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Cosmic Universal Fashion

Sammy Hagar - Cosmic Universal Fashion Audio CD

A fair review of the Sammy Hagar "Cosmic Universal Fashion" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Sammy Hagar reviews here, or go back to the Sammy Hagar tabs.

Band: Sammy Hagar
Title: Cosmic Universal Fashion
Rating:

Release Date: 2008-11-18
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Cosmic Universal Fashion 2: Psycho Vertigo 3: Peephole 4: Loud 5: Fight for Your Right to Party 6: Switch on the Light 7: When the Sun Don't Shine 8: 24365 9: I'm on a Roll 10: Dreams/Cabo

Sammy, I love you and I love your tequila, but you're breaking my heart here

The Bad
If you walk away with anything from Cosmic Universal Fashion, it's the fact that Hagar is getting older, slowing down, and running out of ideas. The Good
Sammy, I love you and I love your tequila, but you're breaking my heart here. The album's title track is not exactly bad. In fact, the rhythm and beats are quite different for Hagar, but if you listen closely or even watch the video, the song is a re-hashing of the Van Halen hit "Right Now. " This is not the first time Hagar has gone back to old material for inspiration either.

"Peephole" is another Hagar retread from his failed side-project PlanetUS. I'm sure Hagar's hoping you don't remember, but he teamed up with Joe Satriani and Neal Shon and Deen Castronovo of Journey back in the beginning of this decade. The project never got off the ground, but Neal went forward with it, replacing Hagar with Jeff Scott Soto, and eliminating Satriani. The band released an album under the name Soul SirkUS [review]. Sure, they didn't create much of a stir, but they released "Peephole" on their album. Nice try Sammy.

"Fight for Your Right to Party" is of course a Beastie Boys cover. Hagar has been doing this one at his live shows for a while now. The song is great live, but this studio version is down right awful. It's in a much lower key, and really doesn't want to make you rebel or party. "Dreams/Cabo" is a nine-minute acoustic track that combines two more Hagar-era Van Halen tracks.

The rest of the material on the album is rather mediocre and not represenative of the "red rocker" and his high energy, twenty-four hour party lifestyle. "Loud" is probably the best hard rock track on the album. It's also the one you would releate most to Sammy Hagar.

The Verdict
Hagar should stick to hagning out with his party band The Wabos, because when they're gone, he seems to forget that he's the hard rock Jimmy Buffett. Cosmic Universal Fashion does accomplish one thing; it makes you appreciate the last album by Sammy and the Wabos "Livin' It Up.

Save Your Money
There is no other way to put it. This collection of Hagar tunes is truly awful. .

Hagar's Latest Falls Flat
Rewarding at times, yes, but certainly not without a great deal of work. Following Sammy Hagar's post-Van Halen solo career hasn't always been the easiest thing to do. His first release sans his former band was 1997's Marching To Mars, a truly excellent recording that filled listeners with hope that there would be more of the same to follow. Unfortunately, Hagar followed things up with 1999's Red Voodoo, his first collaboration with backing band The Waboritas and the first hint that things were on a slow downhill ride. While containing some truly satisfying moments, the album was comprised with a great deal of filler that made a start-to-finish listen nearly impossible. Subsequent releases (2000's Ten 13 and 2002's Not 4 Sale, for example) followed the same trajectory as the one before it, with stellar tracks being harder and harder to weed out amongst the half-baked rockers and overtly-chintsy ballads.

Enter Cosmic Universal Fashion, Hagar's latest entry into his solo catalog. Here, weeding out the good stuff from amongst the filler proves either nearly impossible or remarkably easy, depending on how you look at it. This is largely due to the fact that album is virtually devoid of any memorable or meaningful tracks, a handful of underdone genre experiments and poorly-thought out cover selections in their place. In fact, the only truly memorable moment on the entire record comes in the form of a Van Halen cover, a live capture of a "Dreams" and "Cabo Wabo" medley as reinterpreted by Hagar's solo band on his last tour. Hagar manages to strip away the bombast of the original Van Halen versions without sacrificing the power of the song, a testament to the intense talent of his songwriting partnership with Edward Van Halen.

The most glaring problem with the album is calling it just that: an album. With ten tracks clocking it at barely forty-five minutes, this hardly constitutes an album by the current definition of the term. Toss in the fact that the songs have no cohesive bond and there are two covers in the mix and Hagar's really got himself an EP. Had the singer/songwriter submitted Cosmic Universal Fashion as a collection of unreleased tracks and oddball cover tunes, it probably wouldn't hurt that it isn't very good. But to pass it off as an album leaves the listener feeling cheated and pining for something more.

Another key problem with Cosmic Universal Fashion is that the rock feels somewhat forced here. It's hard to tell at first, as the rockers are drenched in Hagar's usual mix of carefree pseudo-spirituality and teenage-like abandon. But at age 61, the latter of the two characteristics borders on ridiculous. At this point, there's no reason for Hagar to "fight for the right to party" - he's a successful millionaire who own a tequila-based club on the beach in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The man's got the right to party and no person of the age when the lyrics to "Fight For Your Right" mean something is looking to Hagar for guidance on the issue.

His reluctance to let go of the constant theme of partying is what does Hagar in throughout the course of Cosmic Universal Fashion. After all, the music to some of the tracks is downright wonderful. "Psycho Vertigo," "Peephole" and "Loud" all contain some of Hagar's best constructed songs musically of his entire catalog. Unfortunately, the lyrics are just plain silly at times and render the songs unlistenable. The singer fairs a little better lyrically on the album's lead-off single, "Cosmic Universal Fashion," which focuses on the issues of the day a la Van Halen's 1992 hit, "Right Now. " But that's one fleeting moment of relevancy amongst a cavalcade of mediocrity and ultimately serves as a reinforcement to just how good the album might have been had Hagar delved deeper into more of those lyrical themes.

Ok, starting to get worried now Sammy....
It is more of an e. Let's get this straight, I am a long-term fan of all things Red Rocker and so this disc was a seriously welcome treat. p than a new album but any new release is cool. The songs are not too bad, but well below Sammy's previous level. It is 10 times better than the 'Livin it up record but a bit 'Cheesy' on too many occasions.
What worries me most is that over the past 3 records Sammy has released, I have noticed his voice sounding more and more strained. I know the guy is 61 so I am greatfull he is still making music at all, but maybe he needs to go back to a more serious style and hit the 'I'm Sam I am' type stuff on the head a bit. I am looking forward to a return to form.

CUF is OK, but that's it - I'm ready for Chickenfoot
This is not his best work. I am a huge Sammy fan. The mistake I made was reading reviews before listening. The music isn't that bad except for the Beastie Boys cover, that sucks. It is kind of a hodge podge of different styles of music but it's growing on me. You need to listen to it loud, uninterrupted and with an open mind; maybe while driving down the road. Luckily Chickenfoot will be coming out soon and hopefully Sammy will redeem himself. .

You can see a complete list of all Sammy Hagar discography, or go back to the Sammy Hagar tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.