For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
| For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge | ||||
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| Studio album by Van Halen | ||||
| Released | June 18, 1991 | |||
| Recorded | March 1990 – April 1991 | |||
| Studio | 5150 Studios, Studio City, CA | |||
| Genre | Hard rock | |||
| Length | 52:00 | |||
| Label | Warner Bros. | |||
| Producer | Andy Johns, Ted Templeman, Van Halen | |||
| Van Halen chronology | ||||
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| Singles from For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    |
| Entertainment Weekly | C |
| Robert Christgau |  |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Ultimate Guitar | |
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (also known as F.U.C.K.) is the ninth studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1991 on Warner Bros. Records. It debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart and maintained the position for three weeks.
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, stating, "That's when censorship was a big issue. I wanted to name the album just Fuck." Hagar eventually backed away from the outright vulgarity after he was told 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" (though this is a false etymology). Their tour promoting the album was unofficially named F.U.C.K. 'n' Live. Prior to recording, the term "for unlawful carnal knowledge" was first used by the band Coven as a track on their album Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls in 1969.
Van Halen started work on the album in March 1990 and finished in April 1991 (just two months before its release). The album itself was marketed as the "return" to Van Halen's hard rock roots, with most songs being guitar driven, and the synth sounds being replaced by pianos. This can be prominently heard on "Right Now", the most popular song from the album and likely from the "Van Hagar era". The band also reconciled with producer Ted Templeman who produced earlier Van Halen albums to return to work on the album. According to Eddie Van Halen, this happened because singer Sammy Hagar did not want to work with Andy Johns and Templeman "let him get away with everything". The year-long production led to the labored sound.
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