10 Perfect Follow Ups To Masterpiece Albums

For a good number of fans, there was no reason for Van Halen to continue past the album 1984. The band had been through the ringer with David Lee Roth one too many times, but the idea of them continuing without one of the best frontmen in the business didn’t really feel like it would last very long either. Van Halen were more than just your average band though, and Sammy Hagar helped kickstart the next era of the band on 5150.

Being one of the first albums that was recorded entirely at Eddie’s home studio, the next phase of the band almost sounds completely removed from the Roth era, having a lot more focus on synths and Eddie gracing us with some more melodic playing than the freakouts that he would put out during the early ‘80s. Though there are a handful of songs that you could easily see being played by Roth like Good Enough and Get Up, Hagar is the real star of this album, making vocal melodies that are borderline impossible to sing exactly right like the song Dreams or letting the guys try their hand at more ballad heavy material like Love Walks In and Why Can’t This Be Love.

Though this album tends to be a longer affair than the rest of Van Halen’s catalog you hardly ever notice it for a second. This was a new era for what Van Halen stood for and no amount of naysaying from Roth purists was going to keep them from kicking ass across the rest of the decade.