5150 Atlanta GA

5150

Van Halen

Warner Brothers Records, 1986

REVIEW BY: Alfredo Narvaez

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 08/10/1998

With the third version of Van Halen currently on tour -- andgetting reamed by the critics (I read Larry's review) -- I thoughtit'd be nice to revisit the previous two versions of the Van Halenship and see where and how they differ. Today, we'll go back to VH,Part Deux (or Van Hagar).

After the classic split between David Lee Roth and the Van Halenboys, Ed was seriously thinking of just getting a number of guestvocalists as replacement. Instead, he called on veteran Sammy Hagar(who has been on more bands than I can count) and was coming offhis biggest success with his hit single, "I Can't Drive 55." Theresult was 5150 -- probably their finest album with Hagar.

The album has some good rockers like "Good Enough" and "SummerNights" as well as the soft ballads for which Hagar gets hammeredon a daily basis - "Love Walks In," the title track, "Why Can'tThis Be Love" among others. The ballads work great. I mean, "LoveWalks In" is so pretty and "Dreams" could never have been done byclassic Van Halen.

Then there's some of the different lyrics that couldn't found inearliest Van Halen. Take "Best of Both Worlds" for example. "Idon't know what I've been living on/ But it's not enough to fill meup/I need more than words could say/I need everything this life cangive me." While some might find them questionable or dumb, thisreviewer finds them more honest than much of the drivel that passesfor lyrics in these days.