strike that poor boy down!" Dirty Movies is another good rock song, a bit mediocre, but pretty good. So This is Love and Sinner's Swing are both killer and upbeat rockers, when you hear them you really want to get up and just rock out.
Unchained is an awesome and catchy tune, probably the only one off of the album that people will know. It could have fit in on one of their earlier albums since it is not as dark as some of the other songs on this album. Push Comes to Shove is kind of odd, it has more of a funk feel, it is different but interesting. Hear About it Later has a nice, slow intro. It's very emotional, but afterwards, the song picks up into a melodic rocker. Sunday Afternoon in the Park is an eerie instrumental, the whole song is basically some creepy keyboard sounds. It was totally different for Van Halen at the time. The song goes straight into One Foot Out the Door, which is a fiery and intense rocker. Aw, screw hard rock, we may as well just call this song heavy metal. There are keyboards in the background, but these are the happy keyboards from songs like Jump and Dreams, these keyboards are darker. Dave sings like he is about ready to kill, and Eddie's solo at the end is fast and furious. I really can't think of anything else to say except that YOU NEED TO BUY THIS ALBUM PRONTO!!!
Free Music Review: 4.5 stars VH at its peak
Hit: 4 Stars
The early 80s were a time of transition in the world of rock music. VH 3 years earlier ushered in a new era of hard rock/metal with its debut, a debut that proved a band didnt need to be punk to be relevant, and they didnt need to be corporate rock or disco to be popular.
VH could have done what so many rock bands do today, make the same album again and again(Creed, Staind, etc), or they could have gone way off the deep end gone "experimental" such as Pearl Jam and even Metallica did. But what VH pulled off was an album that was in many ways experimental, but had lost none of t he VH singature sound. They took their creativity to the next level, and managed to pull this off with only a few scant weeks in the studio.
The album opens up with Mean Street, with an almost funky yet memorable riff, with lyrics that took a dramatic turn from VHs first 3 albums. Dirty Movies was more par for the course for VH lyrics, but again, there was no mistake that it was a VH song, despite its even more overt funk influence, Hear About it Later starts out with a clean riff, and in a way, at least for the first few seconds of the song, was a preview of the clean riffs that Eddie would use in the Hagar era, but the song ends with a sold riff. Of course, no one can forget what was probably VHs heaviest song, Unchained. So this is Love is a solid mid tempo rocker that is bass driven.
All and all, and fan of hard rock/metal should buy this CD, it has hardly aged at all in the last 25 years, and sadly few bands today can achieve this perfect mixture of the experimental and the singature sound.
Free Music Review: Best VH Album Ever!
Hit: 5 Stars
They never came close to matching this again with or without DLR. Just listen to Eddie's Guitar and this is DLR's Finest hour, both with Lyrics and Vocals.