Van Halen: Van Halen II - 1979

Like Boston's follow-up to their hard-rockin' debut, this one does exactly the same and is virtually identical in its sound and feel, with maybe just a bit more subtlety and dexterity in places. 

Starting slowly on the comparatively pedestrian cover of the mid-sixties soul number You're No Good, we are still given plenty more of the same fare as before. Check out that glorious riff on the infectious, singalong Dance The Night Away, which was the band's most accessible, poppy number thus far, one that found girls liking it as much as sweaty male rockers. Somebody Get Me A Doctor is heavier, but no less catchy.

The drum bit in the middle of Bottoms Up! reminds of the bit in the middle of Golden Earring's Radar Love from 1974. Outta Love Again has a slight funkiness to its driving riff. 

Hey - guess what? Some Spanish guitar appears on the short interlude Spanish Fly! Who do they think they are - Yes? Don't worry, rockers, the chunky, evocative D.O.A. sounds like it could have come off Thin Lizzy's Jailbreak. Women In Love boasts an intricate, acoustic intro before bursting out into some mid-pace, backing vocal-dominated rock. Beautiful Girls is a song that seems to register in my head. Does it sound like something else? Or is it Van Halen's song that has been in my head for all these years I suspect the latter. Anyway, it's a good one, full of quirky, cheeky, ZZ Top-like appeal.

Apparently, while on tour at the time, the band trashed a whole floor of The Sheraton in Madison, Wisconsin, throwing televisions out of the windows. Rockers, eh? Why couldn't they behave themselves like those nice punks?

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