Van Halen

Best of Both Worlds

Nothing new here and new stuff is weak.

Review Score:

(4/10)
I read the track listing when I bought this. Its missing a few key songs from their history. Take Your Whiskey Home, Ice Cream Man and my favorite So This Is Love. The last tune should have made this collection. I know Jump is famous, but I didn't like the song when it was first released and still don't till this day. Why two stars? The new songs, except for the second one, are terribly grungy. Weak and the production sounds like mud. I've waited how long to hear some good new material from these guys (since at least the time when Balance came out) You're better off spending your money on the remasters themselves. I see them often at places for 8.99 and 10.99. Its worth having the other tracks that are missing here. And Amazon, go back and redo your track listing, its out of order and missing the new songs which follow Eruption on the CD. That's another thing, Eruption and You Really Got Me go hand in hand. They've turned into Kiss, putting out one greatest hits album and live album after another, just to make a buck and tour off their oldies. Pretty soon, we'll see Van Halen playing the local summer festivals for $5.00 a ticket and wander, what happened to the greatest guitarist in the world. Sad, very sad. However, if you don't have the cash to get all the old CDs or don't have the last best of album Vol 1, then this is a good collection of the radio hits. (that at least earned the second star) Let's hope that when Gary Cherone gets back together with Extreme (and it is happening), that they produce a stellar CD that picks up where III Sides left off, and not just some Jump-On-The-Grunge-Alternative-Bandwagon, like Punchline was. You want to listen to someone who still rocks and write some killer new stuff? Go get a Jeff Scott Soto CD or his other band Talismen, pick up their last release Cats And Dogs, now that album is 5 stars, hands down. Thanks for listening.

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