Van Halen is:
Edward Van Halen-Guitar, keyboards
Sammy Hagar-vocals
Micheal Anthony-Bass Guitar
Alex Van Halen-Drums
HELLO BABY!! yells Sammy Hagar, the new lead singer (at the time) to the legendary hard rock band
Van Halen. This would be Van Halen's first album with Sammy, and a great effort it is. Perhaps their worst album out of the first 7 albums, though. A lot of great keyboard work on this album which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does force the band to cut back on the fantastic guitar work of Edward Van Halen. Here is my opinion of
5150.
5150 is an album that I was a little hesitant to buy at first, but eventually I made the right decision. And I am so glad I bought this! The things that stand out the most are: Eddie's amazing guitar work (obviously), Eddie's keyboard work, and the vocals I found were pretty strong as well (although I prefer the David Lee Roth era).
The songs that weren't featured on the band's
Live Without A Net DVD (
Dreams and
Inside) are my least favourite songs on the album mainly because they were a big change in Van Halen's earlier sound that I dig. Dreams being a completely keyboard powered song, and Inside being very strange. Don't get me wrong I like those songs, but the change was a little sudden, for me. This album seems like a progressive rock album to me. Although the keyboards were catchy and amazing, sometimes they just didn't cut it for me. An example of this was in
Why Can't This Be Love. I personally think that the keyboard would've worked equally, or even better as a guitar riff with a little bit on the wah pedal.
The one love song that I absolutely love on here is
Love Walks In, which is another keyboard powered song but is a very beautiful, slow paced number. The guitar solo is one of Eddie's slower and easier solo's, but fits the song very nicely. Very melodic and inspirational.
The lyrics aren't as good as David Lee Roth era lyrics, but are still great. This exerpt from the title track is an example of some of the greatest lyrics that I have heard on the album:
Always one more
You're never satisfied
Never one for all with you it's always one for me
So I draw the line
Meet you half the way
When you don't know what that means
Now back to the guitar. It seems like there is less distortion and less solo's on
5150, and like I said before, I blame the keyboards. I don't think the guitar work is as good on this album as opposed to Van Halen's debut album, or even any of their work before
5150. But when the guitar does show up, it is phenominal. I think the main riff on
Best Of Both Worlds at the very start should've been played one more time.
My personal favourite songs on here are the hard rocker's such as
Get Up,
Summer Nights, the title track, and
Good Enough. They are the closest sounding to the David Lee Roth era songs that Van Halen has, which are obviously the bands best work. But on
Get Up I just love that guitar sound which is kind of a wah pedal sound and it almost sounds like Eddie is using a slide to play the main riff. Probably the fastest song on the album with tons of energy.
Well, that's pretty much all I can say about
5150. I hope I explained it good enough. Overall this album is a must have for all fans of the hard rock genre. My granfather doesn't like hard rock at all, and even he likes some of this album!
Recommended Tracks
Get Up
Summer Nights
Love Walks In
5150
Better than some of my other ones at least :lol:
