https://themusicuniverse.com/sammy-hagar-circle-announce-crazy-times/

Sammy Hagar and The Circle announce ‘Crazy Times’
Buddy Iahn
July 28, 2022
Notable Releases, Rock

Album drops this fall

Sammy Hagar and The Circle, featuring Jason Bonham, Michael Anthony and Vic Johnson, will release their second studio album, Crazy Times, this fall via BMG. The project will be available on CD and digital on September 30th and vinyl on October 28th. The album’s first single and title track, “Crazy Times,” is now available digitally.

“This song is basically about how I feel coming out the other side of everything we’ve all gone through together the last couple years,” Hagar shares. “These are some crazy times.”

The 12 track album was recorded in Nashville with producer Dave Cobb, showing a new side of the band.

“It’s The Circle’s second studio record, done with Dave Cobb,” Hagar shares. “Yeah, uh huh, I’m excited. I can’t wait. You’re gonna love it. Whoa! It’s been a long time coming. Number two studio album for The Circle.”

Crazy Times is the fourth project from the band, which includes last year’s Lockdown 2020 that was recorded on iPhones during the COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders, their 2019 studio debut Space Between, and their 2015 double live project, At Your Service.

The group is currently on their Crazy Times North American summer amphitheater tour with special guests George Thorogood and the Destroyers. Produced by Live Nation and presented by Hagar’s portfolio of spirits, the trek concludes on September 17th in Irving, TX, after adding two Texas dates due to overwhelming demand.

Formed in 2014, the acclaimed supergroup, made up of Hagar on guitar and vocals, bassist Michael Anthony, drummer Jason Bonham and guitarist Vic Johnson, has established itself as one of the most emphatic and exciting live acts on tour today, seamlessly ripping through career-spanning hits from Montrose, Van Halen, Sammy Hagar and The Waboritas and Led Zeppelin.

Intro: The Beginning Of The End
Slow Drain
Feed Your Head
Pump It Up
Be Still
You Get What You Pay For
Crazy Times
Funky Feng Shui
Father Time
Childhood’s End
2120
Father Time (Acoustic)

Available physical formats:

CD

Black Vinyl

Translucent Ruby Limited Edition Vinyl

Cool video. Sounds like ‘Right Now’.

Sammy Hagar & The Circle – “Crazy Times” VAN HALENIZED by Derek Fan Halen of the VAN HALEN tribute band FAN HALEN

mrmojohalen: Cool video. Sounds like ‘Right Now’.

With a dash of “Me Wise Magic” tossed in every time they go into the quick break.

In addition to the physical formats listed above, there are also WalMart and Target Exclusive CDs
WalMart includes a bonus disc of Greatest Hits material
Target includes 2 bonus songs

I pre-ordered the Target version. I wonder if the greatest hits package with Walmart will be the standard songs, or if they’ll be re-recordings?

These are the songs off the greatest hits disc:

1. I Cant Drive 55
2. Heavy Metal
3. Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy
4. There’s Only One Way To Rock
5. Mas Tequila
6. Ill Fall In Love Again
7. Three Lock Box
8. Eagles Fly
9. Baby’s On Fire
10. Give To Live

Sammy Hagar & The Circle – Pump It Up (Official Music Video)

Funky Feng Shui – Sammy Hagar & The Circle (Official Music Video)

https://riffmagazine.com/album-reviews/sammy-hagar-and-the-circle-crazy-times/

REVIEW: Sammy Hagar’s words, the Circle’s music grow up on ‘Crazy Times’
Sam Richards
September 26, 2022, 12:01 am

It’s a different Sammy Hagar who leads his newest band, The Circle, than the guy who couldn’t drive 55 in the mid-1980s, or who gave Van Halen a more melodic pop bent several years later.

Crazy Times
Sammy Hagar and the Circle
Universal, Sept. 30
7/10

He’s certainly older — almost 75 — and his voice isn’t the marvel of nature it once was. But Crazy Times, the new album with the Circle, presents a vocalist who integrates with his bandmates more than he rises above them or consciously plays off of them. That’s a compliment; this album, a sort of continuation of (and an improvement on) the Circle’s 2019 album, Space Between, presents nothing closely resembling “There’s Only One Way to Rock” or “I’ll Fall in Love Again.”

If anything, several songs on Crazy Times are closer to “Bad Motor Scooter” by Montrose, on whose first two albums Hagar first gained fame, than to either his various solo projects or, especially, his work with Van Halen.

That means tough music, of varying tempos, that’s much less pop-friendly than his best-known work, and only slightly less accessible. Many listeners will find that to be a trade well worth making.

Hagar has worked with these players before — longtime Van Halen bassist and harmony vocalist Michael Anthony, lead guitarist Vic Johnson (a veteran of another Hagar band, the Waboritas) and Jason Bonham, John’s son who has made his own name as a powerhouse drummer.

It’s Bonham who kicks off this album driving the lumbering pace of “Slow Drain,” on which Hagar bemoans the state of things, “Watching the world go down.” There’s melody there, but it’s the sheer muscle of the musicians’ playing — especially Bonham’s — that make this, and most of the 10 songs here, stand out.

Most of Crazy Times is mid-tempo stompers. While many of his older songs have been taken at a similar speed, these new ones are cut from a different cloth than the Red Rocker of yore. While he sings now about crazy times, he mostly isn’t talking about himself. This is an older, wiser Hagar, having mostly moved past whiskey and women.

The most wistful song here, “Father Time,” has Hagar ruminating on his life, his decisions, the ups and downs of a life he’s still a part of, despite all the hard knocks: “Hard right to the head/ Left hook to the body/ Ain’t nobody going down, but they sure are taking a beating … And the songs we sing won’t change it, no matter how loud we play it … I can see it. I just don’t know what to do about it.”

While the Circle’s Lockdown 2020 was mostly given over to covers, there’s only one non-original here, a take on Elvis Costello and the Attractions’ “Pump It Up” that substitutes Johnson’s guitar for the original’s Farfisa organ and otherwise toughens it up.

While putting down a solid bottom, Anthony also contributes his signature high background vocals on several songs here, notably “Feed Your Head” and “Father Time.” Aside from a short burst during “You Get What You Pay For” that in its “yeah yeah yeahs” harken back pointedly to “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love,” Anthony’s background singing here is more atmospheric, more its own instrument than simply timely harmonies.

The sound is great, not only thanks to the players but to the crystalline production of Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile). The overall effect isn’t necessarily radio-friendly, but rather a deeper listening experience, at least by the standards of hard rock.

Crazy Times shows Hagar’s maturation, finally achieved in his mid-70s, and that he’s improving with age.

2120 – Sammy Hagar & The Circle
Sep 30, 2022
Sammy Hagar
“2120″ is the first bonus track from the Target edition of Sammy Hagar & The Circle’s “Crazy Times” album.

Father Time (Acoustic Demo) – Sammy Hagar & The Circle
Sep 30, 2022
Sammy Hagar
“Father Time (Acoustic Demo)” is the second bonus track from the Target edition of Sammy Hagar & The Circle’s “Crazy Times” album.

https://twitter.com/sammyhagar/status/1576300923395022848
Sammy will be joining @davecobb7 on #SouthernAccentsRadio to talk about working together on ‘Crazy Times.’ Open @applemusic , tap Radio, and hit Apple Music Country to listen live! https://music.apple.com/us/curator/1500976687

Does anyone have an Apple account that can download and share this interview? Thanks

Father Time – Sammy Hagar & The Circle (Official Music Video)