Fair Warning (Van Halen album)

Fair Warning is the fourth studio album by American rock band Van Halen. Released on April 29, 1981, it sold more than two million copies,[3] but was still the band's slowest-selling album of the David Lee Roth era. Despite the album's commercially disappointing sales, Fair Warning was met with mostly positive reviews from critics.[4]

Fair Warning
The photo is taken from a painting by William Kurelek.
Studio album by Van Halen
Released	April 29, 1981
Recorded	Early March – Early April 1981
Studio	Sunset Sound, Los Angeles[1]
Genre	Hard rock heavy metal[2]
Length	31:11
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Ted Templeman
Van Halen chronology
Women and Children First (1980) Fair Warning (1981) Diver Down (1982)
Singles from Fair Warning
"So This Is Love?" Released: June 1981 "Unchained" Released: July 1981 Depending on the country, "Unchained" was backed with either "Sinner's Swing!" or "Push Comes to Shove."

The album was listed by Esquire as one of the 75 Albums Every Man Should Own.[5]

Packaging

The album's cover artwork features a detail from The Maze, a painting by Canadian artist William Kurelek, which depicts his tortured youth.[6][7]

The album's cover artwork is accompanied by an insert of a black-and-white portrait of the members of the band, in addition to another black-and-white photo of an exterior wall featuring cracked windows and a lyric from the album's opening song "Mean Street" in handwritten graffiti. This second photo was taken by famed rock photographer Neil Zlozower.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[4]
Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s	B−[8]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[9]

The Village Voice's Robert Christgau rated Fair Warning a B-, signifying "a competent or mildly interesting record that will usually feature at least three worthwhile cuts." He stated that it featured "not just Eddie's latest sound effects, but a few good jokes along with the mean ones and a rhythm section that can handle punk speed emotionally and technically." He also explained that "at times Eddie could even be said to play an expressive – lyrical? – role. Of course, what he's expressing is hard to say. Technocracy putting a patina on cynicism".[8]

A retrospective review by AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine found the album fairly positive. In the review, he initially stated that "it's a dark, strange beast, partially because it lacks any song as purely fun as the hits from the first three records" and that "whatever the reason, Fair Warning winds up as a dark, dirty, nasty piece of work." He went on to say that "dull it is not and Fair Warning contains some of the fiercest, hardest music that Van Halen ever made. There's little question that Eddie Van Halen won whatever internal skirmishes they had, [...] even with the lack of a single dedicated instrumental showcase". He concluded that "nastiness is the defining characteristic of Fair Warning, which certainly doesn't make it bunches of fun, but it showcases the coiled power of Van Halen better than any other album, which makes it worth visiting on occasion."[4]

The Rolling Stone Album Guide, however, gave the album two-and-a-half stars out of five, stating that "the most significant musical development is the synthesizer introduced at the end of Fair Warning, which would be exploited to greater effect on later albums."[9]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, Michael Anthony and David Lee Roth.

Side one

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Mean Street"	4:58
2.	"Dirty Movies"	4:08
3.	"Sinner's Swing!"	3:09
4.	"Hear About It Later"	4:35

Side two

No.	Title	Length
5.	"Unchained"	3:29
6.	"Push Comes to Shove"	3:49
7.	"So This Is Love?"	3:06
8.	"Sunday Afternoon in the Park"	1:59
9.	"One Foot Out the Door"	1:58

Personnel

Van Halen

• David Lee Roth – lead vocals
• Eddie Van Halen – guitar, synthesizers, backing vocals
• Michael Anthony – bass guitar, backing vocals
• Alex Van Halen – drums

Production

• Pete Angelus – cover design
• Chris Bellman – remastering
• Gregg Geller – remastering
• Greg Gorman – photography, inlay photos
• William Kurelek – cover artwork, from The Maze
• Donn Landee – engineer
• Gene Meros – engineer
• Jo Motta – project coordinator
• Richard Seireeni – art direction
• Ted Templeman – producer
• Neil Zlozower – photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (1981)	Peak position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[10]	97
US Billboard 200[11]	5

Singles

Billboard (United States)

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1981	"So This Is Love?"	Mainstream Rock	15
1981	"Mean Street"	Mainstream Rock[12]	12
1981	"Push Comes to Shove"	Mainstream Rock	29
1981	"Unchained"	Mainstream Rock	13

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[13]	Platinum	100,000^^
United States (RIAA)[14]	2× Platinum	2,000,000^^
^^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on November 14, 2016. Retrieved November 14, 2016.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
2. "Van Halen Biography". Rolling Stone.
3. "Recording Industry Association of America". RIAA. Archived from the original on June 26, 2007. Retrieved February 24, 2012.
4. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Fair Warning - Van Halen at AllMusic. Retrieved October 12, 2011.
5. "Best Music Albums Ever - Top Album List with Covers". Esquire. Retrieved February 24, 2012.
6. "The Maze by WILLIAM KURELEK - Peter Nahum At The Leicester Galleries". Leicestergalleries.com. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
7. British Journal of Psychiatry (2001)
8. Christgau, Robert. "CG: Van Halen". The Village Voice. Retrieved October 12, 2011.
9. "Van Halen: Album Guide". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on December 10, 2012. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
10. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 319. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
11. "Van Halen Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
12. "Van Halen - Chart history | Billboard". www.billboard.com. Retrieved December 5, 2016.
13. "Canadian album certifications – Van Halen – Fair Warning". Music Canada.
14. "American album certifications – Van Halen – Fair Warning". Recording Industry Association of America. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH. 

Further reading

Templeman, Ted; Renoff, Greg (2020). Ted Templeman: A Platinum Producer's Life In Music. Toronto: ECW Press. pp. 311–16. ISBN 9781770414839. OCLC 1121143123.