Best of Both Worlds
One shouldn't have too much difficulty imagining a two-disc Van Halen compilation entitledThe Best of Both Worlds. The first disc will showcase theDavid Lee Roth-fronted version of the band that reenergized hard rock with its titanic 1978 debut and peaked commercially with 1984's, uh,1984. Disc two will take up where David Lee was left off--from 1986 on, whenSammy Hagar(and, briefly, Hagar-sound-alike Gary Cherone) took over the mike. Well, unfortunately, that's not the anthology assembled this time out. Rather than sequence the selections chronologically and, in the process, display the band's evolution (or devolution, depending on where one stands in the great Roth/Hagar debate), the band has opted for a more eccentric sequencing strategy. After the opener "Eruption" confirms the sass and chops of the young VH, three fairly uninspired new tracks featuring a back-in-the-fold (for now?) Hagar interrupt the flow. Unfortunately, the flow never really recovers, as Roth and Hagar tracks leapfrog one another through the next 29 selections. Three live Hagar takes on songs from the Roth era finish things off in confusing fashion. Obviously, there's plenty of powerful music here, but do fans really need a lesson in what happens when worlds collide? And didn't David Lee earn at least one photo in the package?--Steven Stolder