Van Halen: The Best Of Both Worlds

Reviewed by GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating * * *)

Is David Lee Roth the smartest man in leopard-skin lycra? Years ago when he did some big band stuff he was asked about the charts, as in charts on music stands. His reply, "The only thing I know about charts is if I'm not in them I don't get paid."

With the metal monster that was Van Halen, the singer was very well paid indeed. Time, distance and this double-disc collection will determine whether you think he deserved to be. With the flamboyant Roth up front and Eddie Van Halen's exceptional guitar technique, the band became darlings of the FM, then MTV, era and cracked classic hair-metal singles. They even managed to survive the transition when Roth quit and Sammy Hagar replaced him (and then, later, Gary Cherone came in).

Van Halen's career has the makings of a great collection but this irritatingly non-chronological affair - without even a courtesy photo of the great Roth - limps to life with three pretty awful new tracks (with Hagar again) and clearly isn't it. The new stuff is either stupidly salacious (Up For Breakfast is about bananas and cherries) or tries to disinter Guns'N'Roses (the power ballad Learning to See). Only when Roth takes charge on classics like their blistering version of You Really Got Me, Hot For Teacher, Jump, Unchained, Panama and so on - or when Hagar weighs in for a couple of memorable songs. The synth years with Hagar were a mistake, however. It all went a bit Flashdance, really.

This isn't the first time they have blown the chance for a coherent "best of" ... and to go out with live versions of Roth Years songs by Hagar? You're taking bad advice from someone, Eddie.

Label: Warners