Released: 1978
Tracks: Runnin’ With the Devil; Eruption; You Really Got Me; Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love; I’m the One; Jamie’s Cryin’; Atomic Punk; Feel Your Love Tonight; Little Dreamer; Ice Cream Man; On Fire
Best track: Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love, I’m the One or Ice Cream Man. Or On Fire…or Running With the Devil…
Track to skip: Little Dreamer is decent, but it’s clearly the weakest of the bunch
Running With the Devil is an astounding way to start off a band’s recorded existence. Eddie Van Halen’s tone is simply kick ass and the song makes a great a statement to the world about this band. I really just had my ass kicked by this album. Growing up in the 80’s, this album was inescapable if you were alive and now, in 2008, this 30-year-old album is pretty much one of the Holy Books of Rock. One of my goals in these reviews is to reassess these so-called “classic” albums and try to listen to them without the hype and just see how they measure up. Why is it that tonight was the first time I’ve ever truly appreciated the absolute
power of this album? I listened to it a lot growing up and I certainly
liked it, but I never truly thought it was as great as it is for me right now. I didn’t get to experience it as a NEW album, it was just one of the many VH albums that existed when I first started hearing the band around ’84 (8 year old for me) and there were already hundreds of copy cat bands out there that probably diluted the band for me. I have noticed that the more I’ve listened to it in recent years I’ve developed a bigger appreciation for it. And tonight? It destroyed me.
There are a lot of great things about this album – the guitar playing, the attitude that permeates throughout, the high-flying vocals, the monstrous riffs, the eclecticism, the bare-bones production. OK, I love how raw the production is, how REAL it sounds, and how every band after this (including VH) tried to get an album to sound this good…and they never succeeded. I’m not saying this is the best-sounding album ever. It’s not. It is, however, distinctive and raw and it comes at you like punch in the face. This is a great headphone album, just to get the full appreciation of it.
Awright, I want to talk about the songs. I noted the eclecticism of this album. It’s certainly a heavy metal album and I love how they cover The Kinks’ You Really Got Me, a song that was perhaps the first heavy metal song. The metal is here (Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love, Atomic Punk, Runnin’ With the Devil), but you also get the bebop-on-steroids I’m the One, I Cream Man’s redefining of the “blues”, the groove of Jamie’s Cryin’ and the Beach Boys-influenced harmonies on Feel Your Love Tonight. They simultaneously created boundaries and pushed the already existing boundaries for heavy metal. It’s pretty impressive, to be honest. Man, I mean, just listen to Eddie Van Halen’s guitar playing in I’m the One. Phenomenal. What else can I say? This is truly a ground-breaking album and one of the greatest rock debuts in history. I know that sounds incredibly lame to say, not to mention clichéd, but it’s true. Van Halen I rocks and there’s no other way to say it.
Rating: 95
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