Van Halen
Best Of, Volume 1

THE REVIEW

The forerunner of guitar heroes on display with the best pieces of his repertoire. Speed, power, and precision made Edward Van Halen "The" guitarist of the new era, the one who forever changed the way of playing rock guitar, introducing a world that no one at the beginning would have understood, but which many soon would adore, drawing inspiration from him and using his teachings as a starting base to explore new sounds. Anyone who plays guitar in hard rock nowadays is at least remotely influenced by Eddie's notes. But a commander is nothing without a crew, and if the crew is elite, then success is assured. Above all, the first singer David "Diamond Dave" Lee Roth, known as a ladies' man and charismatic enough for a band that also fully entered Glam thanks to him and his flashy and dazzling outfits. But two roosters in the same henhouse are too many, and thus the idyll ends, perhaps also slightly due to a delusion of omnipotence, and here comes Sammy Hagar, a great clear voice and very good at guitar too, leaving Eddie room to experiment with a new instrument, the keyboard, where he will prove what he indeed is, trying new sounds and wanting to overdo it as suits him. The band’s fixed points are drummer brother Alex Van Halen and bassist Michael Anthony.

If then the story wants to be told in music, and the best pieces are gathered in a best, it's easy to smile and think that listening to it could be a lot of fun.

The myth of "Eruption" spans time without losing importance, and like every emblematic song worth, it opens the record, throwing the listener immediately into a whirlwind of notes, up to the climax, the peak of technique, unthinkable, alien, inhuman for the times. The group made a splash with the first album, from which "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" is also present here, which connects perfectly to the stratospheric solo that precedes it, although in the album, "Eruption" was followed by a Kinks cover "You Really Got Me" here rightly excluded. "Running With The Devil" continues the trio, providing great impressions. We continue strictly in chronological order, enough to really savor the changes in the sound, the search for new experiences, and the desire to stay on the crest of the wave. From the second album we have only "Dance The Night Away," and from the third "Women and Children First," only "And The Cradle Will Rock," perhaps one of the quartet's worst pieces; The rhythm returns frenetic with "Unchained," regularly exaggerated as is in Van Halen's style, then the most successful piece, "Jump," introduces Eddie's new love, the keyboard, which helps the group enter history with this 1983 song, which still dominates on the radio today. A novelty that makes the lovers of the acidic guitar sound wrinkle their noses, but we have a nice recovery with "Panama," making clear that Edward has not betrayed his true role. "Panama" also closes the first part of the disc, if you want to divide it into two, in the transition between Roth and Hagar, the latter who will introduce even more new sounds into the group, while Diamond Dave will embark on a respectable solo career, with high-caliber musicians.

And then another chart piece "Why Can't This Be Love" makes the new singer appreciated, although it leaves a bitter aftertaste and quite a bit of indecision among the fans, who nevertheless partly do not disdain the new presence and also appreciate the work done by Edward with the keyboard. We mention "Poundcake," "Can't Stop Lovin' You," and "Me Wise Magic" as the best pieces of the Hagar era, but we are far from the public and critical success of the old times, but years pass for everyone.

The decline has also arrived for the legendary Van Halen, who gradually have gone lower and lower, qualitatively and technically, but maintaining the sonic uniqueness that has always distinguished them.

Perhaps a track could have been added or removed, at most two, but so it remains one of the best Best of rock history, simple and concise at the right point, with a slightly bitter aftertaste, for the anticipation that the band might follow the reunion trend, and maybe a new album.