Van Halen III (studio album) by Van Halen

From llibnanoon 06/23/2020 19:03

It just kept getting worse and worse!

A band should cover this album.

Van Halen response to 90's rock

From adnielsen 04/20/2018 04:11

This album sounds like it’s from an alternate universe or alternate timeline. The most “modern” sounding Van Halen album in my opinion though Gary Cherone’s vocals may seem misplaced. Call me crazy but I dig Cherone as the third singer. “Josephina” is seriously one of my favourite Van Halen songs while “Once” and “From Afar” being other standouts. To me, this album is a little darker than previous VH releases and some of the songs are deeper than previous party rockers like “Panama”. A lot of great work by EVH, some of his all time best. Give it another shot.

I think there have been only two occasions when I have made the wrong decision with a music purchase, this is one of them. First of all, I must be cellar that I grew through my teens on Van Halen and love their early albums having about 8 or 9'in my collection, all of which I listen to quite regularly. I bought this on tape, got about half way through the first side and thought what is this shite? What has happened to Van Halen? I knew the record store owner quite well and he allowed me to swap it for something else. I would have awarded a few more points to the rating if they had made more of an effort with the terrible cover...

Few albums in rock and roll history trigger expressions of more vehement disgust than "Van Halen III" (1998, US #4.) Certainly, its reputation as a bad album - not a "so-bad-it's-good" album, but a "please-turn-this-off-now" bad album - precedes it. That said: is this reputation deserved..?

If you are a newcomer to the "Zen-California exuberance" of Van Halen (i.e. to the original, David Lee Roth-fronted version of Van Halen,) be forewarned: not only is there no hint of the 'party-to-end-all-parties' vibe of "Van Halen" (1978) and "Van Halen II" (1979;) the vibe of "Van Halen III" is reminiscent of the feeling one might have after having attended such a party, failing to get any sleep, and then at, say, 3pm the following day, forcing oneself to watch CNN Headline News for 60+ minutes straight.

"Produced" by "Law & Order: SVU" jingle extraordinaire Mike Post, the majority of "III's" songs are structurally formless, (see "Ballot or the Bullet,") lyrically and musically humorless, (see "From Afar,") and/or so downright off-putting as to make a listener feel uncomfortable, (e.g. the verses to "One I Want," and "Once," "Primary;" "How Many Say I?")

While ostensibly a new beginning for the group with its 2nd post-Roth singer, "Van Halen III" alienated a majority of what had been, arguably, hard rock's most intensely devoted cult following (aside from Led Zeppelin's,) the lion's share of which had stuck around for over a decade, despite only 1 very good album (1986's "5150," US #1,) and 3 inconsistent albums (1988, 1991, 1995, all US #1s) with Roth's first replacement.

To paraphrase Keith Moon, this one spectacularly bad album sank the theretofore "Mighty Van Halen's" career "like a lead zeppelin."

It didn't help the band that 1996's temporary reunion with Roth yielded one near-brilliant track, "Me Wise Magic," (US Mainstream #1 for two months,) which whet the public's whistle for a Roth-reunion-or-nothing, (see: the band's ovation at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards.)

The cult of Van Halen would have to wait 14 years with the bad taste of "III" in its collective mouth, endure countless jokes made at the band's expense - the most stinging of which always involved "III" - before Van Halen finally reunited with Roth, and released its career-redeeming "A Different Kind of Truth" (2012, US #2.)

Is "III" really as bad as all that..? No, it's not. There are rubies amidst the compost. For an unseasoned band, it might even be considered to contain "potential." But for America's greatest hard rock band? It's a disaster. Along with "Balance," (1995,) which was marginal, "III" is the only other non-canonical Van Halen studio album.

From junodog4 05/19/2012 20:57

Simply awful. The band had lost complete direction. There's no memorable songs on this album. There's no tone, theme, or consistency. Nothing makes you want to bang your head or even tap your foot. And Gary Cherone is a terrible fit. Barf.