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When they formed originally Van Halen had the lead vocalist David Lee Roth. The band had some degree of success but always promised more. Eddie Van Halen himself seemed motivated to experiment only to hit brick walls with the more fun loving Roth. Eventually they parted company and the position of Roth was taken over by Sammy Hagar.

The first album of the newly formed group was average to say the least and it was with no great surprise that the second album was anticipated by critics to be going to nose dive from the day it was first released.

How wrong they were.

The album itself was so successful it reached the top of the album charts and heralded the start of a new era for the band which included the increasing use of synthesizers to produce a sound unique to the band and unlike anything heard in the world of rock before. Gone were the remarks about this group being Van Halen MK2 and in came the positive credits to the band and Eddie Van Halen for creating a bigger better group. This was the start of a new beginning and they didn’t look back.

The tracks represent a true reflection of the way Van Halen works with tracks like Why Can’t This Be Love showing the way for artists of the time how to incorporate the synthesizer along with the other more classic tools of the modern rock band. It seems strange now looking back at how the group came together to think that they could have imagined how successful these apparent misfits would gel to become one of the most recognizable Bands of the era, but they did and they did it well.

Best Of Both Worlds is the track I would most recommend from this album but to be honest the tracks are all as good as each other and combine to make one high energy experience.

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