Stephen "5150" is a fruitful output of Eddie's decision to hire Sammy Hagar as Roth's replacement, catapulting Van Halen's name to an even higher sky they never imagined. As many classic VH fans complaint that they went too soft by incorporating a heavy synth sound, I think "5150" is the album that successfully vary the music and beside those three hits, Van Halen still have those heavy metal side as pictured in tracks like "Good Enough" and "Get Up".

The backbone of this album is definitely on that three singles. "Why Can't This Be Love" with its catchy chorus that just can't left your mind forever; "Dreams", a song that I've listened probably thousand times and never got bored, even a second. The uplitfting melody, the soaring harmony, the brilliant solos, everything is in the perfect place. The acoustical rendition of this song is also awesome; and "Love Walks In", a wonderfully-crafted ballad with a very memorable intro, that even a casual fan that never listen to any VH songs before will tell you this one's a good song. The title track is also a blast, I love it.

Hagar VS Roth is always a controversial topic to discuss, both guys have their own followers, and while I'm also a big fan of their debut, I think Van Hagar still have more albums to love than Dave's, not to mention that Hagar is vocally better than him. Despite couple of unnecessary fillers, which became Van Halen's bad habit on almost every album, "5150" is a breakthrough introductory of Van Hagar's era and worth the whole money on that three singles alone, four with the title track.

rushfan4 Hellllloooo Baaaaaaaabbbbyyyy!!! This album kind of snuck by me when it was released. I had become a pretty huge Van Halen fan following the release of 1984, but aside from the couple of songs on the radio I didn't hear 5150 until years later when I finally picked it up on CD. Not sure if it was because of the "that ain't the real Van Halen" attitude or what, but anyhow, it is a really good, solid album. I like the David Lee Roth years, but I think that the band released much better albums during the Sammy Hagar years. Or at least much better developed songs then those created during the DLR years.

jampa17 Well, I know I'm on the minority here but I do love Sammy Haggar's voice well over the not-singing style of David Lee Roth. He was kicked out of Van Halen and suddenly there was a real singer in the band. Yes, happened that Van Halen became soft with time and they try to make a little more cheesy material. that's fine, the result is this great album.

In the first listen you can notice that the ones that shine more are the singles: Why Can't This Be Love, Dreams and Love Walks In. But, after a couple of listening you will discover some hidden material most people tend to ignore from Van Haggar Era. The real noisy rock that these boys tend to show in their previous albums. The Best of Both Worlds, Get Up and Summer Nights are truly great and it deserves the listen. I know many people overlooked this album because of the "new cheesyness" of Van Halen, but there are the usual crazy soloing and armonies from Eddy, the Crazy drumming of Alex, the strong and solid bass lines of Micheal and now a good tamed voice in Sammy Haggar.

I love this album and I think it deserve a better place in the metalheads hearts... 4.5 just because the recording is not that clean but even that was on purpose I guess. Great Album though...