Customer Reviews

Ten 13

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

i wish i could give this one 6 or 7 stars, cause i gave Red Voodoo five as well. not to take anything away from that album, it's great, but this one blows everything sammy's ever done out of the water. from the opening hard-hitting night after Mas Tequila anthem "Shaka Doobie" to the closing love song "Tropic of Capricorn," Sammy's guitars rock louder and his lyrics dig deeper than anything he's ever written before.

the word on the album is that it rocks harder than anything sammy's done in a long time, and this is true, but to me the best part of the album are the ballads. while i enjoyed the ballads on Red Voodoo and Marching to Mars, many of them felt forced and unnatural. this time the ballads flow just as easily as the hard stuff, and my favorite track on the album, "little bit more" is a ballad. i'd never thought i'd say that about a Sammy Hagar album.

Now those of you worrying that Sammy's doing ballads, and he must be selling out, that's not true at all. while the album does have two or three great ballads, the rest of the album absolutley ROCKS. "Shaka Doobie (The Limit)" is a balls-to-the-wall rocker, one of those songs that you're disappointed to hear the end, and "Let Sally Drive" returns sammy to the place that made him famous: on the road, driving fast. There's a fine line between loud and noisy and sammy knows this. On Ten 13, he proves that you can rock the house down, and still have melody, sing in key, and keep the profanities on an only-when-necessary basis. the bands of Mtv could learn alot from him.

Up until i heard this album i was hoping for a sammy-van halen reunion. not any more. Sammy, screw van halen, the worst song from sammy's last three solo albums beats the best song off of Van Halen III. heck i'd dare to say that this album beats most of the stuff Sammy did with Van Halen. So my advice to you is to order this album, put it in your cd-player, turn up the volume, break off the knob, and be prepared to have your world rocked...

When I first heard this album, I thought it was right on target with what Sammy can write. I think with the edition of the guitarist, he has added a rough edge as well as a modern sound. I also like that Sammy has incorporated the backing vocals "ala Van Halen" in song like "Tropic of Capricorn" and "Serious JuJu". It just shows that Sammy is a great song writer. "Tropic of Capricorn" is a "happy song". "Shaka Doobie (The Limit)" is a great rock song as well as "Serious JuJu". Really all the songs are great, but I have my favorites. "The Message" has the same vibe of "Right Now" from Van Halen.

I am the owner and main force behind a prominent Heavy Metal website. The other workers on the website and I had a brief debate in recent weeks about what former Van Halen singer had the better solo material. While none of us can deny the grandeur of DLR, Diamond Dave's best work cannot compare to Sammy Hagar's solo material. If you need proof, buy this album.

Shaka Doobie, the first track on the album, is a song that will set the tone for the album, the very meaning in my opinion of an opening song. From there, Let Sally Drive is a very heavy and strong melodic song that got quite a bit of air play for true rock in this, the day of ... music being promoted as works of art.

Serious Juju, the third track, is an experimental song if you ask me. Juju takes a lot of elements of Rob Zombie, only the good ones, mixed in with Sammy's brand of hard rock and heavy metal. Very interesting indeed.

From there, the Message is a strong sound that sees quite possibly the best vocal performance that Sammy's given since his Van Halen days. Deeper Kinda Love is also a solid rock song. Little Bit More is the first and perhaps only song on the album that just bothers me. It's a solid and strong song, but I am not a fan of any song about negativity. Especially if it has to do with losing a girlfriend as I've done that once or twice in my life and I'm hoping that I never go through that again. I don't need to be reminded about how it feels but maybe I put too much thought into that.

Ten 13 is a very good song as is Protection. The Real Deal rocks, though is very blues based. I love any song that expresses pride about who and what you are. From there, Tropic Of Capricorn closes out the album. Why isn't this song on the radio everywhere? That I don't get. It has enough pop to be played and enough rock to not make real rock fans like myself feel he sold out (unlike Aerosmith.)

You often hear someone describe an ugly human being by saying "don't judge a book by it's cover." While the cover of this album may not be great art work in my view, the music is. It's a good buy, by all means pick a copy up and give it a [try]. It's worth the price tag.

I can always find a couple songs on each of Sammy's albums that I listen to over and over. For me, the songs Deeper Kinda Love and A Little Bit More are the two standout tracks from this album.

The next best song is Ten 13. Slade fans out there will recognize this song as virtually identical to the Slade song Ready To Explode (Part II The Grid) from their 1984 album KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY POWER SUPPLY.

As for the rest of the album, it's good, if for nothing else than because of Sammy's always-present enthusiasm and delivery, but the songs just seem to lack the killer hooks.

Overall a good rocking album, but not as consistent as his other albums in the 1997-2002 period.

This CD is criminally underrated!!

It starts off really rockin' with "Shaka Doobie" and "Let Sally Drive". "Deeper Kind of Love" and "A Little Bit More" are great softer songs.

"Tropic of Capricorn" is my favorite song on this CD though. "Tropic of Capricorn" is similar to "Cabo Wabo" or "Take Me Back (DejaVu)" from the Van Halen era.

For less than $10, this CD is a STEAL! If you like Sammy's old stuff or Van Halen, this Ten-13 will not dissapoint.

This is Sammy's third solo album since leaving Van Halen (already!) and this is clearly his best one yet. In fact it just may be his best effort ever. No joke. Sammy really does get better with age. "Shaka Doobie (The Limit)" and "Serious Juju", while both are strange titles, are rocking Sammy songs with an updated sound. "Let Sally Drive" is more of a traditional Sammy rocker--very infectuous. Songs like "The Message" and "Deeper Kind Of Love", while at more of an anthem/ballad pace, are equally as catchy. "Tropic of Capricorn" is a great happy little diddy to end the album. But the most amazing track of all is the ROCKING "3 In The Middle". Trust me--Sammy has rarely if ever done a heavier song. This just shreads!! The entire album is worth a listen. Sammy truly has never sounded better or rocked more!

For all the fans that enjoyed the last two albums, but were longing for the classic sound of Sammy...HE IS BACK! I have wanted to hear some new "Hagar Rock" for a few years and was hopeful that he would release something like this after listening to High and Dry off the last CD. With his new work Sammy has proven you are never to old to rock. With 10-13 he has recaputered the feel he brought to Van Halen. Proving that Sammy was Van Halen. Not to take anything away from the boys, but give 10-13 a listen and you'll see what I mean. Here's to you Sammy...Can't wait to hear you Rock Utah!

If anyone thought that hitting the ripe old age of 53 meant that Sammy couldn't crank it out anymore, they were wrong! Sammy's back with his hardest rocking album since his pre-VH days, and it sounds great. Let Sally Ride, Shaka Doobie, and 3 in the Middle are particularly uptempo, with great guitar work. He and the Waboritas do a nice job of mixing in some midtempo and slower numbers, with Deeper Kind of Love and Little Bit More proving two of the strongest songs on the album. The title track, though, is not quite as good, but hey--we'll let Sammy indulge himself. He's earned it. Personally, my favorite track is Tropic of Capricorn, a Jimmy Buffet-type song that showcases Sam's still incredibly powerful voice. I don't think it's sounded this good since the VH days, at least on this song. It captures everything Sammy embodies very nicely, and is a spectacular song to end on (outdone only slightly by Returning of the Wish on Red Voodoo). In all, a great hard rock album that may not win over any younger fans, but will sure as heck please anyone out there who loves great singing, great music, and a great guy!

When David Lee Roth left Van Halen in 1985, Sammy Hagar seemed like a logical replacement because of his past engagements as lead singer of Montrose, and a moderately successful solo career. But while the Roth vs. Hagar debate may never be resolved, this reviewer personally thinks Van Halen descended into an AOR rut when Hagar joined. They occasionally created some rocking tunes, but it was the power ballads that became the hits, and because of that Van Halen lost touch with their past as credible rockers, something they're still trying to recapture even after they gave Hagar his walking papers in 1996. Meanwhile, Hagar re-started his solo career after leaving Van Halen, and surprisingly sounded rejuvenated on MARCHING TO MARS (1997) and RED VOODOO (1999). Both those albums recaptured the rock & roll soul that hadn't been around almost since his days with Montrose, and Hagar's latest TEN 13 shows that even as he's entered his half-century of life, he's still got a lot of rocking to do. Named after his birthday, TEN 13 is the album that Van Halen should have recorded in the wake of Hagar's departure, not the overblown VAN HALEN III. While those album's songs seemed to drag on without getting anywhere, TEN 13 contains tunes that know where to begin and end. Songs like "Shaka Doobie", "The Real Deal" and "Little Bit More" clock in at just over 3 minutes, and even though these are pretty much lesser songs on here, we're not indundated with solo after solo, thank God. But the songs that showcase a Hagar acting half his age are the most memorable ones. The AC/DC-sounding "Let Sally Drive", the everyday's-a-holiday title track (love the sound of a newborn baby at the beginning), and the epic closer "Tropic Of Capricorn". The timing on the latter is a bit off. The real song ends at 4:31, but after a few seconds of silence, we have an acoustic guitar outro that brings this rocker of an album to an alternately appropriate and idiosyncratic end. For those who fell in love with Van Halen after Hagar joined, TEN 13 has its share of love songs, but they don't fall into sappy mush like they did with Van Halen. "Deeper Kinda Love" and "The Message" have a muscular sound to them while still sounding sincere. Had AC/DC bit the bullet and recorded a power ballad, this is how they'd sound most likely. While Van Halen searches for yet another lead singer, Sammy Hagar is probably the most successful alumnus from that revolving door of a group. Then again, he had already had a career while Van Halen was still in the bars. But whereas David Lee Roth has pretty much been without a career since his departure from VH, Hagar took the good riddance gesture as a chance to revitalize himself. And his recent albums have proven Sammy's only just begun to let loose, and if he still creates works on the level of TEN 13, he's almost guaranteed to outlast his former employers.

If you like Sammy's past works, you'll love his latest CD. I saw him in concert this past August, and man was it a blast.

This CD will go down as one of Sammy's all-time classics. Am not really sure what more I can say about it, except that if you like Sammy, you'll love this CD. Be sure to get a copy of his new concert DVD as well. It's now my favorite concert DVD. A great bargain.