Artist: VAN HALEN
Album: FOR UNLAWFUL CARNAL KNOWLEDGE (CD)

Year: 1991
Media type: CD

For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (also known as F.U.C.K.) is the ninth album by the American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1991. The album's title came from lead singer Sammy Hagar, who wanted to push the issue of censorship with naming Van Halen's album with a vulgarity, saying "That's when censorship was a big issue. I wanted to name the album just Fuck."[1] Hagar eventually backed away from the outright vulgarity after he was (mis)informed by his friend, former world lightweight boxing champion Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, that the word "fuck" was an acronym for the phrase "For unlawful carnal knowledge."[1]. Their tour promoting the album was named F.U.C.K. 'n' Live.

The album itself was marketed as the "return" to Van Halen's rock roots, with most songs being guitar driven, and the synth sounds being replaced by pianos, as the synth sound had become very dated by the time of F.U.C.K.'s release. This can be prominently heard on "Right Now," the most popular song from the album. The band also reconciled with producer Ted Templeman who produced earlier Van Halen albums to return to work on the album. This was the first album that Edward recorded without his trademark overdriven Marshall heads. It was said in interviews with Ted Templeman that eddie's Marshalls kept breaking down due to their age and the fact that eddie overdrove the power amp stage to achieve his tone, so Ted helped ed settle on using a Soldano SLO-100 to record the album. Shortly after the recording of the album Eddie started his long time use of the 5150 series of custom amplifiers, manufactured by American instrument company Peavey.

"Poundcake" featured the sound of a battery operated power drill, which Van Halen held to the pickups of his guitar and revved, creating the intro. The song "Top of the World" features a riff that was first heard during the outro of the 1984-era hit "Jump." For this reason, "Top of the World" is frequently played directly after "Jump," and also took that immediate track after it on the "Best of Both Worlds" compilation. The instrumental, "316" is named for the March 16 birthday of Edward Van Halen's son Wolfgang, who is currently Van Halen's bass player, although the song precedes his birth (as it can be heard on "Live Without A Net".

All songs by Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar, Edward Van Halen and Alex Van Halen.

TRACKLIST:

"Poundcake" – 5:22
"Judgement Day" – 4:41
"Spanked" – 4:53
"Runaround" – 4:21
"Pleasure Dome" – 6:57
"In 'n' Out" – 6:05
"Man on a Mission" – 5:04
"The Dream Is Over" – 4:00
"Right Now" – 5:21
"316" – 1:29
"Top of the World" – 3:55

LINE-UP:

Sammy Hagar - lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Eddie Van Halen - lead guitar, keyboards, electric drill (used on "Poundcake"), background vocals
Michael Anthony - bass, background vocals
Alex Van Halen - percussion, drums

Guest musicians
Steve Lukather - background vocals on "Top of the World"