VAN HALEN — Van Halen II (review)

Album · 1979 · Hard Rock

3.5/5 · 2020-10-06
siLLy puPPy

VAN HALEN scored immensely with its debut which hit the ground running in 1978 and electrified the hard rock world with David Lee Roth’s charismatic showmanship and Eddie Van Halen’s virtuosic guitar antics which reverberate into the modern era. While drummer Alex Van Halen and bassist Michael Anthony may have been left out of the glittery flamboyance club, their strong rhythmic chops also helped propel VAN HALEN into superstardom virtually overnight. The band immediately went on a grueling tour and partied on like the end of the world was nigh but suddenly the realization came that the record company was expecting a followup and they wanted it sooner rather than later.

The result was the unremarkably titled VAN HALEN II which emerged less than a year after the debut as if the world would forget about this wildly energetic band if they had not pumped it out so quickly! While following in the footsteps of the multi-platinum debut, VAN HALEN II came across as the reject tracks from the earlier recording sessions. Having funneled their energy into touring and attracting a much larger international audience, the four VAN HALEN members seemed to have forsaken the songwriting process and crafted more direct simpler descendants of the sizzling powerhouses that graced the debut. Likewise the band was rushed to record and completed the album in less than a week and despite the massive success of the previous 12 months received even less money for production values. The result of all this was a far inferior second coming only saved by the energetic deliveries that showed the boyz in full action even when things were not ideal.

In many ways, VAN HALEN II is simply retreading what was successful on the first album. In the vein of the massively popular “You Really Got Me” came the Linda Ronstadt cover “You’re No Good” although song was actually written by Clint Ballard Jr first performed by Dee Dee Warwick in 1963. Likewise an instrumental wankfest guitar solo by Eddie appeared on “Spanish Fly” although this time he opted for a short acoustic Spanish guitar piece which was too little too late as the seventh track for full exploitation of Eddie’s pyrotechnic guitar wizardry which electrified a heavy metal planet in full gestation. The main gist of VAN HALEN II seems to have been to go for the pop rock jugular with catchy feel good sing-along songs with strong guitar hooks and a bit of heavy metal sizzle but overall no tracks really could capture the magic that made the debut so brilliant.

The album spawned two singles, “Dance The Night Away” and “Beautiful Girls” and along with the majority of tracks opted for a more chilled southern California beach party vibe over the wider spectrum of musical prowess present on the debut. While no tracks on VAN HALEN II are horrible and most are actually quite pleasant, the album clearly faltered in encompassing an album listening experience and instead sounds like a collection of leftovers that were gussied up a bit here and there for the sake of exploiting the band’s instant popularity for commercial purposes only, a common but sad trait of the world of record companies of another time. Despite the tamped down dynamics which offered a more even keel hard rock approach, VAN HALEN II rocketed up to #6 on the Billboard album charts even if the album came across as an addendum of the debut. The track “Dance The Night Away” even peaked at #15 on the Billboard singles charts.

While hardly VAN HALEN’s best effort, VAN HALEN II is nevertheless a fun little slice of late 70s hard rock that doesn’t take itself too seriously and after all it’s totally understandable that an exhausted and partied out group of characters were unable to perform given the immense pressure to due so. Yes, VAN HALEN experienced a sophomore slump but they would get back on track in time for the following year’s third release “Women And Children First” which would prove once and for all that VAN HALEN were no one trick pony and had the mojo to stick around for the long haul. True that VAN HALEN II is never my top pick if i get that itch to hear what made the band so unique but despite it’s rather ho hum track selection, it’s no throwaway either and could a VAN HALEN fan really exclude this one from their collection? I don’t think so!

more than 2 years ago
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siLLy puPPy wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I haven't listened to Van Halen in a while as i love more experimental music but when i listen to all these albums today they are actually really good and i'm hearing things i never heard before. This album is not as good as the others up to 5150 but still has enough on it to have a copy.

voila_la_scorie wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Their first four albums are the ones I think of when I think of Van Halen. I have three off them and not this one. I'm still debating whether I really need to get it again. Sometimes it's just to hear that one song or two one more time and then the disc gets left in a box.