James McNair's review of the new Van Halen album, published in <i>The National's</i> , did not pull any punches. "What's clear," he wrote, "is that the album is disappointing." OIC, a Van Halen fan if there ever was one, read the review and it's fair to say he did not agree with McNair's overall assessment. He sent us this eloquent rebuttal via email last night: <i>ADKOT has delivered, exceeded, obliterated my highest expectations. It`s a proper hard rock record - much harder than I expected. Obviously it`s not a natural follow-up to 1984, more like the angry brother of WACF. The energy, the fire, the power, the sleaze, the imagination; the fact is you`re listening to brilliant rock musicians at the top of their game.</i> Eddie is on fire, best he`s sounded since... <i>Fair Warning?</i> Some of the songs could be on <i>FW</i> !!! His tone is immense, and his solos are still...well, I don`t even know how to describe them sometimes...he is still something else. Dave has somehow recovered his voice, and sounds better than he has since Eat `Em And Smile. As I`ve always said, DLR is not, and is not trying to be, Pavarotti - his vocals are about an attitude. His lyrics were never in doubt for me - he`s still very funny and a cut above in that sense. Alex seems to be totally rejuvenated - there are so many examples of this throughout the record, and he`s back to the true brown sound...and Wolfie? You sonofabitch. Fantastic. The bass sound throughout is HUGE and Sheehan-like. The backing vocals - hardly an important thing - are massive. And the difference between hearing previews on my laptop and blasting it out of my stereo is also MASSIVE. I was going to to a song by song thingy...but I love them all. The range of styles and the attitude is what I still can`t believe... <i>Tattoo</i> is weak in comparison but I still think that`s great, and it`ll always have a special place for most of us because it was the first thing we heard after so long. Some moments I think Eddie has never been this good! Then I think the same damn thing about Al. Then Dave. And don`t get me started on Wolf. Boy, he can play. <i>ADKOT</i> warrants a lot of listens to catch everything that`s going on. I think they`ve reinvented rock again. A lot of the songs remind me of the classic records from 1978-84, but as those records AND Ed, Al and Dave have all aged brilliantly that`s no bad thing. Because of Wolfie, these songs have the 21st century stamped all over them. I can`t believe it`s true, but it was worth the wait.