Van Halen – Fair Warning – 1981

Fair warning is from 1981 but to me, it doesn’t sound like it. It sounds like it was made 5-10 years before that music-wise. To me, it sounds almost psychedelic and progressive at times. I usually have a hard time appreciate such albums but there’s no problem with this. As I said on Women and Children First, Eddie’s guitar is just another instrument, even if he does things that sound really complicated and hard, he’s never in the spotlight. If you compare the mix with other albums with “guitar-heroes” they usually put themselves in the center spotlight and use the guitar as a tool for masturbation. Like they really need to show off their skills.

I never get the impression of that here. Maybe that’s what makes Eddie Van Hales unique? Anyway, I think Fair Warning is a fine album. A little bit psychedelic, a little bit progressive, and a little funky. It’s not totally guitar based as I said before. I actually think the bass drives it more at some times. Van Halen was a solid band at this time. They seem to work together to get their sounds where no one is more important that the other.

The intro to Mean Street is out of this world guitar-wise and there are a couple of other songs that shine a little extra too, But as a whole, I’m not as impressed as I ought to be by this band. Once again I cannot hear the awesomeness that many people hear.