Van Halen - "Balance" album discussion...

Imo, Balance sounds incredible on vinyl and cd. I'll listen to both. While I prefer the vinyl, this is one title that works if I don't want to or can't flip a record. The cd that I go to is the one from the Japan Forever Young series with the bonus track.

If you're not into finding the perfect vinyl copy, I recommend these CDs (I think they're still in stock at CD Japan) for the entire Hagar era.

I've stated this before: I love a lot of artists and bands. I'm a rock and roll junkie, music collector, and an obsessive concert goer just months south of 50 yrs old. Van Halen is my 2nd favorite band of all time, behind the Stones and ahead of Zep, ABB, The Who, Kiss, Rush, and others. I'm never *not in the mood for them.

Part of the reason I'm always in the mood for them is the Hagar era. It's two great bands out of one for me. There's a vibe and a mood that changes with each record, from Roth to Hagar.....and even Cherone. I love every single release for different reasons. I listened to a nice original vinyl copy of "Van Halen" yesterday. When summer hits I'll play "Van Halen II" and "OU812" a lot. "Beautiful Girls" and "Cabo Wabo" put me right on a beautiful sandy beach every time!

I love every Hagar VH record about as much as any Dave era record, given the mood I'm in. What makes Van Halen great is Eddies songwriting and evolution as a musician, and producer. He created some incredible music during the Hagar era. VHIII was a musical experiment that I thoroughly enjoy, and "A Different Kind Of Truth" is as good as anything they've ever done.

Just an incredible band, "magic" is found on every single LP. Balance is one of those magical records for sure. It may be my 2nd favorite VH guitar record after Fair Warning. What Eddie does on "Don't Tell Me" has my jaw drop in just about the same fashion as the first time I heard "Eruption."

Long live Van Halen!!

 

One of my favorite bands. Loved the new album also !

 

I think it's dense because Eddie took the demo he did of the song in '85 and overdubbed new instrumentation over the old one. For instance the '85 demo had electronic drums on it and he overdubbed acoustic drums over it etc.
Hope you catch my drift

 

A three star album imo. Four tracks stick out in my mind: The Seventh Seal; Don't Tell Me; Aftershock; Feelin'. The Seventh Seal often makes it onto my Rock playlists. I would've bought that album for that song alone. The only thing missing on that track is oddly enough a guitar solo from Ed.
The album clocks in at 54 minutes, which is too long for me with the filler tracks. Even removing two or three of those filler tracks to bring it to around 40 minutes would've made it a much stronger album. You have to remember that the classic 'Dave era' albums ran between 31-36 minutes - less room for filler.

 

+1

 

They sure didn't skimp on the compression. It sounds heavy.

 

Van Halen-Balance sounds like the brother of Aerosmith-Get A Grip

 

Probably because of the producer.

 

I got this cd free through one of the clubs. Tough to find a good song on it.

 

Great first single, Don't Tell Me (What Love Can Do) that lead off the release. But I didn't care for the rest of the album.

The video sports a short haired and bearded EVH who looked like Riker from Star Trek Next Gen.

 

I would think tracks like Aftershock and Amsterdam would appeal to any Van Halen fan, even if they prefer the DLR era (as I do).

 

I like pretty much the whole album, but whenever Aftershock comes on shuffle while listening on my ipod I think, man that song rocks. It's like a surprise each time.

 

And wouldn't you know it, it just came up on shuffle. Gonna rock for a few minutes.

 

I think Aftershock is awesome and thunderous in all senses, I love it.

 

Agree, great tune.

 

I like how adventurous they were on that album...almost Van Halen's take on Prog.

I mean, listen to all the places "Feelin'" goes...just awesome. And Sammy sings his ass off on this song.

 

Balance is the perfect example of terrible sequencing. We start off heavy as f**k and then slam right into....Can't Stop Lovin' You???? I don't really like that song anyway, and it's far inferior to Not Enough, but as the second song? Instead of going from The Seventh Seal to either Don't Tell Me or even Amsterdam? Terrible decision!

 

Interesting take. I might have slotted Amsterdam #2, but apart from that I don't mind the sequence at all on this one.

 

I really love the last 2 songs Take Me Back and Feelin.

I wish Sammy would play some of this stuff during his solo shows.

 

The sad thing about this album and "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" is that musically, the band was hot and hitting on all cylinders. Those albums sound way more organic musically speaking than "5150" or "OU812". Ed's playing is red hot and the rhythm sections holds it down nice and tight, but Sammy Hagar's lyrics run the gamut from bad to downright embarrassing. "Big Fat Money", "Amsterdam", and "Can't Stop Loving You" are among the worst things that the band has ever done, and yes, I'm including VH3 in that equation as well. I've just never been able to get into Hagar outside of the first Montrose record.

 

It was the first VH album I owned, one of my favorites, "Don't tell me" is a great single, and one of the rare occasions where the single edit actually makes the song more powerful, "Seventh Seal", "Amsterdam", "Baluchitherium", all solid. "Feelin" is the best Sammy vocal performance IMO, powerful song, "Not Enough" has one of the most entertaining Eddie solos. I recently discovered "Crossing Over", and learning that Eddie wrote that in the 80's for a friend who died make the song extra powerful, I wish they had explored that production and arrangement style more

That VH era (95-97) actualy produced very good songs; Balance, Humans Beings, and the failed VH-DLR-Glenn Ballard combo; "Cant get this stuff no more" and "Me Wise Magic" were great tunes too, too bad they messes up both line ups atmosphere so badly

 

While I can't listen to this record start to finish, I have always thought the two singles, "Don't Tell Me" and "Can't Stop Loving You" were both very good songs. And I like the darker sound, in many ways this record is Van Hagar's "Fair Warning"*.

I also think that of all the non-grunge bands that released albums between 1992 - 1996 that were influenced by grunge (e.g., REM's "Monster", Metallica's "Load", etc.), with "Balance", Van Hagar did the best job of bringing some grunge into their music while staying true to themselves. They nodded to grunge but didn't bow to it.

* Although IMO not nearly as good. Also, as an aside, "Fair Warning" was released 35 years ago today.

 

VH were definitely on a roll. To bad they couldn't keep it together after that DLR debacle.

 

I think 'Balance' is pretty weak.

 

So you're saying there are no lyrics on the album better than "bad"?