Makes the early ’00s rock nostalgia grow fonder…
[Video]
[4.86]
John Seroff: Wolfgang Van Halen’s grungy but clearly heartfelt requiem for his father Eddie, cloaked as it is in fresh pain and a hypnotizingly personal video, renders itself somewhat imperviable to criticism… which is not the same thing as saying that I’m excited about the sudden pop revival of Hootiecore.
[5]
Samson Savill de Jong: This sounds like it’s chasing trends, except the trends are 20 years old. On first listen, I thought this was a pretty uninteresting generic love song, but then I discovered this is the son of Eddie Van Halen writing a tribute to his dad!? Nothing about the song, sonics or lyrics, prepared me for that revelation, though on closer listen it does make more sense as a tribute than a romantic love song. Even with this knowledge however, there’s nothing that makes me want to listen to the song again, even if it’s competently made.
[4]
Nortey Dowuona: The gaseous bulbs of drums rumble around the guitars and the soft, ragged voice crying out for help, with whisky guitarists going to the drums and crying out to the voice, a slippery bass sliding in and springing the soft, ragged voice above the drums as the drums collapse, and the guitarists spin around it and set fire to the edges. The soft ragged voice dives out of the bass’s coil and, fire trailing, plunged back into the drums, eyes wide, and crashes into them, sending them down into the earth.
[8]
Thomas Inskeep: Wolfgang Van Halen’s tribute to his late father is so heartfelt is seems almost churlish to criticize it, but “Distance” is such generic “uplift rock,” I feel like I could be listening to Hoobastank or many of their late ’90s/early ’00s brethren. I’m 100% behind the intent here, just not the sadly lacking execution. (For the record, he’s a great Twitter follow.)
[4]
Vikram Joseph: It sucks to have to be critical about something so clearly driven by profound loss, but here we are. This is a direct and heartfelt tribute from Wolfgang Van Halen to his rock-star father, but it’s still a staid, conservative grunge-revivalist rock ballad — basically a slightly above-average Nickelback song. His vocals are strained, the melodies are adequate but never more, and my goodness does that last chorus go on. I daresay that if this caught you at a vulnerable moment it might make you feel something, but as this sort of thing goes you could say the same for “Blurry” by Puddle Of Mudd.
[5]
Katherine St Asaph: Give me an hour or so and I could probably convince myself I heard this on a VH1 countdown alongside at least one of “Hanging By a Moment,” “Meet Virginia,” or “Dare You to Move.” There’s something kinda perversely admirable about that.
[5]
Alfred Soto: With less power chording, rhythmic staidness, and lyrics that don’t aspire to generalization, “Distance” could’ve worked as a prayer as much as a lament; but a lifetime’s exposure to a genre’s cliches produces an immunity system robust enough to withstand novelties of expression.
[3]