Some fans have been up in arms about Van Halen reworking older demos and material for their new album A Different Kind Of Truth, while others couldn’t care less. Even we here at Metal Insider are still debating whether it really matters or not. And though the band has kept quiet about the accusations, we now have confirmation from Diamond Dave himself.
Recently, The Los Angeles Times interviewed David Lee Roth and producer John Shanks. In the piece, both commented on the album’s material, which they admit is made up of reworked or unreleased songs from the 70’s. “It’s material that Eddie and I generated, literally, in 1975, 1976 and 1977. Usually fellas in our weight division will kind of gamely — or ironically, wink, wink — try to hail back to it [but] keep a safe, mature distance from it,” commented Roth, who also said that they still tried to collaborate on the material rather than simply rerecord. Shanks added the following about the writing sessions and working with Eddie Van Halen on looking through the archives for “golden nuggets”:
“Some of it was recorded in Dave’s basement when these guys were kids, and, sitting there next to Eddie, it was pretty cool just to go through that journey. And then when the sessions started just seeing how Eddie and Alex play together — there’s such a synchronicity in their feel and rhythm and their playing. There were times, honestly, I was just moved by it, not just as a musician but as a human being. The nuances of the way they communicate is staggering.”
Thus, Roth and Shanks’ comments basically confirm what we knew all along. One of my biggest beefs with them using older material was that the band seemed to keep quiet about it, though admittedly they haven’t done that much press for the album anyway. So I’m a little more at ease that the band (well, at least Roth) is being open about reworking unreleased material.
While we’ll have to wait a little more than a week for A Different Kind Of Truth to hit stores, we can at least listen to more samples from the album. Van Halen have already released a handful of snippets of songs, and now even more have been posted. Actually, now samples from the entire album have been posted online (some on Van Halen’s YouTube account and others on VanHalenStore.com’s account). You can listen to samples (plus leaked full versions of two songs) of each track from A Different Kind Of Truth (at least until they’re taken down) in the order they appear on the album after the jump.
“Tattoo” (the music video you’ve likely already seen)
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/34261064[/vimeo]
“She’s The Woman”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8oeCIPFGHw[/youtube]
“You And Your Blues”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu7CXhBBywE[/youtube]
“China Town” (previously posted)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FZCwTsoQMs[/youtube]
“Blood And Fire” (full leaked version)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt0QEHenIxY[/youtube]
“Bullethead”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOZzoBS1eEw[/youtube]
“As Is”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQX_kCpk5fI[/youtube]
“Honeybabysweetiedoll”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68Gz88ziwTw[/youtube]
“The Trouble With Never” (full leaked version)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7BT-aFUPEU[/youtube]
“Outta Space”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6ZyoKbPOMw[/youtube]
“Stay Frosty” (previously posted and heard on CSI)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyuXCfKzfko[/youtube]
“Big River”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aFu5oZtGLI[/youtube]
“Beats Workin”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIq9CYP2JEQ[/youtube]
