 |
Diamond Dave
Considering the oeuvre, to call this the best pop album of David Lee Roth's star-crossed solo career might risk damning it with faint praise. In its best moments it picks up where his fluke-hit 1985 solo EP, Crazy From the Heat, left off, undercutting his obnoxious Van Halen strut with self-deprecating humor while framing him as R&B-savvy popmeister/entertainer. But that was then; this is now, and even if Roth's cover-heavy shtick here (Steve Miller's "Shoo Bop," the Doors' "Soul Kitchen," "If 6 Was 9" by Hendrix, "Made Up My Mind" Savoy Brown, the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows") contains a couple surprising gems (Rodger Collins' "She's Looking Good" and the Hombres' "Let It All Hang Out") and a savvy, lugubrious contemporary production sense, it all seems--like the enigmatic frontman himself--marooned outside boundaries of time and space. If it's an album that scrupulously avoids the blatant VH-invoking hard rock of his previous DLR Band in favor of the hook-and-groove concerns of "Stay While the Night is Young" and "You Got the Blues, Not Me," and snarling sass of "Thug Pop," the lounge-ready redux of his previous band's "Ice Cream Man" can't help but recall the Vegas crash-and-burn phase of Roth's career--and his frustrating inability to capitalize on even the trends he admittedly inspired. --Jerry McCulley
Buy
Tracks| 1 | You Got the Blues, Not Me... | | 2 | Made Up My Mind | | 3 | Stay While the Night Is Still Young | | 4 | Shoo Bop | | 5 | She's Looking Good | | 6 | Soul Kitchen | | 7 | If 6 Was 9 | | 8 | Tomorrow Never Knows | | 9 | Medicine Man | | 10 | Let It All Hang Out | | 11 | Thug Pop | | 12 | Act One | | 13 | Ice Cream Man [*] | | 14 | Bad Habits [*] |
Copyright © 2009 NetVision. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Statement
|
