How could one describe Van Halen’s “A Different Kind of Truth?”

It was ok.

Yes, much like your family’s Christmas parties and the sequel to a movie that you extremely enjoyed, the new album from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band is decent, but not much to brag about.

“A Different Kind of Truth” has its high points as well as its low points.

The song “You and Your Blues” reminds fans of the classic hit, “Dance the Night Away” combined with a bit of modernism in its musical composure.

“Bullethead” provides us with a new style of Van Halen, consisting of heavier riffs and more heavy metal-like rhythms, while at the same time, maintaining its trademark VH style.

Quite possibly the biggest low point in this entire album is “Tattoo,” the one song chosen by the band to be its single.

Typically, when a song is chosen to be a band’s single, it sets the tone for the entire album.

If a hardcore Van Halen fan were to hear “Tattoo” and base his decision on whether or not he’ll buy the entire album on what he thought on the song, that would be one less album that would leave the shelves.

Now, multiply that one statistic by every single Van Halen fan in the world, and we could possibly have a bad situation on our hands.

“Tattoo” is confusing and its lyrics are borderline non-sensical.

Other songs, such as, “China Town,” “Blood and Fire” and “As Is” fall through the cracks as not good songs, but not terrible ones either.

It’s abundantly obvious that age has taken its toll on Lead Singer David Lee Roth, but it seems to be one of those situations where you don’t really seem to mind it because he still has his trademark vocalistic abilities.

Eddie Van Halen, is, well, Eddie Van Halen.

Not much can be said about him, considering that he is still as amazing as he’s always been on guitar, once again setting the standard for guitarists everywhere.

One factor that shines by his absence, however, is the missing Michael Anthony on bass, who was replaced by Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie’s teenage son.

Although Wolfgang’s ability to play bass can be compared to his predecessor, Anthony’s vocals, or lack thereof, play a huge role in the lack of musicality in each track.

All in all, “A Different Kind of Truth” can be described as the type of album that fans wouldn’t buy.

Instead, they’ll just get behind their computers, Google-search the album name and download it within minutes. That way, they can say they got their money’s worth.