Van Halen Greatest Hits 2
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Van halen greatest hits 2 Continue AllMusic Rating User Ratings (0) Your review rating of the User Reviews of the Credits Releases Similar Albums In theory, Van Halen's greatest hits collection should be easy to collect, but Best Of, Vol. 1 proves that this is not the case. Trying to give David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar eras equal space, they end up not representing either particularly well. The first eight songs go through some of Diamond Dave's biggest songs - Ain't Talkin, Bout Love, Runnin With the Devil, And the Cradle Will Rock, Jump and Panama. It's hard to argue with any of the options, but significant songs like You Really Got Me, Beautiful Girls, (Oh) Beautiful Woman, I'll Wait, and Hot for a Teacher Missing. Similarly, the Sammy era has many big hits - Why It Can't Be Love, Dreams, When It's Love, and Right Now - but misses hits like Love Walks in, Black and Blue, and Finish What I Started. Obviously, the collection would have been better if it had been assembled as a double drive set, with Dave and Sammy getting a drive apiece. In addition, the much-hyped tracks reuniting with Roth, Can't Get This Stuff No More and Me Wise Magic, are a slight disappointment; The band sounds good, but no track contains a memorable hook. Also, the presence of Humans Being, one of Van Halen's worst tracks, is an insult, given how many great songs are missing. However, Best Of, Vol. 1 remains a good single drive encapsulating Van Halen's career, even if it's not a final retrospective. The blue highlight denotes the track's pick AllMusic User Rating Ratings (0) Your Rating Review of User Reviews of Credits Releases Related Albums It's no secret that there is a deep animosity between Van Halen - notably their leader, guitarist Edward (formerly Eddie) Van Halen - and their former frontman, David Lee Roth. His departure in 1985 was stinging, and while his solo career paled in comparison to Van Halen's continued success with Sammy Hagar as frontman, the band never escaped the shadow of David Dave's Diamond. No matter how many number one albums and singles they racked up, no matter how many shows they sold, fans and critics alike preferred their gonzo days with Roth, and continued to haunt the band for a reunion. Edward held on for years, but as soon as the band stumbled with the balance of 1995, he changed his mind, looking after Dave for an ill-fated mini-reunion for the 1996 hit compilation The Best of Van Halen, Vol. 1 is a move that led not only to two pleasant, though not enthusiastic new songs, but also to the estrangement of Sammy, who left the band because of the issue. Van Halen hired Extreme vocalist Gary Cherone for Van Halen III 1998, but instead of offering a new beginning, the album torpedoed the band's career, losing their fans and eventually their record contract. Years passed without any activity the band and the silence sparked an appetite for reunion - which for many meant reuniting with Dave rather than Sammy, but bad blood could run deep, so when Edward pulled the rest of the band together for a return tour in 2004, he chose Hagar as frontman. To promote the tour, the band put together a new hit group, a double disc, a 36-track Best of Both Worlds. At first glance, this seemed like the perfect solution to the problems that haunt the semi-baked Best Of, which on one disc may not fit hits from both the Dave and Sam eras, but The Best of both worlds proves to be another failed collection, and one of the reasons it doesn't work, and it should be that hostility towards David Lee Roth. Since the sound and popularity of the band were built on the recordings they made with Roth, Van Halen could not ignore his contribution, but they do their best to diminish him here. There are no pictures of Diamond Dave to be found in the work (except for the miniature reproductions of Van Halen's sleeves and women and children first) and David Wilde's liner notes mention it only twice - once when he joins the group, once when he leaves - while clearly lavish praise on Sammy. As shallow as it is swipes, it's understandable and can even be forgiving if the two discs were well assembled, but they are sabotaged by the absurd sequence that alternates Dave's song with Sammy's song for much of the entire collection. It's a jarring sequence, to say the least, causing whiplash changes in tone, mood and attitude with each song that is otherwise well chosen, containing big hits from each era (the only exception is the boneheaded move to the end of the collection with three abbreviations from the 1993 live album Live: Right Here, Right Now, all of Diamond Dave's songs performed by Sammy). This attempt to elevate Sammy over Dave in the canon is a bit like trying to say that Ronnie James Dio was more important to Black Sabbath than Ozzy Osbourne - a piece of hyperbole that does a disservice to what the singer actually achieved. David Lee Roth was a larger-than-life gonzo performer touched by the genius that helped Van Halen seem bigger, dumber, grander than any other metal band; with him in front, they were giants, they were golden gods. Sammy Hagar was his opposite, the everyman who sang about girls and tequila, someone who brought Van Halen back to earth. Since part of the fun of rock stars is to have them be larger than life, a manifestation of the audience's dreams, fans naturally gravitate towards the Diamond Dave years, but there are virtues of both approaches, and both have led to well great music. But it's hard to appreciate at Best of Both Worlds, when Dave and Sammy's melodies mix without regard to chronological, musical or emotional cohesion. Van Halen compilation here - it's just up to users to take these 36 songs and sequences of their home on their CD players or iPods to make this compilation it was supposed to be. WEA International released Very Best of Van Halen in 2004, which contains exactly the same track list. The blue highlight meant the track pick boosted by equally masterful stickwork drummer brother Alex, Eddie gave VH an immeasurable advantage over any other Los Angeles crossover-ready hard rock band of the 70s and 80s - and had so much - from the moment his two fingers tapped first roared out the speakers. There's a reason you only got two tracks in Van Halen's first album before you get into the solo guitar showcase: It was Eddie's band in the first place, and that it was enough to take over the world with. that still sound like they're setting fire to any sound system they're playing, and making you feel phantom homeless on your fingers with every blister scratch through the strings. Jamie's Cryin (Van Halen, 1978) A third-person story that only Van Halen would think was a good idea for them to say about a girl refusing to go up and suffering a tear-jerking result. Frontman David Lee Roth he made her feel so saaaaad ... Schmaltzing at least feigned empathy, but Eddie's guitar is all mocking, teasing malice - probably for the better, as VH has always been more compelling as charismatic heels anyway. Ton Lock will sample the lick for its massively popular Wild Thing a decade later; It remains unclear whether the irony of it being repurposed for the unabashedly polished anthem remains unclear.14 Beautiful Girls (Van Halen II, 1979) Let it never be said that VH couldn't boogie: Beautiful Girls puts some funk in its racks with Roth and EVH's best toxic Twins approaching. While the song is primarily driven by the stuttering last-stepping riff and former sweet-sassafrassin' nonsense, a special shoutout to the great Michael Anthony, whose bass bubbling provides the song with his buoyancy, and whose shimmering backing vocals eventually leave the song the most indelible impression.13 Feels So Good (OU812, 1988) Shinta obviously became a much more integral part of Van Halen's experience during his Sammy Hagar era, and Eddie was open to expanding his craft to 88 keys as he was on six strings. Feels So Good was one of his best studies, apedy pulsation, a gushing sublime organ-patch hook - the kind of sonic approximation of inner ooey-gooeyness that Dave probably would never let them get away with. Blake, he only really needs three words to get point across.12 Runnin' With the Devil (Van Halen, 1978) Is a pretty good way to start a career in rock: a flashy horn sound crescendo and then disappear into a foreboding bass-and-hi-hat kick, laying the runway for one of the most life-affirming guitar riffs of the 70s to take flight. By the time the band gets to the titular refrath for parents, replete with an obsessive Roth minister, babbling and squealing from above, their immortality has already been secured. There's a spectral guitar breakdown on the bridge too, though. Spanish Fly/D.O.A. (Van Halen II, 1979) It's not Eruption in terms of the iconic guitar mag, but the Spanish Fly is almost as impressive: Eddie's showboating on acoustic this time, putting the thing through his paces until the instrument itself sounds unrecognizable, deconstructed.