Customer Reviews

DLR Band

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

That's right folks Diamond David Lee Roth is back and he put out one of the best albums of his post Van Halen career. This album is equal parts Van Halen and David Lee Roth solo, and 100% fun. He proves to us once again that he is the best frontman of all time by putting out the most rockin album of 1998. I know I'm a little late with the review but hey better late than never. The Songs: Slam Dunk - The first single, very catchy Dave's voice is great, excellent guitar work courtesy of John Lowery. 10/10

Blacklight - Another rocker, with a great chorus and a a harmonica solo by the man himself. 8/10

Counter - Blast - One of the best songs on the album, Dave's voice is very powerful and the guitar part is very good. 10/10

Lose the Dress (Keep the Shoes) - This is a decent song, great title but not as good as I thought it would be. 4/10

Little Texas - Another decent song but there's something about it and I just can't get into it. 4/10

King of the Hill - Great rocker, Dave's voice is awesome, it just works. 9/10

Going Places - Great acoustic based song featuring Terry Kilgore on guitar. 7/10

Wa Wa Zat! - Awesome, nothing more to say. 10/10

Relentless - Great guitar song, very solid rhythm part, vintage sounding Dave vocals. 9/10

Indeedio - Straight forward rocker, featuring the late Mike Hartman on guitar. Great song 8/10

Right Tool for the Job - Not bad but definately one of the weaker songs on the album. 5/10

Tight - Another awesome rocker, everything about it is great. 9/10 Weekend with the Babysitter - This another song that I expected to be better than it was, not really bad though. 6/10

Black Sand - Masterpiece, this is a very melodic acoustic based song, this is really a masterpiece. Great guitar playing, great vocals. 10/10

There you have it folks, my take on the DLR Band album, definately something worth checking out.

Too bad this album was one of Dave's worst selling. It's one of his best. It's a great rock album... no pop here! He has left behind the days of Just Like Paradise and California Girls (Don't get me wrong, I LOVE those. I'm a huge fan of everything Dave) and returned to the Van Halen type mindset. The guitar work here is my favorite of any Dave solo work, and overall, it feels more like a band effort than solo Dave... maybe that's why this is the "DLR Band." I'm not going to say it's exactly Van Halen... but it is the closest sound to Van Halen that you can get without having Eddie, Alex, and Mikey on the album as well. A number of the tracks sound like they easily could have been written during the Women and Children First/Fair Warning days, thogh some of the songs sem a little heavier or darker, but those aren't quite the right words for it (the reason for what I'm trying to say is that the guitarists aren't Eddie, though a reasonable facsimile thereof).

This album was recorded during Dave's weakest years vocally. His voice still sounds great here (very interesting hearing him go very deep in some places, similar to "Me Wise Magic," one of the two newer songs recorded for the 1996 Van Halen Best of Volume 1 album, though you can tell sometimes he's really pushing himself, whereas in the old days he seemed to do it with style and ease (Note: These days, 2007, Dave is once again a member of Van Halen and his voice sounds EXACTLY like it did on the Classic Van Halen albums, screams and all). I can only imagine what this album would sound like if Van Halen took the material and re-recorded it. I also want to say that the drummer on this album, Ray Luzier sounds pretty close to Alex Van Halen.

I like to think of this as the 7th Van Halen album we never got (or at least haven't gotten yet... fingers crossed on the current incarnation of the band). It will be an album I will always go back to, just like the six Classic Van Halen albums before it. This is truly a Slam Dunk for Dave (pun fully intended)!

when you've got this album.

Best Van Halen album since FAIR WARNING!

I love Vai too, but this is better than anything Dave did with him.

In the vein of old "Van Halen".Kick A-s all the way! Id take this dlr band record over "Eat Em' And Smile" and "Skyscraper" any day of the week.Less keyboards and synths,more guitar driven,raw and punchy.Many critics ripped this when it came out,but they were a bunch of know nothing idiots! This sucker cranks and Dave did one hell of a job on it.Vai acts as though he's too good to associate with Roth nowadays...screw him! Also,i believe this disc surpasses anything post-5150 from VH.By the way the Bettie Page/American Flag cover art is absolutely beautiful ! Salute.----------------

I remember back in 1998 seeing this DLR Band CD in the racks at various places and not really giving it much thought.

I'm a huge Van Halen fan from back in the day, but in the 90's I had temporarily stopped listening to metal/hard rock of any sort and was in a huge progressive rock/jazz phase.

Over the last few years though, I've really gotten back into metal/hard rock again and have gone back to re-visit CD's that I missed during the interim.

One of those has been the DLR Band CD.

I had been familiar with Dave's solo stuff from 85 to 88 but had kind of lost touch with what he had been doing since then.

After listening to this new CD, I'm wishing that I hadn't missed some of his 90's solo output after all as this CD is really rock solid.

Do I think that Dave was trying to win any new fans? Not really. After the whole Van Halen pseudo-reunion debacle in 1996/1997, he decided to give his hardcore fans music that answers kind of a "what-if" it had worked out with Van Halen pass the 2 new Dave tracks that wound up on their 1997 Best of CD.

This CD rocks from start to finish and while Dave's voice might not be quite as strong as it was during his hey day with VH, he can still wail. There's none of his more vegas type huck/jive stuff on this CD as well. He apparently was greatly re-engergized by the whole VH sort of reunion crud and poured that anger/frustration into his music like any good artist should do. His backing band on this CD is amazing as well.

The weakest part of the CD is some of the lyrics are a bit atrocious at times, and while Dave has never been known for deep or insightful lyrics, some of them on this release get downright embarassing.

There's also a little bit of filler going on as well that keeps my rating down a star as well.

But overall, I was impressed with this CD. It's easily the best thing that Dave has done since 1986's Eat 'em & Smile.

Well worth picking up!

Brilliant, BRILLIANT album. 20 years in the game and DLR was still able to knock out a KILLER set of tunes. And 'knocked out' is the way to describe it - fast and furious, every tune demo'd and practised prior to getting it just right in the studio for all of maybe one or two takes? - just like classic VH.

I was inspired to write this review after reading all the negative reviews. I have owned this CD since it first came out. The lyrics are classic Dave and the playing is brilliant. If you are into hotshot infectious guitar playing than this is the CD for you. I truly enjoy every song on this CD. I have been listening to this style of music since about 1980. This CD is great from beginning to end. I can't imagine how anyone can rate this negatively, let alone insult the guitar playing.

So here it is 2012 and I was totally unaware of this release. Recently brought to my attention from watching That Metal Show and having John 5 as their guest guitarist. I never pay attention to the better ratings, but always check out the negative ratings. Paying $4.99 for the digital download, I said what the heck.
I dont understand all the negative reviews. While this is not one of my favorite DLR releases it is still good. Lyrically, I dont know. Never really pay attention to what anyone is saying. Lets face it, I think DLR is a little twisted to begin with. As for talking about online dating in the one song, maybe unimportant back when this was released, but pretty relevant now. So DLR was ahead of the game.
I was not a big fan of Skyscraper and DLR kind of lost me at that point, but did recover with A Little Aint Enough. I was unaware of anything he released passed that. I am overall glad i stumbled onto this. I would probably give it 3 1/2 stars if I could, only because some of the songs just dont literally suck you in like some of the past. Great musicianship none the less and refreshing to listen to. John 5 is a monster and to be honest, I will be surprised if VH newest release that is on the horizon for 2012 will be able to compete with this guys guitar skills. Although, I hope it will be good unlike VH3. If anybody is even looking at this at this time, for the price I would say go for it and I will be interested to see what you think.

"I can't believe this is a David Lee Roth recording!"

This is what most persons listening to this will say, and say in the positive

This is not the typical good time party rock and roll of DRL, instead a number styles found on a typical Led Zepp or Thin Lizzy recording.

If this was done by another singer or band, it would have been considered one of the best recordings of the year.

After all the crap Dave has put out, he finally delivers with this one! With the help of John 5 on guitar, this is a great cd. Suprisingly, there are a variety of different sounds, but still cool rock n roll. I had never heard of John 5 before, but have since bought alot of his stuff. He's a very well schooled, well rounded player who brings a multitude of styles to the table. I was really impressed with this one. It's worth a listen for sure.