Musical Chairs

Musical Chairs is the third album on which Sammy Hagar steps into rougher guitar rock. The playing of a band including Denny Carmassi, Bill Church and Alan Fitzgerald is thick, and Hagar’s voice cuts straight through the songs. A raw, band-level heat fills the whole. From the drive of the opener “Turn Up the Music” and the hook of “You Make Me Crazy” to the bluesy riffs placed in each song, it conveys late-1970s American hard rock rawly. A stance of winning on the heat of the playing and the drive of the singing themselves, rather than relying on large-scale tricks, runs throughout. Its appeal is a construction that values the groove and momentum of a band playing as one over flash. Rough yet pleasing, the chemistry between Sammy’s soaring vocal and the tight band playing feels good. It is a powerful hard-rock record that concentrates the sweat-soaked live feel and momentum of early solo Sammy Hagar.