Billboard — Sammy Hagar isn’t all tequila and sunburns on his first solo disc in eight years: This new set kicks off with a lightly industrial collaboration with young Iraqi songwriter Steven Lost that finds him reviving the “Right Now” approach to addressing deeper issues than the nation’s unreasonable speed limits. Hagar spends half the record in such uncharted waters, but before things get too serious, there’s “Loud,” a Spandex-and-codpiece rocker that teleported in from 1986; a cover of “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!),” which did the same; and a country track called “When the Sun Don’t Shine,” basically a tribute to Jimmy Buffett, rock’s other premier tequila pitchman. The second half of the record depends on how you process the phrase “album-closing nine-minute unplugged version of ‘Dreams.’ ” But if you’re a 61-year-old beach bum with a pretty decent day job, what else would you do?
• Interview: Sammy Hagar aims to ’slap some sense’ into audience.
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