12. Van Halen 5150 1986 (Warner Bros.)
Hard Rock
US prime grade 'A' stamp guaranteed.
The Lowdown
5150 would be a major turning point for Van Halen as this was their first album without the trademark face of the band’s talisman David Lee Roth, who now considered himself to be a solo artist. So without David Lee Roth the band returned as an altered beast with their most consistently accessible collection of songs to date. The band’s constant dabblings with synths would be at their most expansive, their dedication to hit singles even greater and the link to the AOR listening market enhanced with the polished sound and production of the album's most commercial efforts. So enter Sammy Hagar a friend of Eddie Van Halen and a hard rocker that had a long pedigree in the business, Sammy Hagar had made his reputation as the vocalist in Montrose before embarking on a solo career which saw him release an impressive eight studio albums to decent commercial success. Some of these albums especially the Montrose ones have already been reviewed by me some time back (see reviews) but most of his solo stuff was certainly average fare a lot of the time despite having a large fanbase. Despite all this I was always a Sammy Hagar fan and was one of those that welcomed his inclusion into the Van Halen line-up. David Lee Roth was certainly the face of Van Halen and his sexy onstage shenanigans and innuendos were what made Van Halen a huge market seller, but like a lot of high profile frontmen he thought he could do it better on his own and imo his pseudo pop material that he recorded as a solo artist leaves a lot to be desired. With all this in mind
5150 still very much feels like a Van Halen album in its key aspects, because even with David Lee Roth in the band this would’ve been the direction that band would’ve taken anyway. Also on the album’s opening track “Good Enough” if the listener wasn’t aware that David Lee Roth had left the band, the vocal sound of Sammy Hagar is pretty much the same especially with his ‘hello baby’ intro (clearly chosen for this reason I guess) and on a lot of similar tracks he sounds pretty similar DLR anyway. As said earlier I really like Sammy Hagar as he had the ability to sing on
5150 solid polished songs as they should be sung, without ever needing to revert to that overused DLR style, as Eddie Van Halen was now clearly the band leader this stylistic control was probably down to him. The songs on
5150 are a mixture of traditional Van Halen hard rock efforts and a consistently strong collection of power ballads with big hooks. So starting with the power ballads which were designed as the album's singles and they don't come any bigger than "Why Can't This Be Love" with its knocking keyboards intro that turned out to be the biggest selling single from the album and one of the band's best known songs. This then gives way to the even more superior and soaring "Dreams" one of my all time favourite tracks from the 1980s. The band return to that "Dreams" style with the glorious sounding "Love Walks In" another huge favourite of mine and a song I can listen to all day and both of these songs were released as singles as well. The grittier tracks come in the aforementioned "Good Enough" and the manic guitar of "Get Up" which sounds like a nod to "Hot for Teacher" and in my opinion these songs are somewhat mediocre but not without a certain charm in the right places or mood. The best of these type of tracks are without doubt "Summer Nights" whose disjointed style blends in nicely with its melodic chorus, then there is the single "Best of Both Worlds" a straight forward hard rocker that's easy enough on the ear for the record buying public to like. "Inside" is a fun stab of humour from the band and in my opinion a clever addition to close the album. Finally the title track the most ambitious on the album, probably blends in the two principal styles of the album to give a strong late album track that lasts around 5 mins. The album is a testament to Eddie Van Halen’s passion for keyboards which don’t come at the expense of his great guitar playing and Sammy Hagar sounds like he’s been at the band’s helm for years and this is just another album for him with the band, giving the whole listening experience a certain level of authenticity. On the downside
5150 suffers like most Van Halen albums do, in that its singles and standout tracks are consistently stronger than the rest of the album material on offer, a factor which has always dragged down most Van Halen albums in these listings, but nevertheless
5150 is an enjoyable listening experience.
Sammy Hagar- Vocals
Eddie Van Halen- Guitar
Tony Anthony- Bass
Alex Van Halen- Drums
Production- Van Halen