Van Halen
Women And Children First

THE REVIEW

After the superlative debut and the less bombastic follow-up, Van Halen, also buoyed by the excellent responses they received from their thrilling live performances (which even saw them supporting Black Sabbath who were promoting "Never Say Die"), during the "World Vacation Tour", nothing but accolades could fall upon the four, even as they wandered between Canada, Europe, and Japan as the much-coveted headliners. Considering the importance of numerology, the third album (as a mirror of perfection) represents the ideal culmination of a path already embarked upon, which, for this work, although not reflecting a refined exemplar, nevertheless shows itself to be another step towards exemplariness. The album, recorded at Sunset Sound in less than three weeks under the vigilant eye of Ted Templeman, brilliantly recovers the stylistic vigor of the debut in a perfect cocktail where the desire to experiment and to surprise manage to whet the listener's appetite.

Confirming the craving for change is the introductory "And The Cradle Will Rock…" – also chosen as a single – exuberant and compelling, in which an electric piano makes an appearance, making a perfect pair with the primitive frontal assault of "Everybody Wants Some!!" that takes your breath away from start to finish. The high level of explosiveness rises with "Fools" (originally baptized as "I Live With Fools" and originating from the era when Mark Stone was around) and the intense "Loss Of Control", the video for which, though never made, was supposed to feature band members dressed as surgeons. The atmosphere becomes more intimate listening to the bluesy instrumental prelude of "Take Your Whiskey Home" like the magical air you breathe listening to "Could This Be Magic?", perfect for a summer sing-along around a beach bonfire. The Sabathian "Tora Tora" (originally "Act Like It Hurts"), in its brief minute duration, serves as the only instrumental track on the album, while in the intense "Romeo Delight", adrenaline-pumping moments interpenetrate with more subdued ones, leaving the conclusive and solid "In A Simple Rhyme" to present our Eddie in a delicate arpeggio with a twelve-string electric guitar, opening and closing the track... so to speak, of course, given that the final twenty seconds (almost a true hidden track), were meant to be a standalone track titled "Growth", but that's another story.

The album hits store shelves on March 26, 1980, showcasing that it concentrates, in that half-hour and a little more of music, an excellent quality level, where in addition to driving tracks alternating with others that are intelligently livelier, one can easily discern a greater inclination toward some fun acoustic diversions that, along with the desire for novelty, never appear out of context. An album where what shines is the role of the six-string gymnast of the younger of the Van Halen brothers, guilty of having rewritten the role of the electric guitar in rock music, almost ten years after the death of the one who had wildly changed its positioning and function: Jimi Hendrix! The unimaginable rhythmic and solo acrobatics of the super-fast Eddie blend ad hoc with the wide-ranging vocal prowess of David Lee Roth—who, besides undeniable charisma of a true stage animal—manages to highlight low modulations with penetrating high notes, merging with a personal rhythmic armor that the other Van Halen and Michael Anthony ideally weave together.

Reflecting the squaring of the circle is the artistic cover photo in simple black and white, featuring a gleeful Eddie Van Halen surrounded by his three euphoric companions, expressing the perfect harmony reigning within the band. A synergy more than ever capable of giving birth to an admirable work, whose spirit can be symbolized through the direct lyrics of Dave in "Romeo Delight" which leave very little to the imagination: "I’m takin’ whiskey to the party tonight And I'm lookin' for somebody to squeeze us"...... a fascinating hedonistic declaration to which one cannot help but react as a helpless victim, just as even more so the bewitched female audience will have to contend with the included poster depicting the impudent singer portrayed bare-chested, chained to a net, captured for the occasion in an artistic shot by Helmut Newton.