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Van Halen

The Best of Both Worlds

Excess has always worked to Van Halen’s advantage, but at a certain point, the veteran band must admit enough is enough. Van Halen’s first career-spanning retrospective does the group no favors by putting its rocky tenure in perspective. The David Lee Roth-era songs remain, as usual, remarkably debauched and exciting, but the Sammy Hagar songs (the Gary Cherone era is passed over) sound increasingly banal. This set being an excuse to tour, the group reconvened in the studio to record a few new songs, too, but they shouldn’t have bothered cluttering this set with them.

Take away: Leave behind

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Edited by Curt Wagner ([email protected]) and Victoria Rodriguez ([email protected])