Premier Guitar's review of ADKOT is shoddy

[rdodson]

this pretty much sums up how i feel... and I'm not alone in thinking this:
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/756 ... kind-truth" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Klosterman could write about the phonebook and it would be great.

[efraser68]

With the modern compressed and hairy sound of the 5153, Ed goes for the wah to replace the dynamic expression in the old Marshall tone. I don't like it as much, but I understand it.

This was a good observation. With the old Marshall, you could hear the characteristics of each string and what a wound string sounds like vs the higher strings. For me, it's all just one washed flavor and no nuance...almost POD-like The songs still kick ass.

[chrisom]

I remember back in the late '80's-early '90's when Carlos Santana dumped his Mesa Boogie Mark III/Simulclass amps and went back to the original Mark I (reissue) saying how they had become like NASA "mission control" with all those extra knobs and controls- he longed for the days of simplicity. We can only hope Eddie comes to a similar awareness some day. Love the new album though. Eddie could probably make a Gorilla amp sound like a million bucks...

[rdodson]

I remember back in the late '80's-early '90's when Carlos Santana dumped his Mesa Boogie Mark III/Simulclass amps and went back to the original Mark I (reissue) saying how they had become like NASA "mission control" with all those extra knobs and controls- he longed for the days of simplicity. We can only hope Eddie comes to a similar awareness some day. Love the new album though. Eddie could probably make a Gorilla amp sound like a million bucks...

Somebody once made a Telecaster into a Supro sound pretty fantastic.

[rgorke]

All I know, and frankly care about, is that I like the album, A LOT. It makes me happy and I enjoy listening to the music. I am also happy that Ed appears to be clean and sober and do not begrudge him for wanting to make music with his son.

All the reports about rehashing old music is falling on deaf hears for me. My favorite tune on the album is "She's the Woman." I love the groove - and have for years - and the lyrics make me chuckle.

[FL6]

As for my opinion: critics are almost always completely in love with stuff that I think is mediocre, or downright terrible- and sometimes just ridiculous. To me, Rock/Pop music writers/critics (as a whole- very generally speaking...) seem to be wind-bags who studied writing/journalism rather than music. Individuals who I have known in the past that fancy themselves critics almost always have actually known nothing about music- they just have extremely strong opinions as to what they think is great. In most cases, this usually translates to verbose explanations as to why The Velvet Underground and Patty Smith (to give a few examples...) are hands-down the greatest rock/pop artists ever, no competition.

-Joe

ding ding ding

As Roth always said...the critics like Elvis Costello because they look like Elvis Costello.

[rgalpin]

i'm with ya roger - i have to laugh out loud when i hear that crazy "is it really a guitar" moment in Honeybabysweetiedoll - takes me back to being a 15 year old kid wondering if the intro to Atomic Punk was really a guitar...

and there are the moments on the album where it follows the logical path and degenerates into something resembling 4 kids searching for dead batteries b/c it makes the little tape recorder play slow and make weird noises - those moments are so very essential to what VH is - more than music - more than pop or rock or anything - it truly is an attitude and an expression of that attitude - it's Buzz Lightyear and Woodie setting up the radio and sending the army guys to an outpost in the family room - i thought they might be too old to recapture that stuff - but it's all there - echoed out divebombs that last 10 times longer than any normal human being would think is appropriate just to hear what it sounds like when the amp hiss takes over - more dead batteries please, put the mic closer to the speaker and when it howls i'll match the note then we'll swap out the good batteries for some dead ones cuz it sounds cool that way - it makes me wonder how do they ever get the producer to agree to such off the wall juvenile crap?! but this is what makes a VH album what it is.

i know... i'm demented and delusional. ENJOY!

[NY Chief]

[
Somebody once made a Telecaster into a Supro sound pretty fantastic.

FUCK YEAH, HE DID!

[dirtycooter]

EXACTLY!!!!!! THATS THE ESSENCE OF ED RIGHT THERE!!! That juvenile experimentational super freaky tuning into the super fractional differences!!!
How do you STAY tapped into that?????
I mean F ME!! How in the hell did he say "no, its titties are perkier with it runnin on a variac." Or gee " check out this pal m scratchin shit on the intro to atomic punk???
Alex's intro to hot for teacher sounds like an idling top fuel dragster!!!!! Seriously!!

i'm with ya roger - i have to laugh out loud when i hear that crazy "is it really a guitar" moment in H[/b]oneybabysweetiedoll - takes me back to being a 15 year old kid wondering if the intro to Atomic Punk was really a guitar...

and there are the moments on the album where it follows the logical path and degenerates into something resembling 4 kids searching for dead batteries b/c it makes the little tape recorder play slow and make weird noises - those moments are so very essential to what VH is - more than music - more than pop or rock or anything - it truly is an attitude and an expression of that attitude - it's Buzz Lightyear and Woodie setting up the radio and sending the army guys to an outpost in the family room - i thought they might be too old to recapture that stuff - but it's all there - echoed out divebombs that last 10 times longer than any normal human being would think is appropriate just to hear what it sounds like when the amp hiss takes over - more dead batteries please, put the mic closer to the speaker and when it howls i'll match the note then we'll swap out the good batteries for some dead ones cuz it sounds cool that way - it makes me wonder how do they ever get the producer to agree to such off the wall juvenile crap?! but this is what makes a VH album what it is.

i know... i'm demented and delusional. ENJOY!

[Rich_D]

Yes, this is getting at why I think this is finally a Van Halen record as it should be. Eddie is psycho and unpredictable again. He's a noise maker who also happens to be a melody maker and arguably a genius one at that. I don't know whether to say it's Roth's influence, but Roth seems to bring some risk to the process where with Hagar it was seat belts and air bags. Each of these songs has at least one, usually a few, landmarks that make me go "wtf was that!" An Eddie Van Halen record should be kind of shocking like that, not some tasteful song writer schlock. This is not a safe record once you get past the single, it's a TV out the hotel window, line 'em up and mow 'em down, what the fuck rock record.

As for the tone, my expectations were not to hear what we've heard before because clearly he's moved away from that. I have listened to this record a lot now, I mean a lot, and there is nuance and detail available in the guitar that we haven't heard for a long time. I hope people will really dig in and listen and not be put off by what they're not hearing. I think if it was anyone else cranking that tone out, a lot more people would be saying it sounded pretty damn awesome. Just curious, do people pine for Gilmore to sound like 1973 when they see him now? I think it's a killer sound for modern stuff.

[T.L.]

I still say it's like Black Sabbath without Bill Ward. It's just NOT the "original" line up...

[rgalpin]

...but Roth seems to bring some risk to the process where with Hagar it was seat belts and air bags. Each of these songs has at least one, usually a few, landmarks that make me go "wtf was that!" An Eddie Van Halen record should be kind of shocking like that, not some tasteful song writer schlock. This is not a safe record once you get past the single...

EXCELLENTLY STATED!!

The album begins at Track 3 for me. On first couple hearings I wasn't catching Dave's melodies quite the way they are starting to grab me - yes, he has always had a soulful smokey yakk - but I had forgotten how much i love those melodies - the verse for Blood and Fire - or the prechorus for China Town - and the production on his voice is reflective of the that intimate yet colorful twinge found on Crazy From the Heat EP. That draws me in just as much as the experimental "more dead batteries (perfectly spent but not completely dead)" mentality. It's a perfect mix of melody and madness - all wrapped in that juvenile innocence that draws you in... it's fascinating really - especially that this can still come out of them and that we can still appreciate it. It's freakin' time travel I tell ya!!

[fivecoyote]

there is nuance and detail available in the guitar that we haven't heard for a long time.

Yes!

I think if it was anyone else cranking that tone out, a lot more people would be saying it sounded pretty damn awesome.

Zactly. First read that to be "if anyone else was cranking tone out" -- maybe equally true!

[redozzman]

Just typed a long diatribe and deleted it, Love the album but would have liked the darker side of Dave, the son of a bitch is just to damn happy! I still love me some Dave melody, he has a gift for catchy melody! China town, pre chorus is gold! Blood and Fire ending gives me the chiles!

[rgalpin]

Chiles all around my friend!

I hate to be such cheerleader fanboy about this but it's pretty amazing. Re: Dave's happy melodies - it's true but then he keeps it real by following that verse melody by yelling out "blood and fire" like a 14 year old kid with his first PA - completely unpolished and almost uncool - and this is how we avoid the slippery slope of what has been coined in this thread as "song writer schlock!" haha!! nothing cool, polished, or schlocky here! far from it! unbridled, un-premeditated, naive and juvenile - enough red meat for everyone.

ok - i'll stop.