When Was the Last Time You Did Something for the First Time

For people of my age, Van Halen with David Lee Roth is almost a mythical figure. We were just about creating our first memories by the time Jump and Hot for Teacher were getting airplay, but just at their height of success, Roth decided to instead make crappy music by himself. Really my generation remembers Van Hager much more vividly than the original lineup. Then as teenagers, Sammy Hager got kicked out of the group and everyone got excited for the good old days, even if we did not remember much of them, when the Van Halen brothers brought back Roth back into the fold to record some new songs for a greatest hits package and then promptly got the boot again after a embarrassingly bad appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards and replaced him with the dude from Extreme.

Then over the past decade, Hager was brought back for a tour and was kicked out again, this time along with longtime bassist Michael Anthony, while Roth came back in for a third stint. But this time around, David Lee Roth is less rock god that we thought him to be in the eighties and more embarrassing grandpa who tries to be cool in front of your friends. But here we are, fourteen years since Van Halen, with any singer, has released new music. For comparison, the heavily mocked Guns N' Roses took fifteen years.

Is A Different Kind of Truth worth the wait? Much like Chinese Democracy: of course not. Both long awaited albums sound stuck in a long ago era. And there is very good reason why the songs sound stuck in the past as Sammy Hager accuses that many, if not all of the songs were based off of demo from before even he was in the band. Fans were quick to point out the first single Tattoo sounds much like Down in Flames, a rare track the band played a few times in the seventies.

So for fans of nostalgia, there is plenty to get your motor running. Songs like She’s the Woman, Chinatown and As If would fit anywhere on the original lineup’s album but unfortunately none are as good as anything you will find on the greatest hits album. But there just is something missing and his name is Michael Anthony. Not only is the bass is the backbone of any band, but he was also battling The Edge as the greatest backing vocal in the history of rock and roll and the twelve year old they hired to replace him just in just not up to the task.

You would think the youngster would add something new to the band or at some point in his life would say, hey dad you should check out this new band. But no new influences are introduced on the album lending to Hager’s accusation that Dave and Eddie did no new writing for the album. And if that is the case, the music buying public is getting bamboozled with the band repackaging outtakes as a new album and not as the collector’s items as they are on a boxed set or reissue.

Song to Download – She's the Woman

A Different Kind of Truth gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.