Ten 13

Sammy Hagar

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 24, 2000)
• Original Release Date: October 24, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Hip-O Records
• ASIN: B00004ZBDA
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #30,633 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
It's fitting that perennial party boy Sammy Hagar would title a CD after his own birth date, as every day of his life is seemingly a celebration for the stalwart rocker. The malleable Hagar moved on quickly following his successful stint in Van Halen. But while the frontman's trademark intense vocals and classic-rock core are present, many songs on Ten 13 feel updated. "Serious Juju" is a dark, slightly mechanized entry that would almost be at home on a Godsmack album. On the other hand, "The Message" is akin to some of Hagar's polished work with Van Halen. Ballads such as "Deeper Kinda Love" are decent, but it's on energetic rockers ("Shaka Doobie," "3 in the Middle") where Hagar shines. However, even where Ten 13 is more introspective, it's also energetic, muscular, and dynamic. --Katherine Turman

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars best from sammy (with or without van halen), October 25, 2000

By A Customer

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...

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Van Halen don't know what they're missing!, February 18, 2001

By	28-year old wallflower "Eric N Andrews" (West Lafayette, IN) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best album yet since Van Halen departure, October 24, 2000

By	"1sway" (Costa Mesa, CA United States) - See all my reviews

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.