Best Van Halen album (not counting Van Halen or 1984)

The first two VH CDs were essentially their live set before they got signed, with the better songs on the first one. These two CDs made classic VH.

VH obviously changed when Hagar took the vocals over. The best of the Van Hagar CDs was ****. One solid song after another. Van Hagar in full stride.

 

I didn't own any of these albums, but I know what songs are in them, or can just look them up. If the order of the songs had anything to do with it, I didn't consider it.

I voted for "O, U, eight hundred and twelve."

 

To me it's close between VH II and 5150(I voted for 5150), though I think OU812 probably has to most pop-ish sound and mass appeal. I used to love Van Halen as a kid, though it's been a long time since I really listened to or thought about their music.

And I want to say, not fair for removing VH and 1984 from consideration!

 

Close between II and Fair Warning, but I voted the latter fbased on "mean streets" alone. Diver Down gets honorable mention.

 

I completely understand the Hagar fans- matter of fact, I much preferred Van Halen live with Hagar than DLR. So, my opinion is really only my opinion. But the Van Halen ranking should read like this:

Van Halen
Fair Warning
Van Halen II
Women and Children First
1984
Diver Down
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All the Van Halens with Hagar

Van Halen with DLR carved out a unique niche- that's why they were special- a once-in-a-lifetime guitarist, great drummer, etc- but what made them special was the sound and the attitude. A heavy metal band with a sense of humor? Extremely rare. Heavy metal music with a boogie swing? Extremely rare. Intelligent/funny lyrics that were not cliches, for the most part? Rare. Van Halen was a highly unique hard rock/metal band.

Everything about Van Hagar, to me, is average. Guitar went from being powerful to sometimes indistinguishable (you know, songs like Poundcake), sense of humor gone, and Hagar is in the triumvirate of cliched lyricists along with Bryan Adams and Bon Jovi.

So, if lyrics don't matter to you and you like that pop sound of Van Hagar, power to you. I like groups that a lot of others hate, like Springsteen and U2, but the criticisms don't bother me. Just my personal $.02 on VH.

 

5150 with Van Halen II a close second.

 

I really do agree with every normal VH fan that the earlier albums with DLR were better in general. For some reason 5150 stands out to me from the rest of the Hagar-fare and I actually used to like that album a lot. Though it is pretty far from how much I like VH I and 1984. I mean it's not even close.

 

Cant exclude VHI when talking about best of their catalog, but if forced to Fair Warning is second. Then VHII, Women and Children, Diver Down, then ..well thats about it really. Loved Hagar solo, loved VH.....hated Van Hagar.

 

Fair warning is the best of all their albums. Eddie absolutely crushes it. Push comes to Shove has one of my all time favorite solos.

I'd put Van Halen 1 next followed by II and 1984.

I always thought Diver Down was kind of **** as far as DLR Van Halen goes.

 

Fair Warning.

 

Accidentally clicked on II but meant to go with Women and Children First. Cradle and Everybody Wants Some are the strongest 1-2 punch on any of the albums in the poll.

 

Yeah, Diver Down had too many covers and was way too short. Still, for Hang Em High, Cathedral, Little Guitars, The Bug, and Secrets- and of course Big Bad Bill is Sweet William Now- basically, all the non-covers were great.

 

my thoughts exactly, but replace mean streets with unchained, which for my $$$ is the best van halen song. fair warning is just a bad-ass album...diver down is good too - i would say those are the two i listen to the most these days.

i was shocked at how good it was. i listened to it a bunch when it came out. that tattoo song was stuck in my head for months. i read that most of the album was made up of unrecorded tunes from the early days, which explains why it sounded like classic VH.

 

I think Van Halen's best album...aside from their self-entitled debut album that was their defining album...is the one that was never made. It would have been made if DLR didn't leave after 1984 but, instead, we got over 20 years of mostly mediocre stuff. They missed out on over 20 years of development with the original lineup.

Or, maybe not. We will never know.

 

Fair Warning edges out Women and Children as well as VH II.

Unchained is my all-time favorite =vh= song and probably one of the greatest guitar riffs ever recorded.

And not to be a =vh= snob, but......I don't really even consider the Hagar years as Van Halen.

 

I have no problem putting Unchained up with Mean Streets... I almost changed the two out myself. It's a toss up for me. Both songs represent their best.

Who is this Hagar fellow you all keep bringing up? The guy from Montrose? The Red Rocker? I liked that stuff, but why does he keep coming up in Van Halen discussions?

 

Van Halen sucks.