Van Halen

Best Of Volume 1

Great songs, but not even close to a "best of"

Review Score:

(8/10)
I want to give this album 3 stars because of what it leaves out. Nonetheless, the songs that are on here are worthy of 5 stars. That being said, I'll settle on the average of the two. This collection leaves off several classic rock Dave tracks, and there is way too little of a focus on some of the harder rocking Sammy tracks. Tracks like "You Really Got Me", "Jamie's Cryin'", "Everybody Wants Some", "I'll Wait" and especially "Hot For Teacher" are all Dave tracks that could and should be included (and I wouldn't call that a complete list). Sammy's tracks should include "Love Walks In", "Summer Nights", "Black And Blue", "Top Of The World", and "Finish What Ya Started". For sure one disk of "best of" tunes is clearly pointless for a band that has so many classic albums and songs. However, when you listen to the collection as a whole, there is no denying how great a career this band has had. I love both the Dave and Sammy years, and equal time is given to each. I do like the new (at the time) Dave track "Me Wise Magic", and the inclusion of the Sammy soundtrack song "Humans Being" is nice for people like me who don't like to buy entire soundtracks for one song. The way things are going (or, more accurately, NOT going) with the band now, they should just put out a "Best of, Volume II" and call it a career. No reason to further harm what has been a remarkable run.

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