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General => General Music Discussion => Topic started by: KevShmev on April 22, 2017, 08:47:26 AM
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I gave this a listen recently and was surprised again at how good it is and how well it is aging. Okay, the first song, Tattoo, is pretty shitty, but it picks up right after that with She's the Woman, and songs like The Trouble With Never, Outta Space and Big River are all pretty great. Even the songs that are merely good are just fine when listening to the album from start to finish. It's just a really good listen from start to finish.
4 stars.
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To be honest this thread prompted me to go listen to it again. It's a very pleasant surprise. I saw them on their reunion tour thing in 2012 when I would've been like 13 or so, but I really only cared about their old stuff. Since I didn't really know the new material (and DLR sang vocal melodies that were only 30% reminiscent of the actual song), I really never even gave it a try. I'll have to come back and rate it once I spin it a few more times.
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I had low expectations when it came out and was very surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I agree that Tattoo was a pretty weak single but the album kicks ass from the second song until the end.
I'd give it 4 stars as well
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I still enjoy it about as much as I did, so I'd say it's ageing well so far. I don't even mind Tattoo now, despite initially agreeing it wasn't very good. I also agree with your standout picks, Kev. :tup
I'll go with 4 stars.
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I enjoyed it well enough on release, saw them on the tour for the album, and over time I gradually started enjoying the album more and more. Now it's pretty easily my favorite VH album, so I went 5 stars.
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Enjoyed it then, still enjoy it now, Tattoo isn't the best but far from shitty. Almost all other tracks are really good or even great. 4 stars and I would like to hear more from VH in this vein. Eddie, just get your ass up and do something. :metal
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For context, this was my album of the year the year it came out, and I almost didn't buy it at all when I heard "Tattoo", I hated that song so much.
I listen to so much music that it is rare that I regularly and repeatedly revisit newer things, but this is one of them, and to be honest, "Tattoo" has aged quite well. I actually dig it now. This record for me still gets a 4.5 stars.
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i'm nowhere near a fan of Van Halen so listening to it was like listening to a new band for me.
I thought Tattoo was ok. Also a pretty good rock album.
Is it correct that A Different Kind Of truth was made up largely of old VH songs that were re-worked or re-written ?
That's what the final Presidents of the USA album was. They raised the funds on Kickstarter and reworked / re-wrote B sides and rarities...
But since i'd never heard any of those songs before it was pretty much a brand new studio album.
Same with Green Day's Shenanigans album. I'd never heard any of the B sides or rarities before so i treated it like a brand new GD album ...
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Never listened to it.
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Never listened to it.
(https://m.popkey.co/6b709f/4MMbV_s-200x150.gif)
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Going back to the well was a great idea. It's insane how many great VH songs never got recorded in the 70s, especially considering how short a lot of those DLR albums are.
They were always going back to their early demos and club days for new material anyway. Mean Street and House of Pain for example.
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Is it correct that A Different Kind Of truth was made up largely of old VH songs that were re-worked or re-written ?
From what I understand, about half and half, but as Mosh said, they did this all along (even some of the Sammy material was based on guitar tracks that Ed had lying around for years). The implication is that they were out of ideas, but I don't think that's the case as much as it was "this is how we do it".
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I'll bet it's Kelly Anne's favorite album.
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Haven't heard it in a long time, but I remember Blood And Fire being a kick ass song.
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Haven't heard it in a long time, but I remember Blood And Fire being a kick ass song.
The part where Dave is talking
Told ya I was comin' back (Told ya!)
Say you missed me (Say it!)
Say it like ya mean it!
And then Eddie rips off one killer of a solo, is the high point of the record for me. It's almost like they're talking to each other.
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Always liked it and still do. It's a very solid album. And yes, Tattoo is the worst song :lol
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4
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I loved it when it came out and I still really like it a lot
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Is it correct that A Different Kind Of truth was made up largely of old VH songs that were re-worked or re-written ?
From what I understand, about half and half, but as Mosh said, they did this all along (even some of the Sammy material was based on guitar tracks that Ed had lying around for years). The implication is that they were out of ideas, but I don't think that's the case as much as it was "this is how we do it".
I think it is easy to argue that they are mostly out of ideas. They have done one studio album in the 21st century...and it was largely material written 30+ years earlier. The fact that many of those songs were so old is probably why they are good!
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I honestly think the biggest problem with the album that it is too little too late
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What's even sadder is how little it got represented live. It's the first VH album ever to not get represented heavily on the tour for it. Heck, even the Cherone album was heavily featured on that tour. Yet, this album only saw three songs get played, and they didn't even sniff anything from the back half of the album which slays. Granted, I wasn't gonna see them either way (EVH will never get any of my money again), but this album deserved more representation live.
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I don't know what the official back half is, but The Trouble with Never was played a lot
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Is it correct that A Different Kind Of truth was made up largely of old VH songs that were re-worked or re-written ?
From what I understand, about half and half, but as Mosh said, they did this all along (even some of the Sammy material was based on guitar tracks that Ed had lying around for years). The implication is that they were out of ideas, but I don't think that's the case as much as it was "this is how we do it".
I think it is easy to argue that they are mostly out of ideas. They have done one studio album in the 21st century...and it was largely material written 30+ years earlier. The fact that many of those songs were so old is probably why they are good!
This is true, but I think the lack of VH material has more to do with how dysfunctional they are. It has been almost nonstop drama since the beginning and since the 90s has gotten in the way of them making new music. It sounds like DLR and EVH still don't get along.
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3.5-4.0.
I listened to it recently as well and I can get 8 real decent songs out of it. Most albums don't change over time for me. My feelings about it today are what they were when it came out. I was more then pleasantly surprised at how much of it I really liked.
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I remember listening to the YouTube trailer for the album which had samples for all of the songs. That got me excited for the album as I was shocked at how rocking the samples sounded
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I don't listen to it much, but I don't skip it when it comes up on my VH mix when I'm driving, but I don't go out of my way to listen to it. Honeybabysweetiedoll is one of my favorite tracks as well as She's the Woman and Big River. Eddie's tone is just awesome on the album.
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I remember listening to the YouTube trailer for the album which had samples for all of the songs. That got me excited for the album as I was shocked at how rocking the samples sounded
If the beginning of Outta Space doesn't get your head banging and/or arms air drumming, there is something wrong with you. :metal
I don't know what the official back half is, but The Trouble with Never was played a lot
Really? I remember seeing the set list for the tour after the album's release, which had Tattoo, She's the Woman and China Town. And then the tour after that had just She's the Woman and China Town. And it looked like they didn't rotate anything, so I assumed those were the only songs from it they played on the tours.
This is true, but I think the lack of VH material has more to do with how dysfunctional they are. It has been almost nonstop drama since the beginning and since the 90s has gotten in the way of them making new music. It sounds like DLR and EVH still don't get along.
That is putting it nicely. Based on just about everything I have read and seen, Roth and EVH cannot stand each other, but suck it up for the sake of touring and making $$$.
Eddie's tone is just awesome on the album.
To be fair, when isn't his tone is awesome? Say what you want about EVH, but his tone is always incredible.
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True. My mistake :lol
Mixed with Big Al's, VH can do no wrong in the tone department (not including Diamond Dave's)
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This is true, but I think the lack of VH material has more to do with how dysfunctional they are. It has been almost nonstop drama since the beginning and since the 90s has gotten in the way of them making new music. It sounds like DLR and EVH still don't get along.
That is putting it nicely. Based on just about everything I have read and seen, Roth and EVH cannot stand each other, but suck it up for the sake of touring and making $$$.
Figures. I haven't paid attention to what VH has been doing for some time now. Got fed up with their BS shortly before ADKOT came out.
Also, Eddie's tone is awesome on the album. I think his playing has continued to improve at least. Balance and VHIII also had really good playing/tone.
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I disagree that they were/are out of ideas. Some of the greatest and most creative songs on ADKOT were newer songs, As Is being the standout for me.
I completely agree that they should have done a better job representing it live though. Lots of songs that would have worked great on that last tour, but instead they just recycled She's the Woman and Chinatown. And I can confirm they played The Trouble With Never on the ADKOT tour, pretty sure they played it when I saw them. There were a handful of songs they rotated on that tour, and Trouble with Never was one of them. They even played Blood and Fire like 3 or 4 times.
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I stand corrected, then. :coolio
The funny thing is, most of the VH songs from the Roth era are so short that they could seriously do a 2-hour show and play close to 30 songs.
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I stand corrected, then. :coolio
The funny thing is, most of the VH songs from the Roth era are so short that they could seriously do a 2-hour show and play close to 30 songs.
Just looked on setlist.fm and this is what it says about how often the ADKoT tracks were played:
She's the Woman (107)
China Town (91)
Tattoo (59)
The Trouble with Never (48)
Blood and Fire (4)
Outta Space (4)
Stay Frosty (2)
Bullethead (1)
Big River (1)
Beats Workin' (1)
Sucks that 2 of my 3 favorites never were played live, but life goes on.
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I wonder if the album would have gotten a better initial buzz if She's the Woman or China Town had been released as the first single instead of Tattoo. Because I know of a couple of friends who wrote off the album just because they thought Tattoo was a bit lame. I remember a local disc jokey who wrote off the album because he disliked the song as well.
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There's probably loads of great albums which had a weak first single.
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For Sure. And this album seemed to have a lot of build up and then just seemingly disappeared shortly after its release. I don't know if there was an actual second single release.
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I wonder if the album would have gotten a better initial buzz if She's the Woman or China Town had been released as the first single instead of Tattoo. Because I know of a couple of friends who wrote off the album just because they thought Tattoo was a bit lame. I remember a local disc jokey who wrote off the album because he disliked the song as well.
I'm sure it would've helped. I didn't dislike Tattoo nearly as much as most people but it still left me skeptical on the album. She's the Woman is such a no brainer as a lead single, I have no idea how they dropped the ball on that.
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Agreed. She's the Woman would have gotten a much more positive reaction from the masses.
Also, I listened to this at the gym earlier and was reminded that As Is is really good; I had kind of forgotten about that one.
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For Sure. And this album seemed to have a lot of build up and then just seemingly disappeared shortly after its release. I don't know if there was an actual second single release.
She's The Woman was 2nd (cool retro cover below) and it seems Stay Frosty may have been a "radio single" but not sold as a single in stores.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c4/Shesthewomansingle.jpg/220px-Shesthewomansingle.jpg)