As with many things in my life, my record buying is in a bit of a lull these days. Up until last week my iTunes "Recently Added" list was empty (which I think means I haven't added anything in like a month). But, I do have a couple of new-ish things to blab about...

1. Little Scream - The Golden Record. Little Scream is a woman named Laurel Sprengelmeyer, who received some assistance from indie rock friends on this record. It's kindof folky, kindof rock, kindof alternative. I stick her in the same part of my mental musical map as Feist, Wye Oak and St. Vincent: a strong female lead, sometimes introspective, sometimes brash, a lot of dynamics, a nice amount of sonic and musical experimentation, etc.. Categorization aside, I do like this. I wish Shuffle would bring it up more often. Cannons, Red Hunting Jacket, The Lamb.
   4 Thorns: þ þ þ þ

2. Van Halen - A Different Kind Of Truth. This is their first with David Lee Roth back in front since 1984's oddly-titled "1984", and the first without long-time bassist and background vocalist extraordinaire, Michael Anthony; Eddie's son, Wolfgang, took over the bass duties. I've heard enough live clips to know DLR's voice isn't what it used to be, so I wasn't expecting much from him. And I gave up on the rest of the band during their Sammy Hagar years. So, I wasn't expecting much from them, either. But, I've recently grown fond of their early stuff, after many years of dismissing it, so I thought I'd better at least give this one a chance - maybe they could find a bit of that old spark.

   Well, there's a decent amount of it. A couple of songs are truly catchy. And couple of them echo older songs, sometimes in deliberate ways (as when new tune 'Stay Frosty' winks back at 1979's 'Ice Cream Man'). And DLR's vocals are actually decent; no, he can't do those shrieks anymore, and his delivery is somewhat less singing and a bit more speaking. But, he gets the job done. Lyrically, he's as silly as ever: "mousewife to momshell in the time it took to get that new tattoo". Eddie's playing is as ferocious as ever - he hasn't diminished a bit. Alex still brings the thunder. And Wolfgang does a respectable job on the bass (not that you can really hear a bass over Eddie's full-spectrum guitar attack).

   Many of the songs here are actually re-worked unreleased songs from that era - some even predate their 1979 debut. So, in that way it really does sound like a classic-era VH record, and thankfully not like an old band trying to become relevant again by trying to write songs in today's style. Still, for me, it's just missing something. It's VH, so it's heavy and it's loud and it rocks - that's a given. But what made VH great back in the day was the hooks. They could put that power behind simply great pop songs. But there's no "Jamie's Crying" or "Feel Your Love Tonight" or "Jump!" on here. It's more "Atomic Punk", "Light Up The Sky" and "House Of Pain" - the stuff surrounding the gems. Still, B-level VH is better than no VH, IMO.

   But, what really gets me down is the sound. It's dense. Eddie's multiple, extremely busy guitars and their various thick distortions dominate the entire spectrum. To compete with Eddie, DLR's vocals are highly compressed and very loud; but it's obvious that he really doesn't have the lung power to be that loud, so it sometimes sounds strange. And not to be left out, the drums and bass are highly compressed, too - very little dynamic range there. Then, the whole mix is mashed and compressed even further, so the overall effect is often just a big loud rush of noise. I actually get worn out from listening to this at around the 20 minute mark - as in, my first two listens I checked the track list thinking, "wow, this must be a really long record!" Nope, just 13 songs, and only one breaks 5:00. And that's a shame, since I think the songs could maybe grow on me.

   After the second listen, I went back and listened to VH II. It's a record I don't play often, but the new "Honeybabysweetiedoll" echoes that album's "Outta Love Again", and I wanted to compare. And, I wanted to hear if I was mishearing this one. Maybe VH has always done full-on sonic saturation? Nope, VH II is a much better listen. This new one fatigues. Compression kills.

   Then, just for fun, I listened to their last record, 1998's Van Halen "III", which was done with former Extreme singer Gary Cherone. I'd acquired it somewhere, years ago, but never listened. I'd only heard bad things about it, but it wasn't terrible. It actually sounded, in places, a lot like a middling Adrian Belew record - similar sounds, song structures, etc.. Very odd.

   Anyway, 2 Thorns: þ þ

   Tattoo.

You all got anything good?