Van Halen - 1984
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Free Music Notes for 1984
Free Music Review: Diamond Dave quits while he's ahead
Hit: 5 Stars
Dave writes his best songs here and leaves the group while on top of his game. In retrospect, it was a smart move for everyone involved.
Contains the then 7 year old "House Of Pain" recorded for their first album and included here as a bonus for the fans.
Free Music Review: The great 80's
Hit: 5 Stars
Back when America was great. Now all the evian water bands are out there sucking up to MTV and b.s. reality television. Buy it if you lived it back then. I did. Free Music Review: Right of Passage
Hit: 5 Stars
This was one of my first albums and so i got it for my son for one of his first cd's. 1984 and Jump are his favorite songs and even at the tender young age of 6, he knows a great guitar player when he hears one. This CD should definately be one of EVERYONE's first tastes of Rock and Roll.Free Music Review: Their best!
Hit: 5 Stars
I think this is the best album ever made by Van Halen. It sounds more 80's, with sometimes keyboards (1984, Jump, I'll Wait), but it doesn't lose the power of Eddie's killer guitar. The best tracks are Jump, Panama, Hot For Teacher, Girl Gone Bad and House Of Pain
1. 1984 (8/10)
Nice way to start, maybe a bit pointless (it's just a few keyboard sounds), but it sounds right on this album.
2. Jump (10/10)
The first great hit on this album. The keyboard riff is one of the best known. It's a great song, some good keyboard work, but still very powerfull. Great solos for both keyboard and guitar!
3. Panama (10/10)
The first song I ever heard of Van Halen. The riff is great, and Roth's vocals are great too! The refrain is great, the guys screaming "Paaanamaaa! Panaaamaaa!"
4. Top Jimmy (10/10)
Another good song. It's a bit short, but it is just as good as the more well-known songs on this album. The song is quite fast, and more pop than most of the songs, although the the solo sounds as hard rock again. The song is about a rockstar called Jimmy, and the guys of Van Halen are a bit jealous.
5.Drop Dead Legs (10/10)
Heavy guitar riff, very heavy drums too. Sounds like AC/DC. The refrain is a bit different again, nice to listen. Then the song changes again and fades out in a nice guitar riff.
6. Hot For Teacher (10/10)
Their best song! The song starts with insanely fast drums by Alex, and repeats it through the whole song. The guitar riff is just as impressive, ridiculously fast and just great. Great vocals too!
7. I'll Wait (10/10)
Another song with Eddie on keyboards. Roth's voice sound great here. The refrain is great too. I normally don't like the keyboardy 80's sound that much, but this one is (just like Jump) a exception.
8. Girl Gone Bad (10/10)
Doesn't get the attention is deserves. Great heavy song, begins with some high guitar notes, and the song really starts when the heavy drums start. The refrain is also great.
9. House Of Pain (10/10)
Very similar to Girl Gone Bad. It's the heaviest song on the album. The song sounds like one great guitar solo. It could be a great instrumental track.
The songs I would pick for a best of album are Jump, Panama, Hot For Teacher, I'll Wait and Girl Gone Bad.
Free Music Review: Eddie van Halen's Guitar Playing Peaks With 1984
Hit: 5 Stars
Personality and musical differences had pervaded the VH camp since at least 1981's Fair Warning album, when Eddie started laying tracks down in the studio with only engineer Donn Landee present. 1983's Diver Down was half cover tunes. Singer David Lee Roth and VH's producer at the time, Ted Templeman, thought that recording cover tunes helped ensure a hit song, the logic being "they've already been a hit once." Roth had no qualms going for the easy money (witness his first solo EP of four cover tunes in 1985); meanwhile, one of the most creative and technically proficient guitarists in rock history is sitting there playing the riff to "Pretty Woman." With 1984 Eddie van Halen was able to convince the band to record HIS songs- no cover songs included here. In an interview with Lisa Robinson at the time:
EVH: This was an album that is very, very much me...
LR: More than the others?
EVH: [emphatically] Oh, YES!
"Hot for Teacher," "Jump" and "Panama" were hits, along with the comparatively bland "I'll Wait," which is the weakest song on the album and gets frequent airplay on classic rock stations because of its tameness. "Top Jimmy" has Eddie playing a Ripley stereo guitar- listen with headphones and you can hear the harmonics at the beginning of the song bouncing side to side in the mix. The format for "Drop Dead Legs," with its scathing riff, was to let Roth get in his couple of verses and then Eddie and brother/drummer Alex jam. This format is repeated for the album's two closing tracks, with spectacular results: "Girl Gone Bad" and "House of Pain" give us Eddie's guitar playing at its absolute peak. On "House of Pain" in particular, Eddie just goes into the stratosphere, and Alex follows (hard to show your drum chops on "Can't Stop Lovin' You") - these are probably Alex's best-ever tracks. Note that most or all of these amazing guitar fills are NOT overdubbed- Eddie is briefly dropping off of the rhythm part to throw them in, with the cocksuredness of an artist at his peak. There was a lot of talk about "progressive rock" bands at the time; most were more about "progressive" than "rock." This is progressive (it ain't the Young brothers banging on 3 chords for 45 minutes), and it ROCKS- technically brilliant, pedal-to-the-metal, shake-yer-ass rock `n roll that leaves you crawling across the floor to the speakers as "House of Pain" fades out, panting for more. Michael Anthony is a fine musician, and his backing vocals are stellar throughout, as per usual, but I challenge you to hear a bass on this album; buried bass parts were part of Eddie's later dissatisfaction with engineer/producer Landee. Sammy Hagar took over vocal duties with the next album, 5150, and while one could make the case that overall 5150 has stronger songs (due mainly to Hagar's into-it-up-to-his-eyeballs vocal style and stronger melodic sense, compared to Roth's "cool" detachment), Eddie's playing fell off a bit and continues to decline to the present day. Of course, Eddie van Halen in decline (e.g., For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge) is still better than most mortals with a guitar around their neck. But if you want to hear one of rock's greatest guitarists at the zenith of his virtuosity and creativity, check out 1984.