Poll

What Is The Best Van Halen Album during the Sammy Hagar years?

5150 (1986)
1 (50%)
OU812 (1988)
0 (0%)
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991)
1 (50%)
Balance (1995)
0 (0%)
Other
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 2

Author Topic: Van Halen - Discography (The Sammy Hagar Years)  (Read 20099 times)

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Chiprocks1

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« Last Edit: November 12, 2011, 08:46:21 am by Chiprocks1 »
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Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

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Chiprocks1

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Re: Van Halen - Discography (The Sammy Hagar Years)
« Reply #1 on: September 29, 2011, 11:29:51 am »
What Is The Best Van Halen Album during the Sammy Hagar years?

Circa 1986


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Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Chiprocks1

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Re: Van Halen - Discography (The Sammy Hagar Years)
« Reply #2 on: September 29, 2011, 11:36:38 am »
Van Halen 5150 (1986)




08.07.11 Review

The changing of the guard. Exit Diamond Dave, enter Sammy Hagar. When I first heard about Roth leaving (or getting fired. To this day I still don't know what story to believe), I pretty much wrote Van Halen off as dead. Nothing against Sammy as I was a fan of his long before him joining VH. It wasn't a knock against him as a singer or guitar player. It was simply that he was stepping into some pretty huge shoes left vacant by Roth. That's a lot of pressure for anyone and my expectations for 5150 were set so low that I couldn't be disappointed with the final product.

A friend of mine who was a huge VH fan at the time kept telling me everyday not to bail on VH. His enthusiasm was infectious. He never wavered as we waited for the release day. Just before the album was set to drop, I had finally heard Why Can't This Be Love on the radio. I was like, "holy sh*t, that song f*cking rocks!". It was so different from anything I had ever heard from Eddie and the gang. So, it gave me hope that ok, they were not going to try to turn Sammy into Dave and replicate what they had done before.

Upon picking up 5150, I played it non stop. The entire album brings back a lot of fond memories of that summer. It's actually one of my favorite Van Hagar records because every song reminds me of specific things I did during that summer. The solo to Love Walks In is still a fave of mine. This is the first time I have listened to it top to bottom in years. It's still a great record, but a couple of songs I could do without now.

The guitar intro to 5150 was and still is some of the best rhythm playing of Eddie's career IMO.

Fave Songs: Good Enough, Why Can't This Be Love, Summer Nights, Love Walks In and 5150.

5150 Music Videos








« Last Edit: September 29, 2011, 11:49:50 am by ChipRawks »
Chip's Rockin' Art
Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Chiprocks1

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Re: Van Halen - Discography (The Sammy Hagar Years)
« Reply #3 on: September 29, 2011, 11:49:18 am »
Van Halen (OU812) 1988





08.07.11 Review

OU812 is an above average record due in large part to being extremely uneven with regard to pacing and song structure. What I had a problem with back when it was released as I do now is the track order. I'm so used to a certain formulaic order of songs. Usually for a band with the caliber of Van Halen and hard rock bands in general, you have 3-4 hard rocking songs to kick off an album and then bring it down with a ballad. But with this one, they open up with Mine All Mine and then immediately follow it with When It's Love. Whatever momentum has been built up from the previous song comes to a screeching halt. It's not that I don't like When It's Love. I actually like it a lot. I just think somebody f*cked up when constructing the track list and it doesn't serve the album well at all IMO.

As for the rest of the album, there are more misses than hits on this one. I can listen to Feels So Good a couple of times before it starts to grate on me, only because it's too drenched in "pop" music. Where they failed on that song, they succeed with Finish What Ya Started. What a great finger-picking song. A Apolitical Blues is interesting, but so far removed from what you would expect from VH that it sounds out of place.

Fave Songs: Mine All Mine, Cabo Wabo, When It's Love, Finish What Ya Started, Black And Blue

OU812 Music Videos







Chip's Rockin' Art
Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Chiprocks1

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Re: Van Halen - Discography (The Sammy Hagar Years)
« Reply #4 on: September 29, 2011, 12:05:22 pm »
Van Halen (For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge) 1991




08.07.11 Review

F.U.C.K. Umaine! Hey, it's not what you think. Just pointing out that he digs For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge and rightly so.  This is the definitive Van Hagar album. He pretty much hit the nail on the head. Every song is about as close to perfect as you can get. I played this nonstop when it came out, but it has been awhile since I've played it. It's nice revisiting this one. So many great songs on here from Poundcake to Runaround to In N Out to Right Now. This is how you put a track list together. Compare this to that of OU812 and you will see what I mean.

Fave Songs: All of 'em.

The only problem with F.U.C.K. being as great as it is, it just makes it all the more glaring at how awful Balance is. I really don't wanna listen to that next. I listened to that one maybe 2-3 times when it came out, trying to like it and hating it more each time. Haven't bothered with that one since then. We shall see if time has made it better....or sh*ttier.

F.U.C.K. Music Videos (Yes, I'm aware of what this title implies)









Chip's Rockin' Art
Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Chiprocks1

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Re: Van Halen - Discography (The Sammy Hagar Years)
« Reply #5 on: September 29, 2011, 12:22:04 pm »
Van Halen (Balance) 1995




08.08.11 Review

Well, this is the first time I have listened to Balance in 15 years. So I was hoping that time would give me a new perspective on it and not be as bad as I remembered it to be. The best song of the entire album is The Seventh Seal without question. Honestly I can do away with the first 2 of Eddie's instrumental songs on Balance. There is absolute nothing memorable about either one of them. Baluchitherium on the other hand is what I would expect to get from him if he ever released a full-on instrumental album ala Satch, Vai, etc... And that's a good thing. Not Enough. Ugh. I hated it then and I hate it now. It's just...saturated with so much sugar that I'm getting cavities just listening to it. Take Me Back (Deja Vu) is only slightly better.

Is Balance better than what I remember it to be? Yes. But it's still my least favorite of the Van Hagar era, putting OU812 ahead of it. Overall, Balance is well...unbalanced IMO.

Fave Songs: The Seventh Seal, Can't Stop Loving You, Don't Tell Me (What Love Can Do) and Baluchitherium.

Balance Music Videos





Chip's Rockin' Art
Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Chiprocks1

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Re: Van Halen - Discography (The Sammy Hagar Years)
« Reply #6 on: September 29, 2011, 12:29:54 pm »
Van Halen (Van Halen III) 1998




Yes, this is not a Sammy Hagar/VH album. But in the quest to complete the entire VH catalog I am including it here. You can vote other in the Poll above if this is in fact your favorite VH album.

08.08.11 Review

Why try to review VHIII when someone else has already come up with the best blurb about VHIII?

Quote
Instead of a fat guy with a cannonball to the stomach, it should have had Eddie Van Halen shooting himself in the foot.



So true.

It gets a star for the simple fact that it only cost me $1.99 at Goodwill. And since I walked 5 blocks to the store from my house, I just look at it that I spent the money going to the gym to excercise. Have to point out, opening III with New World was just a absolute horrible idea. This isn't an Enya record. See my rant about Track listing in the OU812 Post to understand how I feel about pacing, etc...

Fave Songs: Um...give me a second here. Fire in the Hole is about the only song I can listen too.

Van Halen III Music Videos



« Last Edit: June 02, 2012, 01:27:54 pm by Chiprocks1 »
Chip's Rockin' Art
Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Chiprocks1

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Re: Van Halen - Discography (The Sammy Hagar Years)
« Reply #7 on: September 30, 2011, 08:52:11 am »
Van Halen (The Best Of Both Worlds) 2004




08.08.11 Review

By far, The Best Of Both Worlds is a much better GH package than that of The Best Of Van Halen, Vol. I, due in large part to a double disc set that includes more gems. Is it still the definitive release? I doubt it. I'm sure within 5 years we will get an anthology type release that will have even more of the good stuff. Like everyone else, I picked this up for the 3 new songs with Sammy reuniting with Eddie, Alex and Michael (even though he technically didn't play one note on the new songs).

The new songs are It's About Time, Up For Breakfast and Learning To See. I really dig It's About Time. Up For Breakfast marginally so. Learning To See is meh.

I'm nitpicking a bit here, but did they really have to just throw all the songs up there with a makeshift track list? None of the songs are in chronological order at all, which I just find very bizarre. Oh well...
Chip's Rockin' Art
Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Mac

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Re: Van Halen - Discography (The Sammy Hagar Years)
« Reply #8 on: September 30, 2011, 12:56:30 pm »
Agree, what the hell with the track lists? Doesn't make sense.
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Mac

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Re: Van Halen - Discography (The Sammy Hagar Years)
« Reply #9 on: January 20, 2012, 08:05:52 am »
SAMMY HAGAR SLAMS NEW VAN HALEN SINGLE

Ex-Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar has slammed "Tattoo," the first single from Van Halen's upcoming album with original frontman David Lee Roth, A Different Kind Of Truth. Speaking with Cack Blabbath while on tour in Europe with Chickenfoot, Hagar said about the track, "I personally don't think that what they have just released, what I have seen and heard, is great at all. It should be better than it is but hey, it is what it is and at least they got together and at least they came out with something, that's all I can say, you know. God bless them but I was expecting a lot more."

Hagar was also asked if he thought the Van Halen reunion with Roth was motivated by money. He replied, "I'll tell you what, they waited so long and they're so not fan friendly, and as big as Van Halen was in the past . . . Why they're doing it now I have no idea, but I think it's about time."

Hagar told us that he thinks the Van Halen brothers aren't very good at connecting with the world: "They're so out of it. They sit and they hide in their little closets, you know. They never get out. They never go around to other people. They never listen to the radio. They don't do anything to stay current or to just keep their hand on the pulse, you know."

Chickenfoot, which also features former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, is out on the road behind its second album, Chickenfoot III.

Van Halen's A Different Kind Of Truth will be out on February 7th, with the band kicking off a North American tour on the 18th in Louisville, Kentucky.
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Chiprocks1

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Re: Van Halen - Discography (The Sammy Hagar Years)
« Reply #10 on: January 20, 2012, 08:13:12 am »
That's some tasty news. I would love to hear more from Sammy and what he thinks of A Different Kind Of Truth once it's released. Would also like to hear from Michael Anthony as well.
Chip's Rockin' Art
Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

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Re: Van Halen - Discography (The Sammy Hagar Years)
« Reply #11 on: January 20, 2012, 08:16:14 am »
I don't think a problem from Sammy. Michael, does he really speak up at all?
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Chiprocks1

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Re: Van Halen - Discography (The Sammy Hagar Years)
« Reply #12 on: January 20, 2012, 08:26:42 am »
I've never known Mike to be controversial at all. So if went on record trashing the new album, it would be HUGE news.
Chip's Rockin' Art
Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

boyinblack80

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Re: Van Halen - Discography (The Sammy Hagar Years)
« Reply #13 on: February 27, 2012, 04:54:04 pm »
5150 Van Halen.

After the departure or loss of front man and lead vocalist David Lee Roth....how does a band survive...well if you have Eddie Van Halen at the wheel of the guitar/ drivers seat...you've got a great start./.  ok so now I will get into personal feelings really quick just to preface this review...and then back to pure objectivity (and my thoughts on this record today)  I was never a fan of Sammy solo.  I didn't like his music, I didn't like his clothes, I didn't like his hair, head bands, or bleach white teeth....hearing he was joining Van Halen was NOT good news for this 17 year old Van Halen life long fan (well since 1977) so 9 year fan (since 5150 hit the shelves in 1986.)  I have to say that back when it came out I liked it.  Not only did I like, I really liked it.  Hey no grudges right Sammy?...the guy can sing his ass off, writes amazing rock lyrics, and has an energy that fit amazingly well with the mighty Van Halen...ok enough on Sammy...lets talk the songs and Eddie.  Eddie plays GREAT on this record...there are so many great riffs piled into this album and it's songs....It's a CD filled to the BRIM (literally) with great things.  I think back when the disc came out...a CD could hold 73 minutes worth of music...and VH 5150 was 72:58...it was insane/  The did not screw around./

I am reviewing the vinyl....so lets go.

track 1 side 1.  Good Enough.....Hello...Babaaaaaay.  I mean...the song rocks.  It's got the lyrics, the punch, the riffs...the song is a perfect VH song and a GREAT, GREAT  intro to this new version of an already hugely successful band....big shoes to fill...**** yeah...and this track was them jumping in head first. 

track 2 side 1.  Why Can't This Be Love.  Even writing the title I cringe a tiny bit....it would be way too easy to write off a song like this....but it is SO good...why would you.  The verses are so f*cking good....and I mean again...this is a 5 star track.  perfect song.

track 3 side 1.  Get Up......"you say that love has got you down well that's BULL****.  **** Sammy where have you been all my life...was your solo work this good...did I totally blow ever giving you a chance...I still don't really know to this day.  I did listen to Montrose...and it just wasn't really as good as Sammy thought it was.  he says they were the American Led Zeppelin.  I'd disagree.  But we're talking about VH and this album 3 tracks in will not quit....it's amazing.

track 4 side 1.  Dreams. Blue Angels anyone?  Just kidding...really solid track and a nice change of pace....I mean something a song from the heart about wanting more in life can actually work....and this one does.

track 5 side 1.  Summer Nights.   I can't really listen to this track without thinking about the summer this record came out.....it's honestly a track I wouldn't normally like...I generally like much much much darker music...and a song about how great my summer nights are is not generally my thing....but it's a great track.


End of side 1.  I will say this since we can take a little break and talk about the packaging....I think the cover although a spotlight shot of a near naked buff guy is not my thing. (Atlas for the 1980's) the color and lightning effects do look cool...ok pet peeve time (why do you always DO this Van Halen I will NOT understand!!)...Liner notes (inner sleeve) and Back of the Album.  No track listing on back of the record jacket...and inside the lyrics are ALL out of ORDER.  It's SO annoying.  end of rant.

track 1 side 2.  Best of Both Worlds....starting to get a tiny bit poppy for my tastes....good song.....not the best.....I can forgive though great guitar playing on it.

track 2 side 2.  Love Comes Walking In.   "some kind of alien comes walking in?" / WTF?? hahahaha....again....I'd say good song, probably means more to some other people than it does for me....a nice song none the less....my favorite part of the song is definitely the final verses (after the solo) some great stuff in there lyrically....good job Sammy..  :)

track 3 side 2.  5150.  Fantastic track....I love how there's this amazing shift from the now classic Van Hagar upbeat tempo of the first minute into the main riffs and verses...just an incredible shift into the down and dirty classic Van Halen old school sound.  I love this song...some very intricate parts in this song....and it's done flawlessly and you just enjoy the tune and don't even need to be a musician to appreciate how complex this probably is to play.

track 4 side 2.  Inside.  I could really take or leave this track....I guess in a perfect world it would have gone from the joking quality of it into more a song like "Sinner's Swing"  the multiple layers of vocals I don't like....and there's like a talking track that goes through the whole song that is annoying.....would have been nice to at least duck into the song and not have all the ambient noise running through all the verses...(it's more buried during the verses which is nice)  Kind of a bummer way to end the record...but I get the feeling the goal was to fill the entire CD...so they pushed the tracks as far as they could.


all in all...I think 5150 is amazing...I still think it's the best Sammy solo record...but over the next few months I'll work through all the albums after (on vinyl) and see what I think then.  I'd give it 5/5....the minor criticisms I have really can't pull a come back or new re-birth record like this down....the chips and odds were SO stacked against them....and they landed on their feet jumping, kicking and screaming...and it sounded damn good.  Saw the band on this tour....it was GREAT as well. 
« Last Edit: February 27, 2012, 05:04:32 pm by boyinblack80 »

Chiprocks1

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Re: Van Halen - Discography (The Sammy Hagar Years)
« Reply #14 on: February 27, 2012, 05:09:01 pm »
Great review dude. And at least you saw VH that summer instead pulling a blunder like "I'll catch 'em next year". No one could be drunk enough to do something like that. Right?
Chip's Rockin' Art
Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

 

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