Van Halen – 5150 (Release Year – 1986)
I still the remember the day I heard the news when David Lee Roth quit Van Halen. I was in a state of disbelief when I first heard this news.
When Van Halen announced Sammy Hagar as their new singer, I had high hopes. Sammy Hagar is a better singer than David Lee Roth, and also has some very good guitar playing skills (although the band Van Halen hardly needs them).
5150 is the first Album with Sammy on vocals. With this release being 22 years old, it seems like an eternity ago. Listening to this album again today, I realize how big of a departure this CD was from the classic Van Halen sound.
5150 is more of a main stream pop rock record, than it is hard rock. Sammy’s vocals are
good, but this music is a lot more pop than their previous records. The tunes on this record rely on the keyboard far too heavily. Some may say that Van Halen’s sound matured, but I didn’t really care for this new direction.
I am a Sammy Hagar fan, but I can not deny, I prefer any of the David Lee Roth era of Van Halen albums to the tunes on 5150. I also prefer Sammy Hagar’s solo work to this record. Van Halen has had a ton of success with this record, and continues to sell copies of it today.
I don’t hate 5150, but I don’t love it either. When this album came out, I liked it fairly well, but today, I find this a lot harder to listen to. I believe some of their later work with Sammy Hagar was far better than this. The best cuts on 5150 are Good Enough, Best of Both Worlds, and Dreams.
Dust this record off, and let us know what you think of 5150!
Rating:
Out of 10
Track Listing:
1. Good Enough
2. Why Can’t This Be Love
3. Get Up
4. Dreams
5. Summer Nights
6. Best of Both Worlds
7. Love Walks In
8. 5150
9. Inside
Van Halen is:
Sammy Hagar – Vocals
Eddie Van Halen – Guitars
Michael Anthony – Bass
Alex Van Halen – Drums
DLR wrote this album
I am a big VH fan, i think this guitar technic ranks among their best,very technically for your lick,I CAN’T STOP LOVIN U mr EDWARD!
I am a big VH fan.I think this record ranks among their best.Nice
big sound production(albums before this disk always sounded kind of thin,sorry Mr Templeman,no offense),classic guitar work(Get up,Summer Nights,5150).Now don’t get me wrong,I am a hug david fan,but this album does the band justice,even if I didn’t care for “oU812″ or “Balance”,ugh![For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge was Maybe,the best Hager-Era work).
I haven’t heard a peep about a new Van Halen album yet. I would assume if anything were to happen, it wouldn’t hit before 2009.
It wasn’t until recently that we’ve learned that the split wasn’t due to Dave but to Eddie’s massive ego. When this album was released it sounded ok and the new sound was exciting if not nearly as powerful as Roth’s Van Halen.
Although Hagar was treated badly by the band — really Eddie — by being jerked around towwards the end when Roth was about to return, it’s become clear after all this time that Hagar-era Van Halen simply isn’t classic or even worth remembering. It’s that lame. Later attempts, like on Carnal Knowledge, to reclaim some of the kick-ass of Roth-era albums just fall flat. Hagar never could talk trash like Dave and when he and the band would try to sound raw and real, it always sounded fake. And what’s up with Hagar…he goes from one extreme to another, first as Mr. Polite Guy singing about beauty and Real Love to sleazeball sex with the subtlety of a brick through a glass window.
There’s no way I’ll seek to collect Hagar Van Halen on CD and the huge success of Van Halen’s reunion tour demonstrates that most fans have come to realize that Van Halen had only one frontman and six real albums. The irony is that about the time popular metal really took off in the mid-80s, the band that started it all had decided do limp keyboard fluff.
Am really looking forward to a new Roth Van Halen album, if that’s still on. Anyway have any news about this??
You cant blame Sammy for turning VH into a more Pop oriented band. Eddie was already hinting he was moving that way with songs like “Jump” and “I’ll Wait” on 1984. A lot of the songs on 5150 were already written before they hooked up with Sammy, who just added his lyrics.
I thought was a great LP when I first heard it, but looking back it seems like VH played it a bit too safe on 5150. I think the follow-up “OU812″ was a much stronger album than 5150. Better songs, Sammy sounds more conformable in his role as lead singer, and it rocks harder.
I’m in agreement with you Rob….this is not one of VH’s better albums. Have it from when originally released, but it may have been played a half dozen times total….maybe…and the last time was 20 some years ago…when I finally decided to just put it away as a future investment….LOL…what a mistake that was…
86 is definitely the right year. I graduated 8th grade that year and this was my first metal/hard rock album by Van Halen. I loved it so much I wore out the tape twice!
Shouldn’t that release year be 1986? I am 100% certain I saw this tour during finals week of my freshmen year of college. That was 1986.