Well, you have to hand it to the Red Rocker, he refuses to let Father Time slow him down. He headlined last summer’s festival circuit and got together with former Van Halen bandmate Michael Anthony, guitar whiz Joe Satriani, and Red Hot drummer Chad Smith and released the excellent Chickenfoot CD. While many contemporaries at his age would be gasping after such a heavy workload, Sammy Hagar decides to release a new solo album.

Cosmic Universal Fashion is a bewildering piece of work that is one part admirable, one part lazy and one part smells of contract fulfillment.  The album kicks off in a very different direction that will shock diehard fans. Several years ago on VH-1’s 100 Greatest Hard Rock Bands, Hagar fawned over his love and admiration of Tool and how they were influenced what he was doing. Back then that statement was laughable but the first 3 tracks reflect that sentiment.

Almost.

Each of these songs reflect a much darker feeling and sound that you have to admire the attempt even though you are thinking that Sammy must be singing for his son’s band. Musically they are fine where they hit a snag is lyrically as Sammy is just not adept at writing these types of songs. “Peephole” is a tremendous song on both fronts but gets bogged down by some clunky wording and phrasing. It deals with kidnapping and child sex abuse and could be compared to Aerosmith’s “Janie’s Got a Gun” in how it combined a great song with a not very pop friendly subject.

Unfortunately it all goes haywire after that. Up comes “Loud” a below average party song that sounds like it was written the night before the recording session. It’s tepidness is soon tested by the equally bland “24365” and “Switch on the Light”. Maybe they all sound better after sampling some of his Cabo Wabo Tequilla. You will need shots of said alcohol when you hear his version of “Fight For Your Right to Party”. Let’s put it this way, as bad as it sounds in you head right now, multiply that by 10 and you may be close.

It mercifully ends with a live acoustic version of “Dreams” a hit from his days in Van Halen.

After listening you can’t help but think that either Hagar should have saved the first couple of songs in the vault until he had an album’s worth or just put them out as an EP. By mixing the two drastically different styles together it ruins that impact of the first half which serves as a downer for the second part.