retroblog.net

After recently reading some of the leaked excerpts from Sammy Hagar’s unpublished book about his years with Van Halen, I’m personally glad to see Hagar (along with Michael Anthony) getting some good buzz with the new supergroup called Chickenfoot. According to the excerpts from the book, Alex and Eddie Van Halen are extremely petty and paranoid and pretty much gave Hagar and Anthony the shaft at the end of their stint with the legendary rock group. Of course the book is a one-sided account of what went on behind the scenes but whatever the truth may be, it’s just good to see Hagar and Anthony back in the spotlight. The band is made up of some stellar players including guitar-god Joe Satriani and Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Chad Smith on drums. Supergroups like these tend to all look good on paper so the real test is the MUSIC and fortunately for us the new record ROCKS. ChickenFoot isn’t about re-inventing the wheel. It’s obvious that the goal was to make an accessible guitar-based rock record in the vein of Van Halen and Led Zeppelin. And thankfully the group delivered the goods. Folks were probably expecting some sort of trainwreck with all the big egos involved here but the group really DOES sound like they gel together nicely. Smith is a fantastic drummer laying down some tasty grooves with Anthony holding down the low end as solidly as ever. Satriani manages to rein things in, going back to basics with crunchy riffs and melodic leads during the solo sections. And Hagar can still do those blood-curdling screams at the age of 61! amazing. The album contains many highlights including “Down the Drain”, “Sexy Little Thing”, “Soap on a Rope” and the power ballad “Learning to Fall”. The refreshing thing is hearing a band playing together live in the studio with minimal overdubs and NO click-track. It’s a bit jarring to hear the tempo naturally ebb and flow in this day & age of tempo mapping and quantizing in pro-tools. but for a rock record, there’s no better way to capture a band in action. Oh and I gotta give kudos to producer Andy Johns and engineer Mike Fraser. The recording sounds fantastic with crisp definition of each instrument and great punch down on the low end. Unfortunately, I have to take points off for some lousy lyrics but with music this good, I’ll overlook it for the most part.

RetroGrade: B+
Chickenfoot
Released: June 2009
Label: Fontana
Produced by Andy Johns
Mixed by Mike Fraser
—
TrackList:
1 Avenida Revolucion 5:56
2 Soap on a Rope 5:32
3 Sexy Little Thing 4:14
4 Oh Yeah 4:54
5 Runnin’ Out 3:52
6 Get It Up 4:41
7 Down the Drain 6:17
8 My Kinda Girl 4:34
9 Learning to Fall 5:13
10 Turnin’ Left 5:48
11 Future in the Past 6:38
—

ChickenFoot:
Sammy Hagar – vocals
Joe Satriani – guitar
Michael Anthony – bass
Chad Smith – drums
Official Website: ChickenFoot.us

(more…)