Disappointment: Van Halen III
Poor Gary Cherone. He had massive shoes to fill as the vocalist of Van Halen. Before him you had David Lee Roth, who was not a good singer in all honesty, but his style was extremely charming and it fit perfectly with the music, and Sammy Hagar who is a straight up great singer and knew how to bring fun to his songs. Gary mimics Hagar’s style well, and at times sounds pretty close to him, but he’s missing that special something Hagar had. I don’t think his vocals are as bad as everyone says, at least when he’s trying to sound like Sammy which he does most of the time. However, when he does anything else it’s a failure. He can sound so washed up, with tracks like Josephina and One I Want being prime examples.
This is their longest release at 65 minutes, and the songs are long for Van Halen standards. They are not known for long songs or albums, and the shortest song (excluding interludes and intros) is longer than almost every song released from their debut to OU812. Van Halen is at its peak when it keeps things short and sweet. Hagar was able to make longer song lengths work.
This album continues with the style they had when Hagar was there, sans synths. If you weren’t a fan of the Van Hagar era there’s no chance you would enjoy this. Something feels very off though. Something is lacking when it comes to the guitar work. It’s undeniably Eddie playing but it’s missing spice. That’s how I feel about this whole album, it’s like a plate of chicken breast and peas. Not a single memorable riff or melody on the entire album. Eddie seems like he’s just noodling half the time.
The album cover is fucking hilarious. It encapsulates perfectly what Van Halen fans felt when they heard this album.
A song-by-song breakdown would be pointless, but there are a couple things worth mentioning. The intro to this album is mind-boggling. It’s so fucking out of place and does not set any expectations for what the music sounds like. I can’t imagine what they were thinking with that. Once sounds like a Genesis B-side. Eddie pulls out some tasty licks, but we don’t get enough of them. I can see the potential with this one. Year to the Day has a nice build-up to the guitar solos. If it was 2 minutes shorter and had Hagar it could be a good song. It ends with How Many Say I which is just flat-out terrible.
This album is in a state of purgatory. It is neither bad nor good. I can say with 100% certainty, it is a disappointment. It is not a fun album, and Van Halen is supposed to be a fun band.
Changing vocalists is a dramatic change for most bands, and a lot of times it can break a band. It can also bring a new direction, but they tried to play it safe and failed miserably. I was disappointed when I listened to this album for the first time over 10 years ago, and I’m still disappointed today.
Check out (or don’t) Van Halen III on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/2wqTlagAdAEh89tMuToml0?si=VRFttUhUQ_WxTNKWVZX-Iw