Women and Children First

iTunes Review

As the southern California hard rock group lit up arenas and festivals with Eddie Van Halen’s guitar pyrotechnics and singer David Lee Roth’s outrageous posturing, the group’s albums grew increasingly experimental. VH still delivered the oversized riff (“Everybody Wants Some!”) and the immediately accessible single (“And the Cradle Will Rock…”) on their third studio album, but their take on the blues (“Fools,” “Take Your Whiskey Home,” “Could This Be Magic?”) and hard rock (“Romeo Delight,” “Loss of Control”) wasn’t a generic look at the standard touchstones, but a reinvention from the inside out. Eddie Van Halen’s lightning quick fretboard runs and ‘tapping’ solos made his reputation as a wunderkind, but far more subtle and powerful is how he arranges his parts around the much underrated rhythm section of bassist Michael Anthony and Eddie’s brother, drummer Alex. The grooves stomp like hard rock and then ease up like an R&B dance band. Throw in the irreverent ravings of their lead singer, who often sounds as if he’s loitering around a bus stop harassing innocent people, and you’ve got a surreal party mix of a band that can’t help but intrigue.