Van Halen

Best of Both Worlds

Sammy vs. Dave - Advantage: Sammy

Review Score:

(8/10)
How telling is it that this album should come out in the same year as a Presidential election? For here we have two candidates duking it out over God only knows what (the love of the fans, success during their tenure, amount of time with the band, number of albums recorded, maybe?) and one of them has an unfair advantage. While it's obvious that David Lee Roth's bandmates have soured on him, and perhaps rightly so, Sammy Hagar overshadows him unnaturally in this collection. Whoever decided on the song order and selection, whether it is the band itself, the record company, or someone else, presents him as the more prominent lead singer.

Sticking with the Presidential election comparison, Hagar has the incumbent advantage (just as Roth had it for "The Best of VH Volume 1", for which there never was a Volume 2). While I will admit that he certainly seems to gibe better with his bandmates--he seems content to be one of the boys, while Roth always wanted to be out in front--the makers of the collection need to be more honest about the impact of the Roth days. As others have suggested, bobbing back and forth between the two of them is a mistake. Putting their work with Roth on one disc and Hagar on the other would be much better. On the surface, they appear to be impartial by putting the two together by alternating back and forth between them. Look a little deeper, and you'll see a few instances where Sammy gets an extra turn or two at the helm before we hear from Dave again.

This is most evident at the very beginning of the first disc. After one song from Dave, we get the three new ones from Sammy. They aren't bad, but I often find myself fast-forwarding past them to hear what I really want to hear. I think a better idea would have been to put them at the end of the second disc to give the compilation a sense of continuity that it is sorely lacking. In essence, what it would do would be to say, "This is where we were. At the end, let's show you where we are now and give you an idea of where we're going." That way, they could tap into the emotion that fans get when they hear old favorites from their beloved bands--the desire for more.

Thankfully, like a good campaign manager does for his candidate, each man's artistic integrity is upheld by not letting his lesser work make its way into the mix. The song they did with Sammy for the "Twister" soundtrack, "Humans Being", has been left out (thank you). Also, the two songs Roth contributed to "Best of VH, Volume 1" have been mercifully omitted (thank you, thank you). Most importantly of all, that embarrassing third party candidate, Gary Cherone, is nowhere to be found here (thank you, thank you, thank you!) The only exceptions are the two songs that the band originally recorded with Dave that were covered by Sammy in live recordings. This is but further proof that the powers that be have tipped the scales in one man's favor.

What you really have here is the tale of two bands from two entirely different eras. I like them both. I want to see them represented evenly, or even proportionately (they recorded six studio albums with Roth and four with Sammy). The title for "Best of Both Worlds" couldn't be any less fitting because here you get the best of only one world, while the other is treated as second best.

Still, it is nice to have access to most of my favorite Van Halen songs from both eras all in one place. That is the main reason why I rate this as highly as I do, despite my objections to some of the choices made by those who put it together. But, I could have just as easily given it three stars and not felt bad about it for those choices.

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