Van Halen "A Different Kind of Truth" (2012)
It's hard to believe that Van Halen's 2012 album A Different Kind of Truth, which was the long-awaited studio album resulting from the band's reunion with original frontman David Lee Roth, is already 10 years old. But what's even harder to believe is that the album has recently become commercially unavailable. As of late 2022, the album seems to be unavailable for purchase in physical or digital formats. This seems especially odd two years after the death of guitarist and co-founder Eddie Van Halen, and after the recent success of bassist Wolfgang Van Halen's project known as Mammoth WVH.
A Different Kind of Truth was Van Halen's first studio release in 14 years, following the inauspicious 1998 album Van Halen III recorded with former Extreme singer Gary Cherone. After parting ways with Cherone, Van Halen suffered through nearly a decade of invisibility, punctuated by a disastrous 2004 reunion tour with second vocalist Sammy Hagar, and by Eddie Van Halen's increasingly bad reputation for drunken and erratic behavior. Just when it seemed that the mighty Van Halen had fallen and couldn't get up, David Lee Roth finally rejoined the band for a successful 2007 reunion tour that I thought would never happen. However, original bassist Michael Anthony had left the band to continue working with Sammy Hagar, and he was replaced by Eddie's then-teenaged son Wolfgang.
It took a few more years before VH completed and released their 2012 album A Different Kind of Truth, their first full album with Roth since 1984 from 1984. It was ultimately worth the wait. It was an exciting return to form for the legendary arena rockers, recreating many of the thrills of the band's early albums. It had more consistency than some of the albums that VH recorded with Roth in the early '80's, and more forcefulness than the VH albums from the '90's recorded with their later frontmen. It was an unusually satisfying recapturing of a band's past glories, and -- as it turned out -- a fine way to close the book on their studio history.
One thing that surely helped was that the band was apparently not under much pressure to write and develop a whole new batch of songs, a factor which has proven to be the downfall of many reunion albums. Many of the album's tracks are based on material which dated back to Roth's earlier time with the band. For example, four songs ("She's The Woman", "Outta Space", "Big River", and "Beats Workin'") were based on songs from their early demos, while two others ("Tattoo" and "Bullethead") were based on songs from their early live shows. And, amazingly enough, four other songs ("Honeybabysweetiedoll", "As Is", "Blood and Fire" and "The Trouble With Never") reportedly originated from scrapped studio recordings by the briefly reunited original quartet from the year 2000.
The use of this material may be the main reason why the album succeeds so well at evoking Van Halen's early years. Eddie's guitar playing was still dazzling after all the years in between, mixing incredible virtuosity with relentless hard rock fire. Roth's voice had noticeably aged, but then again, he was never the greatest vocalist to begin with. The important thing was that he conveyed the same basic party-animal personality and attitude that made him a good entertainer, and sounded enough like his younger self to make the reunion authentic. Alex Van Halen provided good support on the drums, but Michael Anthony was sometimes missed on bass and backing vocals. Although young Wolfgang was an adequate bass player, he was obviously less seasoned and conspicuous than the man he replaced. Still, the overall energy level of the songs made up for such shortcomings.
A Different Kind of Truth had its inevitable detractors at the time of its release, with some purists going so far as to complain that the previously unreleased songs from the band's past would have sounded better if they had been properly recorded by the original lineup during their early years. But maybe, just maybe, the 2012 album was the right place and time for these songs to be completed. Four of the tracks were based on early songs from the band's 1976 demo tape produced by Gene Simmons of Kiss. "Outta Space" was a rewrite of the demo song "Let's Get Rockin'", and "Beats Workin'" was a rewrite of the demo song "Put Out The Lights"; both were improvements on the demo versions, and there is nothing to suggest that late-'70's album recordings of the songs would have been significantly better. "She's The Woman" was also based on one of those 1976 demo songs; it may have turned out slightly better if it was recorded for the debut album, but that album was not lacking for strong material. "Big River" was a rewrite of the demo song "Big Trouble"; the demo had a raw ferocity that is not exactly lost on the 2012 rewrite, but I do think it might have been more interesting to hear that particular song finished by the early lineup. Two other tracks were derived from early live songs which have turned up on bootlegs. "Tattoo" was derived from an early live song called "Down In Flames", and "Bullethead" also dates back to that time period. If those songs had been recorded for an early VH album, it's hard to imagine them being significantly better than their versions on this album. "Blood And Fire" was derived from an instrumental called "Ripley", which Eddie recorded for the score of Cameron Crowe's 1984 movie The Wild Life; "Blood And Fire" is definitely an improvement with its added lyrics -- and who knows if "Ripley" would have been reworked at all in an alternate reality?
A bonus DVD titled The Downtown Sessions was included in a Deluxe Edition of A Different Kind Of Truth (Interscope B0016497-10). It contained 16 minutes of black-and-white MTV Unplugged-style footage of the band at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles, playing acoustic versions of the VH classics "Panama" and "Beautiful Girls", as well as the new "You And Your Blues". It's fascinating to hear Eddie flawlessly play acoustic guitar for these renditions. Roth is not quite the comedian that he seems to think he is when he starts talking, but when he sings, it is a pleasure to see and hear him interacting with two generations of Van Halens. (Eddie even seems to be enjoying Dave's company part of the time). Dave's blues vocal on the scaled-back "You And Your Blues" sounds surprisingly authentic, even though he does not seem to be taking it too seriously. This bonus DVD adds value to the Deluxe Edition CD.
Van Halen "A Different Kind Of Truth" (Interscope B0016477-02) 2012
Track Listing:
1. Tattoo
2. She's The Woman
3. You And Your Blues
4. China Town
5. Blood And Fire
6. Bullethead
7. As Is
8. Honeybabysweetiedoll
9. The Trouble With Never
10. Outta Space
11. Stay Frosty
12. Big River
13. Beats Workin'
The Downtown Sessions (Bonus DVD included with Deluxe Edition CD, Interscope B0016497-10)
Track Listing:
1. Panama (Downtown Session)
2. You And Your Blues (Downtown Session)
3. Beautiful Girls (Downtown Session)
A Different Kind of Truth was Van Halen's first studio release in 14 years, following the inauspicious 1998 album Van Halen III recorded with former Extreme singer Gary Cherone. After parting ways with Cherone, Van Halen suffered through nearly a decade of invisibility, punctuated by a disastrous 2004 reunion tour with second vocalist Sammy Hagar, and by Eddie Van Halen's increasingly bad reputation for drunken and erratic behavior. Just when it seemed that the mighty Van Halen had fallen and couldn't get up, David Lee Roth finally rejoined the band for a successful 2007 reunion tour that I thought would never happen. However, original bassist Michael Anthony had left the band to continue working with Sammy Hagar, and he was replaced by Eddie's then-teenaged son Wolfgang.
It took a few more years before VH completed and released their 2012 album A Different Kind of Truth, their first full album with Roth since 1984 from 1984. It was ultimately worth the wait. It was an exciting return to form for the legendary arena rockers, recreating many of the thrills of the band's early albums. It had more consistency than some of the albums that VH recorded with Roth in the early '80's, and more forcefulness than the VH albums from the '90's recorded with their later frontmen. It was an unusually satisfying recapturing of a band's past glories, and -- as it turned out -- a fine way to close the book on their studio history.
One thing that surely helped was that the band was apparently not under much pressure to write and develop a whole new batch of songs, a factor which has proven to be the downfall of many reunion albums. Many of the album's tracks are based on material which dated back to Roth's earlier time with the band. For example, four songs ("She's The Woman", "Outta Space", "Big River", and "Beats Workin'") were based on songs from their early demos, while two others ("Tattoo" and "Bullethead") were based on songs from their early live shows. And, amazingly enough, four other songs ("Honeybabysweetiedoll", "As Is", "Blood and Fire" and "The Trouble With Never") reportedly originated from scrapped studio recordings by the briefly reunited original quartet from the year 2000.
The use of this material may be the main reason why the album succeeds so well at evoking Van Halen's early years. Eddie's guitar playing was still dazzling after all the years in between, mixing incredible virtuosity with relentless hard rock fire. Roth's voice had noticeably aged, but then again, he was never the greatest vocalist to begin with. The important thing was that he conveyed the same basic party-animal personality and attitude that made him a good entertainer, and sounded enough like his younger self to make the reunion authentic. Alex Van Halen provided good support on the drums, but Michael Anthony was sometimes missed on bass and backing vocals. Although young Wolfgang was an adequate bass player, he was obviously less seasoned and conspicuous than the man he replaced. Still, the overall energy level of the songs made up for such shortcomings.
A Different Kind of Truth had its inevitable detractors at the time of its release, with some purists going so far as to complain that the previously unreleased songs from the band's past would have sounded better if they had been properly recorded by the original lineup during their early years. But maybe, just maybe, the 2012 album was the right place and time for these songs to be completed. Four of the tracks were based on early songs from the band's 1976 demo tape produced by Gene Simmons of Kiss. "Outta Space" was a rewrite of the demo song "Let's Get Rockin'", and "Beats Workin'" was a rewrite of the demo song "Put Out The Lights"; both were improvements on the demo versions, and there is nothing to suggest that late-'70's album recordings of the songs would have been significantly better. "She's The Woman" was also based on one of those 1976 demo songs; it may have turned out slightly better if it was recorded for the debut album, but that album was not lacking for strong material. "Big River" was a rewrite of the demo song "Big Trouble"; the demo had a raw ferocity that is not exactly lost on the 2012 rewrite, but I do think it might have been more interesting to hear that particular song finished by the early lineup. Two other tracks were derived from early live songs which have turned up on bootlegs. "Tattoo" was derived from an early live song called "Down In Flames", and "Bullethead" also dates back to that time period. If those songs had been recorded for an early VH album, it's hard to imagine them being significantly better than their versions on this album. "Blood And Fire" was derived from an instrumental called "Ripley", which Eddie recorded for the score of Cameron Crowe's 1984 movie The Wild Life; "Blood And Fire" is definitely an improvement with its added lyrics -- and who knows if "Ripley" would have been reworked at all in an alternate reality?
A bonus DVD titled The Downtown Sessions was included in a Deluxe Edition of A Different Kind Of Truth (Interscope B0016497-10). It contained 16 minutes of black-and-white MTV Unplugged-style footage of the band at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles, playing acoustic versions of the VH classics "Panama" and "Beautiful Girls", as well as the new "You And Your Blues". It's fascinating to hear Eddie flawlessly play acoustic guitar for these renditions. Roth is not quite the comedian that he seems to think he is when he starts talking, but when he sings, it is a pleasure to see and hear him interacting with two generations of Van Halens. (Eddie even seems to be enjoying Dave's company part of the time). Dave's blues vocal on the scaled-back "You And Your Blues" sounds surprisingly authentic, even though he does not seem to be taking it too seriously. This bonus DVD adds value to the Deluxe Edition CD.
Van Halen "A Different Kind Of Truth" (Interscope B0016477-02) 2012
Track Listing:
1. Tattoo
2. She's The Woman
3. You And Your Blues
4. China Town
5. Blood And Fire
6. Bullethead
7. As Is
8. Honeybabysweetiedoll
9. The Trouble With Never
10. Outta Space
11. Stay Frosty
12. Big River
13. Beats Workin'
The Downtown Sessions (Bonus DVD included with Deluxe Edition CD, Interscope B0016497-10)
Track Listing:
1. Panama (Downtown Session)
2. You And Your Blues (Downtown Session)
3. Beautiful Girls (Downtown Session)
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