 |  | Van Halen - The Weakest Of The Roth Era |  |
I am not sure if the band was just in a writing slump or what, but this album contains 5 cover songs (The Kinks "Where Have All The Good Times Gone", Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman", Martha And The Vandels "Dancing In The Street", "Big Bad Bill" and the traditional western "Happy Trails"). For an album that is less than 35 minutes long this is a lot of non-original material. I have read that this whole project was kind of thrown together after the band had cut a single and the record company wanted it followed up by a quickie album. If that is the case it would certainly help to explain the contents of this disc. Of the original stuff there some nice short instrumentals, especially "Cathedral", but as always with Van Halen albums the instrumental stuff is too short and never really develops into anything. Of the new tunes "Little Guitars" and "The Full Bug" are both good. Overall though this is probably the weakest of the Roth era albums and the last one I would purchase if I was filling out my collection.
June 8, 2008| | | Weakest Van Halen album by far | |
After four classic albums under their belt, the kings of early 80's hard rock and party excess seem to have a dry run on this, their 5th album: Diver Down. Although it was more or less Warner Bros. fault, the band meant to take a deserved break after years of constant recording and touring and after their very serious and dark album Fair Warning which had only went platinum (For VH this was unsual) I think the record execs wanted a comeback to the bands earlier party hearty efforts. With the single Pretty Woman released just to simply let fans know the band were still 'out there' that vacation for more extended and thought out writing never happened as they were pressured to enter the studio for an album to coincide with the single's surprise success. In the end it turned out to be VH's weakest album in the Roth era. Though it's not a terrible record by any stretch. Though seemingly a duplicate of the first albums Kinks cover...Where Have All The Good Times Gone is a pretty firey opener. Hang 'Em High is another great piece of VH fun. The album takes a little breather for the diverse yet very pretty instrumental Cathedrel which achieves some amazing sounds for a guitar. It's twin cut: Secrets is another more mellow VH sound but it's definetly a top notch cut and a must hear. Intruder, the almost creepy intro to the obvious highlight Pretty Woman was recorded strictly for the video, but it may as well be part of the song because it does in fact create a very nice juxtaposition between the more light hearted and anthemic Pretty Woman cover, which to some may seem like a pop sell out but it happens to my all time fav VH song. Dancing In the Street, seen as another undesirable cover is a fun song either way. The Little Guitars intro and the song itself may seem a like total filler (mainly because they're split up and could've easily been worked together) this really gives the idea VH slopped this album together for record company purposes. Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now) is a strange vaudville kinda song done mainly by Roth with the brothers dad on clarinet. Strange indeed but a change of pace even for joking purposes is welcomed. The full Bug a return to classic VH is a key cut here and the ending a capalla version of Happy Trails rounds out an album with 5 covers, three instrumentals and only 4 original songs. While the Kinks cover and The Full Bug are the only songs that could be ranked with classics like Unchained, Meat Streets, Romeo's Delight, Jamie's Cryin, or Beautiful Girls, like any legendary bands catalogue, there are some better than others but nothing thats totally not worth hearing. VH would make their most successful crossover album two years later with the multi platinum 1984 but for this time VH simply made a decent album with not much to go on.
June 3, 2008 | | Another Classic Van Halen Work of Art !! | |
This is another album by Diamond David Lee Roth and Van Halen at the height of the Diamond Dave era. Dave continues to elaborate on his stage show lyrics and quarky little additions to the songs. Eddie, Alex and Mike do there thing as usual, which means that they are at the top of their game. An essential for any true VH Fan !!
February 14, 2008A classic album for the true Van Halen fan. Great covers and originals included along with unforgettable guitar solos from the master himself, Eddie Van Halen. Who can forget the first time they heard "intruder?"
If you havent already added this to your CD collection, do so. It may leave you asking yourself "where have all the good times gone?"
If you werent lucky enough to catch VH on tour this year do yourself a favor and check them out. They play nearly every song from Diver Down. A welcome blast from my past!
Rock girl Chicago
November 26, 2007 | | Van Halen - 'Diver Down' (Warner Bros.) | |
Review number 107. Originally saw the light of day in 1982, this was of course the frantic foursome's fifth record. Just as smashingly rowdy as their first four. Tunes here that I've always enjoyed hearing were "Where Have All The Good Times Gone", the awesome "Hang 'Em High", "Secrets" {haven't heard this cut in ages} and "Little Guitars". For some reason, I've never cared for Van Halen's cover of Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman". Have recently caught them out on the much anticipated tour and I thought they were good, maybe not great but very good. Well worth catching.
November 5, 2007More reviews at Amazon.com ...
(108 reviews)