4.5 Stars

1988 saw the release of Van Halen's eighth studio album "OU812." It was the band's second release with lead singer Sammy Hagar. Pronounced "oh you ate one too," the title was a response to David Lee Roth's first post-Van Halen album, "Eat `Em and Smile" (1986).

Compared to the classic first six Van Halen albums (with lead singer David Lee Roth), the early Van Halen albums with singer Sammy Hagar are far more commercial. While Van Halen had been becoming steadily more commercial since "Diver Down," (1982) the early Van Hagar albums are the bands most radio-friendly work. Therefore, while albums like "Van Halen" (1978) and "Woman and Children First" (1980) can be labeled "metal," or "hard-rock," "5150" and "OU812" can best be labeled "adult-contemporary" rock.

Depending on whom you ask, "OU812" is either one of Van Halen's best, or worst albums. To fans that accepted Sammy Hagar, "OU812" is a tight, pop-savvy, stellar collection of songs. To those that remained loyal to Roth and classic Van Halen, however, "OU812" represents Van Halen's full dissent into commercialism.

While I favor classic Van Halen and am a big Dave fan, I am quite fond of this album.

Although many fans would disagree, I feel "OU812" is an improvement over "5150" (1986). When Sammy Hagar first joined Van Halen most of "5150" had already been written. "OU812" is the first album Sammy Hagar wrote and recorded with Van Halen from scratch. Also, by the time the band recorded their second collaboration, they had been playing together for a few years. Therefore, compared to "5150," "OU812" seems to have more of an organic feel. Also, the production and the band, overall, sound better. On "OU812" drummer Alex Van Halen went back to playing on a real kit, as opposed to an electric one, as he had on "5150."

While Sammy Hagar is a great singer, on "5150" he sounds as if he were singing into soup cans. His vocal talents are more apparent on the follow-up, as he belts out the songs and his full capability is realized.

Lastly, while "5150" is a good album, its production was off-center and the CD was bogged down with synthesizers. "OU812" is more of a bare bones recording. While many of the songs do have synthesizers, they aren't overbearing, but rather just touch up the songs like a garnish.

Pop, commercial, radio-friendly, whatever you want to call it, it still goes without saying, of course, that Eddie's playing is phenomenal.

"OU812" opens up strong with the anthem rocker "Mine All Mine." The light underlining synthesizers add a nice touch. This song which concerns drug/alcohol addiction demonstrates Sammy Hagar's knack for writing meaningful lyrics that aren't pretentious.

"When it's Love" is a good, straight-forward love song. While some old-school Van Halen fans may cringe and dismiss it as "corporate," the song works because it is well written and sincere.

"A.F.U. (All Fired Up) (Naturally Wired)" is an infectious, fast paced rocker that keeps up the momentum. While not really an album highlight, it works well.

The mid-tempo, pop-savvy "Cabo Wabo," is one of Van Hagar's finest moments. Its melodic verse and sing-along chorus make for a concert staple and fan favorite.

"Source of Infection", with its rapid drumming and guitar intro, sounds like a return to classic Roth-era Van Halen. While the lyrics are sparse and don't make a lot of sense, this makes for a good semi-instrumental jam.

"Feels So Good," much like "When it's Love" will probably be off-putting to those that prefer a harder-rocking Halen. Still, this synth-led, mid-tempo number is undeniably catchy.

The acoustic "Finish What Ya Started" is another one of the album's highlights and remains one of Halen/Hagar's best collaborations.

The mid-tempo "Black and Blue" is a little sophomoric and shows how Hagar lacks the wit of Roth. Still, the song is effective and it keeps up the album's momentum.

The hard-rocking "Sucker in a 3 piece" is probably the album's most underrated song. It has an absolutely killer solo.

The album closes with a cover of "A Apolitical Blues" (written by Lowell George). Although it may seem odd to end the album with a straight-blues rocker, which is far different stylistically than the rest of the album, it works and doesn't seem to out-of-place. It actually makes for an interesting left turn.

"OU812' is not without its flaws. It's hard to hear Michael Anthony's bass. Also, the album sounds a bit thin at times. The album could do with a remastering and even a remixing.

Almost twenty years old, "OU812" has stood up pretty well against the test-of-time. The album works as well as it does because, despite its flaws, it's a tight, strong collection of songs. There isn't really any filler, everything works. Although Van Hagar would eventually tune out the synthesizers and rock-harder with subsequent releases, "OU812" is probably Van Hagar's best written album.

Van Halen's second album with their then new lead singer Sammy Hagar, and eight overall, is a strong collection, falling just slightly behind the 1995 disc BALANCE as the third best Van Hagar record. Released in 1988, the musical landscape was still dominated by hair metal and power ballads (NEVERMIND was three years away), and being a typical 1980s record you get a surprising diverse, eclectic album from the boys.

The album itself is a much more versatile album than most Van Halen albums. Featuring blues (A Apolitical Blues), power ballads (Feels So Good, When It's Love), winding epics (Cabo Wabo), country picking (Finish What You Started), metallic rockers (Mine All Mine), and social commentary (Sucker in a 3 Piece), the album has both good lyrics (for hair metal, at least) and an expanded sonic template on the majority of the songs. For OU812, Van Halen returned to a more guitar oriented approach, though there are still synths in the mix.

What makes OU812 such a breath of fresh air is Van Halen moving away from singing typical party anthems and broaching more serious subject matter. "Mine All Mine", one of my favorite songs from the band, deals with religion and has some great lines (such as I was looking for the light staring at the sun and nearly ended up blind), and for once is not nearly as pagan as some of their other material about religion. This exploration of more serious material would culminate in BALANCE and VAN HALEN III, but this exploration is definitely presence here.

There are some uneven moments, but nothing too distracting. "A. F. U." and "Source of Infection" are absolute drivel lyrically, with Sammy just yelling his head off spouting a bunch of random phrases. Fortunately, both songs jam hard, and it shows the lyrics, if you can call them that distinguished name, were in all likelihood improvised to provide vocals for the instrumental tracks. If you don't like the blues, you won't like the Little Feat cover, but it's a good song overall, even if it doesn't really fit in with the rest of the album's atmosphere. It should be noted this was the first (and so far, last) cover to appear on a Van Halen record since that artistic embarrassment DIVER DOWN.

Listening to "Cabo Wabo" now may be hard without adopting the rather cynical attitude that it's a seven minute long advertisement for Sammy's business ventures and tequila, which is a shame, as it's a great song. This was before Sammy set up shop in Mexico, or if he had set up shop he was just branching out there when the band wrote the song.

While I do like the lyrics on several of the songs, sometimes Van Halen comes off as overly hormonal and sexually driven [to the point of immorality]. "Can't Finish What You Started", one of the sonic highlights because as far as instrumentals go sounds like nothing else in the Van Halen catalogue, is Sammy begging for some action and blaming his chick for him having blue balls. Oh, and he says "baby" a lot (too much, really). "Black and Blue" has the memorable lines "The harder the better, we'll do it till we're black and blue" and "slip and slide, push it in, bitch sure got the rhythm". Nobel Prize committee will be serving Sammy his nomination in Literature very soon, no doubt. Still, the song has some good music too it. Still, it would be nice if they weren't so testosterone driven and focused mostly on sex. But then again, this is the party boy band Van Halen, so you take what you can get.

As far as its relationship with the other three Van Hagar albums, 5150 is the best, followed by BALANCE, this record, and then FOR UNLAWFUL CARNAL KNOWELDGE. Unfortunately, Van Halen on the follow up retreated away from the electic verstality of this record and instead turned out some of the most basic, unmemorable rock of their career with FOR UNLAWFUL CARNAL KNOWLEDGE. I wish that record had taken a page from this one's book and been a little more open in their musical compositions and forms. Oh well, the records are what they are.

Taken as actual albums, OU812 is a better record than BALANCE. However, the best songs on BALANCE easily outmatch the best songs from OU812. Because of the strength of the best of BALANCE's songs (read my review for more info), I think had the deadweight been cut from that record it would have been better than even 5150. Due to the strength of those songs along, I give BALANCE the edge over OU812. But, on the flip side, worst songs on OU812, which are at least listenable and only mildly distracting, are nowhere near as bad as the worst songs on BALANCE.

While there are some definitely weak moments on the album, overall, to Van Halen's credit, even the misfires are somewhat that enjoyable and not THAT distracting from the record overall. It is one of Van Halen's most consistent albums, in that you won't be skipping tracks when you play the CD. Overall, this is the third best Van Hagar album, behind 5150 and BALANCE.

Chart Information: album went to number one, four singles were released:

Black and Blue #1

Cabo Wabo #31

Finish What You Started #2

Feels So Good #6

When It's Love # 1

There is one name that remains controversial to some, but not all die hard Van Halen/David Lee Roth fans:Sammy Hagar. There are even some die hard VH/DLR fans who won't listen to the Van Halen era with Sammy Hagar. Well, that's really too bad, because these people don't know what they're missing out on(by saying this I am not being critical of any non Hagar fan in any way, shape, or form). Van Halen's sophomore album with Sammy Hagar, "OU812" is even better than the first Van Halen album with Hagar, 1986's "5150". "0U812" has ten songs, all of which are great. This album has some of the best songs that Van Halen recorded with Sammy Hagar, such as "When It's Love", "Black and Blue", "Finish What Ya Started", among several other great songs. Here is also an original Van Halen blues song, "A Political Blues". Van Halen is great when it comes to playing rock music, but they are very good when it comes to blues. And not only is Eddie Van Halen a great songwriter/guitarist, he is also great when it comes to playing the piano. You have to admire a rock band that can play a good blues song, especially when it is an original song by the group. It's good to see that Sammy Hagar is finally back with Van Halen........now that Hagar is again Van Halen's lead singer, hopefully(and probably) Van Halen will put out a new studio album with Hagar. "OU812" was the best album 1988 saw, along with KISS' "Smashes, Thrashes, and Hits" greatest hits album that had new studio music on it, Black 'n Blue's "In Heat", and The Vinnie Vincent Invasion's "All Systems Go". A must have.

This album was released at a certain time in my life when I was a young and reckless man - nonetheless it was a period where I did enjoy myself and the circles I moved in. 'Mine all Mine' is a great track and in some ways sounds kind of 'futuristic'...then we have 'When its love' 'AFU' and 'Cabo Wabo'

For me the second half of the album tapers off but I will always love the first few songs, for my own reasons. I look forward to a remastered version as I've always thought the sound could have been a bit better, but overall 4 stars for me. Easily beats albums like 'Diver Down', 'Fair warning', 'Women and Children First' and is better than at least 'Balance' of the Hagar era.

If your a Van Halen fan this wouldn't be a bad album to purchase. If you're looking for something to blow your mind or really to see what Van Halen's all about I wouldn't suggest it.