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Hands down the finest hour of the original Van Halen line-up, the brilliant debut that first introduced the world to the magical guitar of Edward Van Halen. And its never sounded better than it does now, remastered on a 24K gold compact disc. Suddenly, every note is completely clear and dramatically re-emphasized. Also re-surfacing is Alex Van Halen's full drum-kit sound, more thundering than ever, and Michael Anthony's bass-line is more prominent than its ever sounded. The clarity of the new release brings a twenty-plus year old album up to the technical standards of today.
The record itself needs no introduction. Truly one of the great American rock albums of all time, the band gave technical proficiency to the party rock arena that had heretofore been dominated by the three-chord crunch of KISS, Ted Nugent, and Aerosmith. Eddie Van Halen became the first real guitar virtuoso of popular rock n roll, paving the way for stroke-master technicians like Vai and Satriani. The beauty of Van Halen was his brilliance within the confines of a rock song, not in long, drawn out musical opuses. Eddie is as brilliant on his brief solo runs on "Running With The Devil" as he is on the short instrumental that forever changed rock music, "Eruption."
Clearly, David Lee Roth was never the vocal equivilant to Eddie's guitar, and with the vivid clarity, his limitations show through a bit more than previously. Roth gets through the record on charisma, the way he always had. And it works. Even the lesser tunes like "Little Dreamer" amd "Janie's Crying" have a unique feel and style. And stuff like "On Fire," "Atomic Punk," and "Ain't Talking Bout Love" is absolutely ferocious. We all know it would never work again, but Van Halen's self-titled debut was a great moment in time that has been wonderfully brought back to life. Now we just need the rest of the pre-1998 catalog...
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