Not since Datsun cars with tape decks lined high school parking lots have so many people been listening to Van Halen as they are this week.
After Eddie Van Halen's death to cancer at age 65 on Tuesday, both new and old fans have been flooding record stores and streaming sites seeking his namesake band's canon of cannonballing rock 'n' roll. Jamie's crying, and so are we.
The good news is that many of the records hold up. There's a joyfulness and cocksure energy in Eddie's guitar playing that slashes through the troubling mire of 2020. And unlike a lot of the '80s metal they inspired and some of their own records with Sammy Hagar on vocals, the original 1977-84 albums boast a timeless sound quality, despite original lead singer David Lee Roth's sexist mumbo-jumbo.
Here's a ranking of the band's best albums for those too young to have ever owned them, or those old enough to have not listened to them since their last boombox or Datsun went kaput.
1. "Van Halen" (1978): A cornerstone of American rock 'n' roll, plain and simple. Turn it up to 11.
2. "Fair Warning" (1981): It only produced one radio hit, "Unchained," but it's the most guttural and visceral of the LPs, led by the nuggets "Mean Street" and "One Foot Out the Door."
3. "Women and Children First" (1980): Also a mean and raucous one but a little more playful, with "Everybody Wants Some!" and "Romeo Delight" as standouts.
4. "Diver Down" (1982): A half-full record, to be sure, but it boasts some of Eddie's most wicked playing in "Little Guitars" and "Intruder/Oh, Pretty Woman."
