Van Halen - Fair Warning (2 LP)
- LP
- 2 piece(s)
- 1981
- 9 tracks
- 31 min
- glam metal
Fair WarningCheapest atlunchboxrecords.com
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4.6
Average of 41 reviews
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Got mine with hs - 1 - 3540 tn - 1 #3 on side one and hs - 2 - 3540 tn - 2 #5 on the dead wax! Anyone knows where this might of been pressed?
The audio quality on this one is absolutely amazing. It's tagged as a club edition, but I actually picked it up at Ames department stores. It appears they used the same stampers as the WB release, but it was distributed on its own.
I've got the same one, except it's got a C and D at the end. I reckon mine should fit here too:Matrix / Runout (Side A): HS 1-3540-1DMatrix / Runout (Side B): HS 2-3540-1D
Much like The Who's By Numbers, one might assume the title Fair Warning was Van Halen's candid confession to fans that the album was created with minimal effort, rushed. But that couldn't be further from reality. Although the 1981 LP -- VH's fourth (of six) with the original Van Halen lineup (David Lee Roth, Eddie and Alex Van Halen, and Michael Anthony) -- might be seen as the band's least impressive from their incredible '78-'84 streak, that's only because Van Halen, Van Halen II, and Women and Children First were such powerful and accomplished records. "Weak" is a relative term in the unique hard-rock sphere Van Halen occupied at this point in their career. Not a half-hearted effort at all, Fair Warning finds the band focused and tight, delivering exceptional rhythms, sharp riffs and pyrotechnic guitar solos ("Mean Street," "So This Is Love?"), hard and in-your-face bastardized blues ("One Foot Out The Door"), classic Van Halen choruses ("Hear About It Later"), and the band's most enduring FM-radio hit with a memorable "Diamond Dave" Lee Roth sexualized, comedic interlude ("Unchained"). Maybe two million copies sold (Platinum), a #5 Billboard 200 peak, and four songs in the Top 40 was standard for Van Halen at this point, as easy as connecting the dots; but you don't achieve results like that without clever hooks and stellar craftsmanship. Yet the question remains: why Fair Warning? Simply put, Van Halen were warning listeners that the gloves were off: the songs contained hard, up-tempo rhythms, slashing and wild guitar solos, and -- most noteworthy -- angry, edgy, explicitly greasy-sexy, smutty-humorous, misogynistic lyrics sung with serious emotion. No strangers to innuendo-laden, party-time casual-sex-with-a-smile songs on previous albums ("Feel Your Love Tonight," Bottom's Up!," "Beautiful Girls," "Everybody Wants Some!!"), on Fair Warning Van Halen took their testosterone-driven songs to a new level, perhaps a new low. And it works. In spades. Just like the seedy, pornographic underbelly of VH's hometown Los Angeles, Fair Warning bared the band's collective id to the fans. "This is home/The only one I know" David Lee Roth sings defiantly on "Mean Street," Fair Warning's opening track. Van Halen's L.A. is where glamorous beauty and refined sexuality are a thin veneer over the carnal truth. "Dirty Movies" may begin with a dreamy intro by Eddie Van Halen, but it quickly devolves into a heavy-bottomed, chugging tale where "Daddy's Little Sweetie after some damn Rainbow/Got the Big Deal in the back of a Limo" and winds up the object of whistling sleazeballs shouting "Take it all Off!" Dirty Diamond Dave Lee Roth and Co. get even more lascivious on "Sinner's Swing," Roth sneering "She looks so f$$ing good, so sexy and so frail,/something got the bite on me, I'm going straight to hell" as the rest of the band almost pleasantly calls out "Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Give me that Bush!" It's enough to make the "Bitch" and "Starf$$ker" era Rolling Stones blush, or green with envy. But, quoting Mick Jagger, "the one thing you can't fix is a track that doesn't f$$king move." Van Halen prove keenly aware of this on Fair Warning, rocking hard --perhaps harder than any Van Halen record before or since-- slashing and burning through nine solid tracks with enough muscle to shoulder the often equally fierce lyrics. A record any Hard Rock fan should have in his/her collection.
You won't find a better sounding record than this one. Chris Bellman has outdone himself again. It's hands down my top pick for a Van Halen album, and it's a steal at any price. I'd strongly suggest grabbing a copy, you won't find a better deal out there.
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