As the rickety jalopy that is Van Halen Mach III hits a well-deserved brick wall, "Diamond" David Lee Roth cruises by the wreckage in his highly customized musical convertible, headed as always for the beach -- with plenty of room for you to ride shotgun.
Make no mistake, it's a bumpy ride: Life with the top down has messed up Roth's voice as badly as his hair, and there's little of the thrill-seeking genre-hopping that made 1994's unfairly maligned "Your Filthy Little Mouth" such a memorable road trip.
Still, there are enough moments of hot fun in the summertime -- particularly the acoustically flavored "Going Places" and "Black Sand" -- that go down as smoothly as a swig of lemonade from the cooler in the back seat. Drive on, you crazy diamond.
