Listening to Van Halen: Van Halen (on Qobuz)...

Probably the 1st time to listen to the entire album front to back...ever. I am 47 years old...why did I wait this long? I'll take this over 1984..and Sammy who? Both shocking coming from me. This album just keeps nailing it! Wow!

Convince me that this isn't one of the best rock albums ever...

 

It's a very good album.
I lean towards Fair Warning or Women And Children First as my favourite Van Halen album though.

 

One of the great rock albums of all-time! I can still remember the first time that I heard Van Halen's debut album, I was blown away!

 

I am probably going to go chronological with their early albums this afternoon

 

Listening to II now. Eruption gets everyone talking, but I think that I may like Spanish Fly (on II) better...still listening

 

I'd prefer not to.

 

Ok...VH was better than II. Both had good songs, but as a complete album

Now on to Women & Children...1st song is awesome

 

VH still beats the next 2 albums. Not bad, but the set a pretty high bar with the 1st album.

 

the debut lp set the bar so to speak, its quality was never achieved again

 

sounds like a cool afternoon to me

 

I'm snagging all these LA promo pressings of the sixpack but I'm jealous of your virgin ears.

 

Could this be magic? reminds me of Seamus from Meddle. Pretty cool track on W&C

And when/why did they tell Michael Anthony to stop playing such good bass lines? His earlier stuff was great

 

Fair Warning is starting strong. Strong 2nd place so far...but only 2 tracks in

Did they ever record a full (more than 15 second) version of Growth, even on a live album?

 

I pretty much like the first five albums (debut, II, Women & Children First, Fair Warning, Diver Down) equally--they're all easily at the top of the rating scale in my book. Diver Down is a controversial one to include in that, but I love it . . . and it's probably equally controversial to not include 1984, but for me that's not quite as strong as the others.

I like the remainder a lot, too (and I also like David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar's solo stuff), but those first five Van Halen albums were one of the best runs ever in my opinion.

 

Women and children first was rushed, Fair Warning is Ed's album and it shows (badass) and Diver Down was really badly rushed.

 

Count me as yet one with a fondness for Diver Down

 

VH is an excellent debut, Fair Warning is the top Van Halen album here. It's badass without any MTV hairspray videos to back it up with. 1984 was probably their goldmine during the Dave era.

 

Van Halen is an astonishing debut lp.
I've owned it in one format or another since the day it was released. Same with II, an excellent follow-up lp.

 

Almost done with 1984. I agree. Diver Down was a strong album. Have to give it another listen, but they were doing some different things on that one that I liked. Fair Warning was also strong. They rank up very highly, IMHO. all of the 1st are good. Just a question of degrees. 1984 reminds me of my childhood, but compared to the others, it just sounds too...hmm...produced? Mid 80s? I wont say hair band cell out, but I think I see some hidden cans of aquanet

 

The debut still hits like a lightning bolt. Incredible to think they were so fully formed from the start.

 

I suspect if you've never heard any Van Halen, the debut is absolutely tops. I knew that one backwards and forwards before moving on to the others, so these days I tend to reach for one of the other ones first. All 6 DLR-era albums are of similar high quality for me, and I don't have a personal favorite. (Maybe VHII except for a weak opening song? Maybe FW because it's a little darker? Maybe the debut??)

1984 was put together in '83, well before hair metal and Aquanet were taking over. The "companion" albums of the time were Def Leppard's Pyromania, Quiet Riot's Metal Health, Motley Crue's Shout At The Devil, and Scorpions' Love At First Sting. None of those are particularly Eighties to me, although they all might be a little brighter and more "produced" than 70s rock.
1984 probably sounds more like the decade due to the prominent use of synths on a few songs and Alex's reliance on Simmons electronic drums. The latter tends to date the album, although I kinda love the sound he gets on Hot For Teacher. The Hagar records are gonna sound far more Eighties by comparison.

 

Greatest rock debut album of all time!

 

Um...which Motley Crue album? Definitely not 80s.

Just poking...not starting a flame war. I was in elementary school at the time

 

Skipped to A Different Kind of Truth for this morning. I like the stripped down, rock, no synth sound that they are getting back to. Almost seems sad to listen to this album since it was the final studio album. I am trying not to be critical of Wolfgang's bass playing.

 

Great that your enjoying the Roth albums .
I’m actually seriously impressed by Wolfgangs playing on ADKOT. Chinatown sounds like something the EEAS band would’ve played (as in “let’s try out-Halen Van Halen on this one).