Van Halen

Best of Both Worlds

A casual fan's response

Review Score:

(2/10)
I don't know the David Lee Roth vs. Sammy Hagar controversy very well, and I've picked up on the songs from Van Halen/Van Hagar over the years from the rock stations and MTV. But even I've heard "Eruption/You've Really Got Me Now" in that order, which just tears up the speakers! Got me first interested in VH, and I'm outside of the battleground to appreciate what both Roth and Hagar brought to the table. They are Van Halen and Van Hagar respectively, with such different sounds, and I like both eras.

But, when I saw that the compilation interrupted "Eruption" with the 3 new tracks (don't really care for them either) instead of segueing into "You Really Got Me Now," that irritated the bejeezus out of me. When I went back to Amazon.com and saw a completely different track listing for both discs, why, that just turned me as red as the cover. Put the latest 3 tracks at the end of Disc 2; throw out the live tracks since they're redundant! And the Amazon.com listing looks like the DLR-Disc 1 and SH-Disc 2 format that other reviewers have suggested. I would've appreciated that instead.

And finally . . . the brothers Van Halen couldn't even put a picture of Roth in the compilation? They couldn't put one Cherone-sung song in? This is very petty, and also not representative of the "worlds" these discs claim to portray. Sad. What, did DLR do their sisters, steal their girlfriends, kick their dogs and stiff 'em with the bill?

Minus 1 star for the misleading track listing and "Eruption" interruption. Minus 1 star for the uncrediting of Roth and for leaving Cherone in the cold. Minus 1 star for the new tracks and live track redundancy. Minus 1 star for general irritability at feeling ripped off.

Eddie, you're still a guitar god, but please leave your differences at the customer's door.

More Reviews: