Release date: November 18, 2008
Label: Loud and Proud
Tracks: 10
Rating: 4
Sammy Hagar’s Cosmic Universal Fashion was released near the end of last year to follow a long career of both solo and collaborative work by the singer, songwriter, musician, and star. Hagar has enjoyed fame and musical popularity since his affiliation with the band Montrose in 1973-74, as well as his years of work with the hit rock band Van Halen in the 1980s.
Sammy Hagar is, in fact, one of the shaping elements in American rock music and has had a clear impact on modern rock and pop music playing on the radio today. Bands like Buckcherry have a clear Sammy Hagar-esque quality to them that has both helped the band to form as a unit and helped audiences to quickly identify with the new music.
As a solo artist, Hagar has not undergone any major changes in his musical style over the past few decades, and it is for this reason that Cosmic Universal Fashion has no real appeal to new musical audiences that are expecting newer twists on established classic styles like Hagar?s.
Instead of catering to the evolved needs of new generations of music listeners, Hagar seems to have remained static in both his music and performance, as well as his decades-old audience that has also not evolved much at all since the Montrose and Van Halen days.
This record has a very classic 1980s rock and roll vibe to it. Sammy Hagar stays true to himself in that what he puts the most effort into is his own personality and characterization. Without his soliloquies, excited chatter, and shouts out to the crowd, this album would be, unfortunately, little more than an ordinary, outdated collection of music with one fun exception: the cover of the Beastie Boys? ?Fight for your Right to Party.?
The disappointment in this album is the fact that, despite the 2008 release date, it may as well have been recorded in the mid-?80s. It seems all too clear that at this point in his career, after so much success as a solo artist and with other musicians, Sammy Hagar is really only interested in having fun doing what he’s been doing the whole time?churning out old-school popular rock music and hanging out with his devoted fans.
For Hagar fans, following his work since the ?70s or ?80s, Cosmic Universal Fashion should be one more reason to listen to Sammy do what he does best. For those music fans who aren’t too familiar with the great Sammy Hagar, however, chances are very low that they will find a new favourite musician with this record.
