NewCC0074: Van Halen
- Van Halen (78): *****
- 1984 (84): *****
- Women & Children First (80): **** 1/2
- The Best of Van Halen, Vol. 1 (96): **** 1/2
- Van Halen II (79): ****
- Fair Warning (81): ****
- OU812 (88): *** 1/2
- 5150 (86): *** 1/2
- Diver Down (82): ***
- For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (91): ***
- Balance (95): ***
- Van Halen 3 (98): **
- Van Halen Live: Right Here, Right Now (93): **
This is a new entry in an up-dated series I'm calling the New Critical Consensus. Several people have requested updates of the older series, and since critical opinions shift, I am revamping the entire system. I am averaging the opinions of several excellent music critics to produce a list of each artist's albums. Rather than using a number system, which was perhaps a bit clunky, I will now be using a five-star system. The albums will be listed in a recommended purchasing order, so new fans will have an idea of where the best place to start buying an artist's work is.
These are not my opinions, although, since I have chosen the critics used (and I'm using many), my taste will perhaps seep through a bit.
Terribly nerdy, I know, but maybe this will help people only now beginning to dabble into certain artists' bodies of work.
Scale:
***** - Masterpiece
**** 1/2 - Classic
**** - Great
*** 1/2 - Good
*** - Above Average
** 1/2 - Average
** - Below Average
* 1/2 - Bad
* - Terrible
1/2 - One of the worst albums ever
It seems that, by these ratings, Van Halen was better with Roth than with Sammy. Would most of the critics who are used for these ratings have been introduced to Van Halen during the Roth era?
I personally find Sammy's lyrics to be much more intelligent and the music much better with him at the helm.
hey buber, i'd venture to say that Dave's lyrics are a little better written. Sammy's are kind of throwaway lyrics..."only time will tell if we can stand the test of time"?...but Eddie wrote a lot of great music during the Sammy Hagar period of Van Halen.
Well, I guess I'd have to go back and see who wrote each song. But it just seemed to me that songs like Balance, Naturally Wired, Pleasuredome and so forth were deeper than the cars and women Roth sang about.
But, I've definitely listened to much more of the Sammy era stuff than the stuff before, so I'm sure I'm biased.
I somewhat doubt that is much of a factor. Van Halen was easy to CC because the critics almost without exception agree on the ratings for the group's albums. I did not have one single critic, young or old, who prefered the Sammy-era band to the David-era one.
The two main reasons that seemed to be mentioned most often were: 1) the albums with David were less formula-driven and more wild and playful, and 2) Sammy seemed to take seriously everything David seemed to be knowingly playing up.
None of this means they're right, of course, but I doubt that age had much to do with the ratings. Nearly all the critics favor Roth.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
well.. I must say I strongly disagree here Lester Bangsomightyone. 1984 getting five stars is a shame. horrible record. Vanhagar basically with David Lee Roth. Fair Warning and Diver Down are far superior.