Chickenfoot III

Chickenfoot’s humorously named second album, III, features more of the solid hard rock one would expect from the quartet of Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony, and Chad Smith. This is exactly what hard rock fans have been clamoring for. The beats are solid, the chords are pure power, and Hagar’s vocals are the kind of heartland rock he brought to Montrose, his solo career, and his years with Van Halen. Had this been released in the ‘80s, it would have been the hardest-sounding mainstream hard rock available. “Last Temptation” and “Alright Alright” evoke memories of the arenas where this music belongs. “Different Devil” is the group’s idea of mellowing out—that is, not by much. A master guitarist, Satriani turns the ordinary into the extraordinary with flashes of sheer complexity on rockers like “Up Next,” “Lighten Up,” and “Big Foot,” where boogie, funk, R&B, and heavy metal come together flawlessly. Hagar’s scream of “I need a job” on the pulverizing “Three and a Half Letters” might be an anthem for the recession victims of the 2000s.