Balance | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | January 24, 1995 | |||
Recorded | May 25 – September 2, 1994 | |||
Studio | 5150 Studios (Studio City) Little Mountain (Vancouver) | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 53:18 | |||
Label | Warner Bros. | |||
Producer | Bruce Fairbairn | |||
Van Halen chronology | ||||
| ||||
Sammy Hagar chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from Balance | ||||
|
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [3] |
Entertainment Weekly | C+ [4] |
Rolling Stone | [5] |
Balance is the tenth studio album by American rock band Van Halen,released on January 24,1995,by Warner Bros. Records. The album is the last of the band's four studio releases to feature Sammy Hagar as the lead singer. It is also the final Van Halen album to feature bassist Michael Anthony in its entirety. Balance reached number 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 in February 1995 [6] and reached triple platinum status on May 12,2004,by selling more than three million copies in the US. [7] "The Seventh Seal" was nominated for a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. [8]
The album was remastered by Donn Landee and released on October 6,2023 as part of The Collection II;the four studio albums with Hagar,plus an extra disc of eight rarities from this era. [9]
According to Ian Christe's book,Everybody Wants Some:The Van Halen Saga,Balance was released amid internal fighting between Hagar and the Van Halen brothers. The band worked eight-hour days for three months recording the album. The first song on the record,"The Seventh Seal",features mystical overtones that came,in part,from Eddie's newfound sobriety. His therapist,Sat-Kaur Khalsa,urged him to relax and imagine where he was after drinking a six-pack of beer. After smoking cigarettes,drinking beer,and playing guitar for 20 years,he tried writing songs sober and wrote three songs in one half hour period. The album then moves into Hagar's territory with "Can’t Stop Lovin’You". This song was taken from his ex-wife's point of view,believing that she was still in love with him. The album reached number 1;their fourth consecutive number one studio album. [10]
Most of the Balance album was recorded at Eddie Van Halen's 5150 Studios,located in Studio City,except for five lead vocal tracks that were recorded in Vancouver,where the album's producer Bruce Fairbairn resided. It was mixed by Mike Fraser and mastered at Sterling Sound,New York,by George Marino.
Following the recording of Balance and its subsequent Ambulance Tour (the band renamed the "balance" tour to the "ambulance tour" because Eddie was having hip issues and brother Alex had to wear a neck brace [11] ),Van Halen's second incarnation broke up. Regarding this time period,in 1997,Eddie Van Halen told Guitar World :"There had been a variety of conflicts brewing between manager Ray Danniels,Sammy,and the band since I quit drinking on October 2,1994... It got so bad that I actually started drinking again."
"The Seventh Seal" kicks off the album. Complete with chanting monks and dangling metal bells,the song unveiled a vast,open,U2-like guitar wall that propelled through the darkest terrain the band ever tackled. [12] As a side note Eddie revealed in 2012 that "The Seventh Seal" was written before Van Halen became a band. [13]
"Amsterdam" was written about Eddie and Alex Van Halen's birthplace. Eddie is on record in Guitar World as saying,"I always hated the words to 'Wham,Bam Amsterdam',from Balance,because they were all about smoking pot. They were just stupid. Lyrics should plant some sort of seed for thought,or at least be a little more metamorphical." [14] This is another song based on an idea that predates the album's sessions as there is video of Eddie playing the riff to "Amsterdam" at 5150 Studios in 1987 [15]
During The Balance tour show in Pensacola,Florida,Hagar stated that "Take Me Back (DéjàVu)" was "a true story". The song itself features a then almost 20-year-old riff Eddie had previously used on a song entitled "No More Waiting",which the band played on occasion in the pre- Van Halen I era,making it the third known song on the album based on an older idea. [16]
The original title of the album was The Seventh Seal,for which photographer Glen Wexler created some concepts,including one with an androgynous four-year-old boy. Eventually they picked Balance,which Alex explained to Wexler was about the turmoil and changes surrounding Van Halen,including the recent death of long-time manager Ed Leffler. Alex asked for something "exploring the duality of the human psyche";Wexler then sketched some new concepts,with the band liking the one with conjoined twins on a see-saw. The androgynous boy,who actually hailed from Denver but fans mistakenly considered to be Eddie's son Wolfgang Van Halen, [17] was then photographed in Wexler's Hollywood studio,with Wexler's daughter being the hand model that pulled his hair. The images were combined with a miniature landscape for the background using Fractal Design Painter (now called Corel Painter). Wexler detailed that the Balance cover had a number of ironies:"the impossibility of the conjoined twins actually playing on the seesaw;the 'calm' twin actually being the aggressive one,pulling the hair of his sibling to create the appearance of an aggressive child;and having no one else to play with in a desolate post-apocalyptic setting,in which unusable playground equipment is the only object in sight." He added that the twins were “designed”to mimic the shape of the “VH”logo. An alternate cover was used for the Japanese release,citing a cultural offense to the original version. [18] On the inside,the compact disc shows the Leonardo da Vinci drawing Vitruvian Man ,and the back of the booklet shows an egg balanced upright on a guitar.
Balance was released January 24,1995,and is the first release by a platinum-certified act on Warner Bros. since Danny Goldberg stepped in as chairman/CEO. It is also the band's first album since the loss of their longtime manager Ed Leffler,who died of thyroid cancer on October 16,1993,before Ray Danniels took over management of the band (mostly due to Alex's personal relationship with Danniels as brother-in-law). Warner Bros. VP of merchandising and advertising Jim Wagner said that early 1995 would be the right time to release a new Van Halen album,as "It seems like we've always had success with big acts right after the first of the year". (Van Halen's own 1984 was released in early January 1984.) "Don't Tell Me (What Love Can Do)",the first single from Balance,was released to top 40 and album rock radio on December 28,1994. [19] Van Halen became the first act to debut at No. 1 in 1995,as their first week sales of 295,000 units earned Balance the number one spot on the Billboard 200. The opening-week tally for Van Halen's Balance was 21% higher than that of For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge ,the band's previous studio album,which topped the chart with 243,000 units in the summer of 1991. [20]
Two concerts during the Balance tour were filmed and aired as a pay-per-view event at the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto,Ontario,Canada on August 18 and 19. There was talk of releasing a live DVD of the performances,which found the band to be at their peak during the tour. While the release of the DVD never materialized,most of the source material can be viewed on YouTube.
All tracks are written by Eddie Van Halen, Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar and Alex Van Halen
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "The Seventh Seal" | 5:18 |
2. | "Can't Stop Lovin' You" | 4:08 |
3. | "Don't Tell Me (What Love Can Do)" | 5:56 |
4. | "Amsterdam" | 4:45 |
5. | "Big Fat Money" | 3:57 |
6. | "Strung Out" (instrumental) | 1:29 |
7. | "Not Enough" | 5:13 |
8. | "Aftershock" | 5:29 |
9. | "Doin' Time" (instrumental) | 1:41 |
10. | "Baluchitherium" (instrumental, omitted from the U.S. vinyl LP due to time constraints) | 4:05 |
11. | "Take Me Back (Deja Vu)" | 4:43 |
12. | "Feelin'" | 6:36 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
13. | "Crossing Over" | 4:49 |
The Japanese bonus track "Crossing Over" was used as the B-side to the US CD single for "Can't Stop Lovin' You".
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "The Seventh Seal" | 5:18 |
2. | "Can't Stop Lovin' You" | 4:08 |
3. | "Don't Tell Me (What Love Can Do)" | 5:56 |
4. | "Amsterdam" | 4:45 |
5. | "Big Fat Money" | 3:57 |
6. | "Doin' Time" | 1:41 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Aftershock" | 5:29 |
2. | "Strung Out" | 1:29 |
3. | "Not Enough" | 5:13 |
4. | "Take Me Back (Déjà Vu)" | 4:43 |
5. | "Feelin'" | 6:36 |
Van Halen
Additional personnel
Production
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Year | Single | Chart | Position |
---|---|---|---|
1995 | "Amsterdam" | US Mainstream Rock Tracks [41] | 9 |
"Can't Stop Lovin' You" | 2 | ||
US Billboard Hot 100 [42] | 30 | ||
US Top 40 Mainstream [43] | 7 | ||
"Don't Tell Me (What Love Can Do)" | US Mainstream Rock Tracks [41] | 1 | |
"Not Enough" | 27 | ||
US Billboard Hot 100 [42] | 97 | ||
US Top 40 Mainstream [43] | 40 | ||
"The Seventh Seal" | US Mainstream Rock Tracks [41] | 36 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil) [44] | Gold | 100,000* |
Canada (Music Canada) [45] | 3× Platinum | 300,000^ |
Japan (RIAJ) [46] | Platinum | 200,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [7] | 3× Platinum | 3,000,000^ |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
Van Halen was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1973. Credited with restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene, Van Halen was known for their energetic live performances and for the virtuosity of its guitarist, Eddie Van Halen. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.
5150 is the seventh studio album by American rock band Van Halen. It was released on March 24, 1986, by Warner Bros. Records and was the first of four albums to be recorded with lead singer Sammy Hagar, who replaced David Lee Roth. The album was named after Eddie Van Halen's home studio, 5150, in turn named after a California law enforcement term for a mentally disturbed person. The album hit number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, surpassing the band's previous album, 1984, which had peaked at number 2 behind Michael Jackson's Thriller album, on which Eddie made a guest appearance.
Women and Children First is the third studio album by American rock band Van Halen, released on March 26, 1980, on Warner Bros. Records. Produced by Ted Templeman and engineered by Donn Landee, it was the first Van Halen album not to feature any cover songs, and is described by critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine as "[the] record where the group started to get heavier, both sonically and, to a lesser extent, thematically."
Sam Roy Hagar, also known as the Red Rocker, is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He rose to prominence in the early 1970s with the hard rock band Montrose before launching a successful solo career, scoring a hit in 1984 with "I Can't Drive 55". He enjoyed further commercial success when he replaced David Lee Roth as the lead vocalist of Van Halen in 1985, but left in 1996. He returned to the band from 2003 to 2005. In 2007, Hagar was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Van Halen. His musical style primarily consists of hard rock and heavy metal.
OU812 is the eighth studio album by American rock band Van Halen. It was released in 1988 and is the band's second album to feature vocalist Sammy Hagar. Van Halen began work on the album in September 1987 and completed it in April 1988, one month before its release.
Van Halen III is the eleventh studio album by American rock band Van Halen, released on March 17, 1998, by Warner Bros. Records. Produced by Mike Post and Eddie Van Halen, it was the band's first studio album in three years after Balance (1995), the band's only studio album to feature Extreme lead vocalist Gary Cherone, and the last to feature bassist Michael Anthony, who only appears on three of the album's songs while the rest of the bass parts are played by Eddie Van Halen; his son Wolfgang replaced Anthony on subsequent tours and recordings. Eddie Van Halen's extensive involvement in the album's production, instrumentation and writing have led some, including Anthony, to consider Van Halen III more of a solo project than a collective band effort. Clocking in at over 65 minutes, Van Halen III is their longest album.
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge is the ninth studio album by American rock band Van Halen. It was released on June 17, 1991, on Warner Bros. Records and is the third to feature vocalist Sammy Hagar. It debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart and maintained the position for three consecutive weeks. The album marked a record in the band's history, seeing seven of its eleven tracks released as singles.
Live: Right Here, Right Now. is the first live album by American rock band Van Halen, released in 1993. It is the band's only live album featuring Sammy Hagar and the only live album by Van Halen until the release of Tokyo Dome Live in Concert in 2015.
The Best of Both Worlds is the second greatest hits album by American rock band Van Halen, released on July 20, 2004, on Warner Bros. The compilation features material recorded with lead vocalists David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar, but omits Gary Cherone's three-year tenure with the band. Prior to The Best of Both Worlds's release, Hagar reunited with Van Halen, and the band recorded three new tracks to include on the release.
Best Of – Volume I is the first greatest hits album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released on October 22, 1996.
"Dreams" is a song by Van Halen released in 1986 from the album 5150. It was the second single from that album, and it reached number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart that year. It was released in 7" and 12" single formats. The 7" single features the album version, while the 12" features a slightly extended one. Nine years after its original release, "Dreams" introduced the band to a new generation of fans when it appeared in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie and on its soundtrack album.
"Why Can't This Be Love" is a song by the American rock band Van Halen for their seventh studio album, 5150 (1986). The song was the group's first single with Sammy Hagar, replacing founding member David Lee Roth. It was released on both 7" and 12" formats with the latter having an extended version featuring extra lyrics.
"Humans Being" is a song recorded and contributed by American rock band Van Halen for the 1996 disaster film Twister. The song marks the last recording to feature vocalist Sammy Hagar before his departure from the band in June 1996. "Humans Being" was released as a radio-only single in the United States on April 23, 1996, peaking atop the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for two weeks later that year. In Japan, the single was released on CD in July 1996.
I Never Said Goodbye is the ninth studio album by American rock musician Sammy Hagar, released on June 23, 1987, by Geffen Records. It was his first solo album since 1984's VOA, released while he was a member of Van Halen. The album was recorded in ten days under a contractual obligation to Geffen Records as a condition of his leaving the company to join Van Halen and their record label, Warner Bros. Records. The album spent 23 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart and became his highest charting solo album, peaking at number 14 on August 15, 1987.
Unboxed is a compilation album of Sammy Hagar's recording career at Geffen Records. It features two previously unreleased songs, "High Hopes" and "Buying My Way Into Heaven". It was released on March 15, 1994.
Van Halen was an American hard rock band formed in Pasadena, California in 1972 by the Dutch-born American brothers Eddie Van Halen (guitar) and Alex Van Halen (drums), plus singer David Lee Roth and bassist Michael Anthony. The band's discography consists of 12 studio albums, two live albums, two compilation albums, and 56 singles.
"Black and Blue" is a song by American rock band Van Halen from their 1988 album OU812. It was the first single released from the album, peaking at number 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at number 1 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart,
"Love Walks In" is a power ballad by American rock band Van Halen released as the third single from the band's seventh studio album, 5150 (1986). It was the first song the band wrote with vocalist Sammy Hagar. It peaked at number 4 on the US Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart, and reached number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100.
A Different Kind of Truth is the twelfth and final studio album by American rock band Van Halen. Released on February 7, 2012, by Interscope Records, this is Van Halen's only studio album on Interscope and its first full-length album of studio material with lead singer David Lee Roth since 1984. Likewise, A Different Kind of Truth was Van Halen's first studio album since 1998's Van Halen III, as well as their only studio album recorded without bassist Michael Anthony, who had played bass on all of the band's previous albums; Eddie Van Halen's son Wolfgang replaced Anthony for the album, making this his only studio album with the band. It would also be Van Halen's final studio album before Eddie's death and the group's subsequent disbandment in 2020.
Sammy Hagar & Friends is the sixteenth studio album by American hard rock musician Sammy Hagar, released on September 24, 2013, by Frontiers Records.