Van Halen - Van Halen II
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Free Music Notes for Van Halen II
Free Music Review: Decent follow up to "Van Halen"
Hit: 3 Stars
Van Halen II is a fine album from Van Halen. Not in the same league as their debut, but still pretty good. Diamond Dave hadn't got to annoying yet, and VH were able to come up with a good batch of songs. Highlights include: a cover of Linda Rondstats "You're No Good", Dance the Night Away", Beautiful Girls, Bottoms Up, and DOA. If you liked Van Halen's first album you should like Van Halen II as well.Free Music Review: The party continues.....
Hit: 4 Stars
Van Halen effectively avoided the sophomore slump with Van Halen II. David Lee Roth's persona as the number one frontman in rock continued to grow while the band added a slight pop sensibility to their material. This was most evident with the pop-rock of "Dance The Night Away" which would become the band's first Top 20 single and remains a mainstay on AOR radio. The closing tracks "Women In Love" and "Beautiful Girls" continue in this vein and are also top notch. Edward Van Halen's guitar wizardry continues on the strong track "Somebody Get Me A Doctor" and on "Spanish Fly" where the master's fleet fingers work as well on the acoustic guitar as they did on "Eruption" from Van Halen I. Other great tracks include the riff rocker "D.O.A.", the self-explanatory "Bottoms Up", and the relentless "Light Up The Sky." The remaining tracks include their sluggish cover of the Linda Ronstadt hit "You're No Good" which is okay but doesn't touch the original and "Outta Love Again" which has a cool riff but seems incomplete with its abrupt ending. Nonetheless, this is a strong followup to their debut and is one of their best albums. Free Music Review: A great follow-up!
Hit: 4 Stars
Van Halen's self-titled debut was truly astounding. It is my second favorite album of all time (Right after Metallica's "Master of Puppets", of course). But the follow up is just as good.
Van Halen II truly lives up to it's name, and what I mean by that will be explained in a moment. It was recorded less than a year after it's predecessor, with the same producer(Ted Templeman) and it sounds, well... exactly the same. But that's not necassarily a bad thing (If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?). Here's my track-by-track runthrough:
1.You're No Good - A Linda Rondstadt cover opens the album. Here you see what I mean about repetition of the first album (not complaining). Like "Running with the Devil", it opens with a slow bass intro that slams into a mid-paced rock anthem. Mike's bass really shines here.10/10.
2.Dance the Night Away - So catchy it makes me sick (In a good way). A mid-paced pop song that personally reminds of the Beach Boys. 9/10.
3.Somebody Get Me A Doctor - Fast paced rocker, but not that catchy or memorable. 7/10.
4.Bottoms UP! - See #3. 7/10.
5.Outta Love Again - See #3&4. 7/10.
6.Light Up the Sky - When the album starts to drag, Eddie and the boys pick it up with this kick [butt] rocker. Totally speedy and totally catchy verses with agreat lead break and the best lyrical performance of the album. Don't skip on this track, it's incredible! 10/10!
7.Spanish Fly - Acoustic Guitar piece. Every bit as impressive as "Eruption"... actually, not really. But still very, very impressive. It had great potential. I wish it were longer. Oh, well. 9/10.
8.DOA - Another personal favorite of mine. One of the coolest, catchiest riffs I've ever heard. Eddie always had a great ear for musical hooks. Cool lyrics, too. This track rocks. 10/10.
9.Women in Love - Awesome, Beach Boys-esqe into. Chills you out and gets you ready a smooth relaxing island music-type song. But sadly, it segues into a mediocre blues rocker. Intro 10/10. Song 6/10.
10.Beautiful Girls - Catchy riff, cool lyrics, feelgood summer/ beach song. 8/10.
Bottom Line: If you liked the debut, you'll like this one. If not, then not. It's a good thing they didn't go in some radical new direction with this album like they could, because it came out great.
Free Music Review: Not as good as the first Van Halen album, but very solid
Hit: 4 Stars
By the end of the 1970's, even though several artists and bands like KISS, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent,etc were popular,there was one thing that everyone knew:Disco music pretty much ruled the world. But,like grunge rock would kill(unfortunately and sadly)the classic hair metal scene in the early 90's, two bands and two albums would have the honor of saving rock music and killing disco-the bands are Van Halen and AC/DC, the albums are Van Halen's self-titled debut and AC/DC's classic album "Back In Black". Van Halen knew how to rock, and even though this album was not as good as their first one,it was very solid. The album opens with a cover of Linda Rodstast's "You're No Good", and it sounds excellent-the original version was supposedly a pop song, and if that is true,then Van Halen really did a good job at turning it into a rock song-and it's a shame that their cover of that song never became a hit. The two hits on here were "Dance The Night Away"(Van Halen's first ballad) and "Beautiful Girls". The other standouts to be found on this CD are "Outta Love Again", the accoustic instrumental "Spanish Fly", and "D.O.A.". The rest of this album is good, but it kind of got lost in the shuffle of Van Halen albums-I am not sure why, but it just kind of did.
Overall, like I already said,even though this is not as good as the first VH album, it is still very good, and it deseves a spot in the CD collection of all Van Halen fans. Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen,David Lee Roth, and Michael Anthony all did some killer work on this album(with both songwriting and performances)and even though I have enjoyed the contributions Sammy Hagar had to Van Halen,it is really a shame that they weren't able to keep DLR in the group.However,the stories I've heard about Van Halen kind of prove that Hagar had a better attitude about Van Halen then Diamond Dave did, so at least we probably won't have to worry about Van Halen splitting up(like we once did).If You're new to Van Halen and you want to buy only one of their albums to start off with, then get their most recent greatest hits album "The Best of Both Worlds", a two disc set that spans material from both the Roth and Hagar years in VH. Then get their first album,"1984"(their last full-length album with David Lee Roth on lead vocals)this, and then buy the rest of their albums in whatever order you want(just my advice,those are all excellent starting points if You're a new VH fan). Also, here are three Van Halen albums you should avoid if you are new to the group:
"Women and Children First"(their third album, a few good songs on there, but they REALLY slowed down their rocking pace on that album, especially since it came out right after this and their first album.
The live album "Live:Right Here, Right Now":Sound is pretty good(I've never owned it but I've heard some of it)but ten out of the eleven songs off of the "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" are on there,and since Hagar was with the band at the time that album was being made, for some reason,they only chose three songs from the Roth era to be on the album-VERY stupid, especially since those three Roth songs sung by Hagar were also the only Roth songs on the "Live Without A Net"DVD(that also had Hagar on lead vocals).
"Van Halen III"-The dreaded album with Gary Cherone on lead vocals,there are several reasons why You shouldn't buy this album, and I won't list them here-just don't waste your money. Enough said.
"Van Halen II" is a killer album.
Free Music Review: almost as good as their debut
Hit: 5 Stars
van halen's sophomore album is as good as their brilliant debut.get it with their debut album.