Chickenfoot

Last week I picked up the debut album from the new band, Chickenfoot. Despite the awful name of the band, I knew this album had potential. It's a music "supergroup" made up of Sammy Hagar, who between Montrose, Van Halen and a lengthy and at times very underrated solo career, Joe Satriani, one of the guitar greats, former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith.
Sammy Hagar had a couple of real top notch solo albums in the early '80s in Standing Hampton and Three Lock Box. I just recently bought these albums and have been playing the heck out of them. Why they didn't become even bigger hits than they did is a mystery to me. With that great Keith Olson early '80s production they fit right in with the pop rock scene of the time with bands like Journey, Night Ranger, Foreigner, etc. In 1997 Sammy had an excellent comeback solo album with Marching To Mars, where he vented on some songs about the acrimonious split with Van Halen and that gave the material a certain edge rarely heard from him. Unfortunately he released an album in 1999 that was terrible and I wasn't too crazy about the material I heard from later albums and sort of lost track of Sammy.
Joe Satriani is the reason I got into playing guitar in the first place back in 1989. I bought both Not Of This Earth and Surfing With The Alien and was extremely impressed with how he made great songs out of guitar instrumentals. Later that year Flying In A Blue Dream came out and was a worthy followup to those earlier albums, despite a few vocal tracks that we didn't really need, to put it mildly. Joe's had a very solid solo career and has released many albums by now, none of them are bad and most are really good.
When I heard that these two were working on an album together I became very curious, especially to hear how Joe would sound in a band context. I have to say I've been playing this album all week at the exclusion of almost everything else. Sammy, particularly in his more recent career, has written some cringeworthy, corny lyrics. Try "Shag" or "Sympathy For The Human" from 1999's Red Voodoo for examples of what I mean. There are some lyrics on Chickenfoot that aren't very stellar. Now lyrical content does not have to be quite Bob Dylan or Van Morrison but I shouldn't be cringing at certain lines either. That said, the songs are so good they more than make up for what are at times awkward lyrics. The album is a heavy, perfect summer record, the type that used to come out quite often but that we rarely get anymore. The rhythm section is very tight and Joe Satriani, while he doesn't let loose with technique like he does on his solo albums, holds back just right within the band context and adds little musical elements to the songs that enhance the song without taking the risk of overwhelming it. He comes up with some killer riffs, especially on "Get It Up" and "Avenida Revolution". Sammy Hagar is 61 years and sounds great. His voice has held up tremendously and he really lets loose on some of the tracks. I don't know what the single off Chickenfoot is but "My Kinda Girl" would have made a very good choice if it is not the single. It would be a good summer single that would probably have had a chance on the charts back in 1989 or 1990.
Those who know me know that I am much more of an '80s guy than I am with the current pop/rock scene. I like great hooks and grooves and melodies and I don't hear as many of those in this day and age. That said, I can wholeheartedly recommend Chickenfoot as an excellent, fun record and probably next to Dylan's Together Through Life and the new Depeche Mode, the best album of the year so far.