10 Best Rock Albums That Everyone Forgets About

As the hair metal movement slowly started to unfold in the '80s, you couldn't find another harder working band than Van Halen. Ever since their debut record launched them into the stratosphere back in 1978, these California misfits had been on a seemingly never ending cycle of album and tour for the foreseeable future. Though that kind of rigorous schedule usually causes diminishing returns, Fair Warning still stands as one of the greatest records this band ever made.

For any of the newcomers to Van Halen though, this is a bit of a different beast, with most of the production duties being handled by Eddie himself. With nothing more to work with after the rest of the band lost interest, this is primarily Eddie's album through and through, which shows from the time the first track starts. While songs like So This Is Love? and Unchained have found permanent places among Van Halen's best work, tracks like Mean Street and Sunday Afternoon in the Park mark Eddie's arrival as the mad scientist in the studio, with the former showing him tapping his guitar almost like he's playing a percussion instrument.

Make no mistake, this might not be the first record that you'd want to hear if you've never heard Van Halen before. At the same time, this is probably the one Van Halen record you turn to when someone tells you that they're nothing but just a silly party band.