David Lee Roth dropped a new track, “Giddy-Up!” The countrified tune was accompanied by cowboy-themed artwork drawn by the lead singer of Van Halen himself.
Roth released a 17-chapter interactive online comic book titled The Roth Project, written and drawn by Roth, last fall, which introduced several new songs, including “Giddy-Up!” The comic book is intended as an immersive audio and visual experience, with Roth reading the story in his gravely voice alongside a score written by the musician.
The comic featured four other songs, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow Bar and Grill,” “Alligator Pants,” “Lo-Rez Sunset” and “Manda Bala,” and the tracks were co-written and recorded a few years ago with guitarist/bassist John 5.
While Van Halen has confirmed the band is finished playing together, Roth has continued to play the group’s hits during his solo tours. In early 2020, while on tour with KISS, Roth offered a rendition of “Panama,” as well as a few other classics.
“I’ve inherited the band, de facto, whatever that means,” Roth said in 2019. “I think it means, you’ve inherited it, carry this proudly. Van Halen isn’t going to be coming back in the fashion that you know. And, that being said, Eddie’s got his own story to tell — not mine to tell it.”
VULTURES 2 will go down as the worst Kanye West album. It was an absolute mess in terms of its rollout. The album went over its scheduled release date by months. When it did finally arrive, the mixes were an absolute mess. Kanye West corrected them in real time. He also tweaked the tracklist, and added songs once the extremely negative feedback came rolling in. "530" is a rare bright spot on the album, though. Kanye West gets personal and delivers one of his best lyrical performances in ages over a smooth vocal chop. And now we have a music video for it.
One might assume a track as heartfelt as "530" would get a heartfelt video. Kanye West has given fans some of the most iconic and memorable hip hop visuals of the 21st century. It would stand to reason that he could whip something up for the new single that was tonally appropriate. Well, West did what he does best, and defied expectations. The music video for "530" doesn't feature Kanye West or his VULTURES collaborator, Ty Dolla $ign. It doesn't feature any human beings, actually. Instead, the video is centered around puppets and people wearing cartoon masks.
The video doesn't follow a straightforward narrative. It strings together a bunch of low quality videos of these puppets and masked people seemingly doing random activities. One scenario sees a man walking the street with a bag in hand. Another sees a female puppet get an injection into her nose. There's a very unnerving quality to the visuals here, like a Twilight Zone episode conceived by, well, Kanye West. It's a bold visual direction to take things. Lyrically, "530" is about the rapper's ex-wife, Kim Kardashian. It also touches on the way Kardashian is raising their children, and the fears West has about their futures.
The most interesting aspect of "530," barring the striking visuals, is that it received a music video this long after VULTURES 2 was released. Kanye West has not done promo for the album, and everything we have heard from him has seemingly been in preparation for his next solo release, BULLY. The rapper had seemed as though he closed the chapter on VULTURES. Now, we don't really know what to think.
