Van Halen were about the biggest hard rock band in the world around 1988. The headlined the Monsters of Rock Tour over Scorpions, Metallica, Dokken & Kingdom Come and had big hits with their 2nd album featuring Sammy Hagar, OU812. On the heels of 5150 which followed the departure of David Lee Roth, Van Halen seemed poised for bigger and better things. But OU812 sold about half of what 5150 sold in the US, even though OU812 is a little harder than its predecessor. Were they listening to critics who felt 5150 was too heavy on the synths? Were they worried Diamond Dave was getting more praise for his solo efforts?

For us personally, this album came at a time in our lives when we were discovering the first Van Halen album and all the heaviness and guitar mastery of their original release. Plus, we had fond memories of big MTV hits like Jump, Panama and Hot For Teacher from 1984 when we were just getting into music. So Van Halen had the street cred for heavy duty guitar rock but the pop stardom from MTV. Though we were excited to hear 5150 and love tracks like Mine All Mine and AFU (Naturally Wired) the big hits like When It's Love, Feels So Good and Finish What You Started aren't among our all time VH favorites. How do we rank it in the Pantheon of Van Halen records? Have a listen and find out!

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