Track Listing

1. Mine All Mine
2. When It's Love
3. AFU (Naturally Wired)
4. Cabo Wabo
5. Source Of Infection
6. Feels So Good
7. Come Back And Finish What You Started
8. Black And Blue
9. Sucker In A 3 Piece

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21174 in Music
• Released on: 1999-10-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

CD Description
In the late '80s, both Van Halen and David Lee Roth were attheir commercial peaks, with the two camps competing fiercely against each other for Top 10 dominance. While lacking the overall crunch of earlier albums, OU812 does take the bandinto credible pop/electronic territory. Showing that party rock can grow and develop, the album contains some premium musicianship.
"Mine All Mine" features Ed Van Halen's continued use of synthesizers and is an introspective tune aboutbelieving in one's self. "When It's Love" is a catchy powerballad that continued the band's streak of Top 10 hits, along with "Finish What Ya Started", with its good-natured country licks. "Feels So Good", a 180-degree turn from the heavyrock of the band's early days, is a keyboard-driven pop ditty. The band doesn't totally stray from its roots though, as"Black And Blue" is a greasy, bluesy salute to an active sex life.

Customer Reviews

An almost great album, let down by lyrics and production
OU812, Van Halen's second album with Sammy Hagar is musically wonderful, showing off Van Halen's ability to write both hard rockers and sensitive sounding ballads. It is, however, let down a few times by bad lyrics and lacks the overall sound quality that is so obvious in other Van Halen recordings.

The album starts off brilliantly with 'Mine All Mine', probably the band's heaviest keyboard based song. Lyrically it's one of Sammy Hagar's more insightful offerings, agonising about searching for meaning in life. This, along with the classic 'Cabo Wabo' give us a glimpse of what the album could have been - one of, if not THE, best rock album of the late '80s.

The guitar based songs demonstrate a freedom of Edward's playing that is rarely, if ever, matched by other guitarists. Unfortunately these are mostly let down by Hagar's adolescent obsessions. 'Black and Blue' is a particular offender with such wit and wisdom as "Slip 'n' slide, Push it in, Bitch sure got the rhythm...".

'When it's love' and 'Feels so good' continue with the 'Van Hagar' theme of having a couple of ballads on their albums. Unfortunately the keyboard sound on 'Feels so good' sounds particularly dated but this doesn't, by any means, overshadow the song.

In the sleve notes there's a prominent 'This one's for you Pa', relating to the then recent death of Jan Van Halen, father of two of the band members and their inspiration. The two Van Halen brothers, and their long-time band member Michael Anthony, could not have made a much better send off. It's a shame that they didn't take a little more control over the lyrics (which they would later lament in the acrimonious split with Hagar) and employ a producer who could have made their best efforts shine.

Sammy Hagar's best album with Van Halen.
For me overall I preferred the music Van Halen did with Hagar then Roth as their music seemed more focused and the lyrics were better. Cabo Wabo is the best song Van Halen every did and When It's Love is their best soft touching love song. Other great tracks are Black and Blue, Finish What Ya Started and Sucker In A 3 Piece. Eddie Van Halen does his magic on this album big time and what a masterful guitarist he is. He was originally a classical trained pianist and if you watch him on a dvd live he, sometimes plays the guitar like a piano with his fingers which is mind blowing to watch and hear. I Highly recommend OU812 to any big music fan.

One of the best examples of modern rock
OU812 was, and still is, the best album that Van Halen released with the singer Sammy Hagar. While not boasting the barnstorming singles that the band had on "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge", the album remains thoroughly consistent throughout. I was admittedly reluctant to buy this album at first due to the fact that the promotional singles were mostly ballads, eg "When It's Love", "Feels So Good". After listening to the album for the first time however, I realised that this reluctance was completely unfounded. The guitar sound is impressively huge and warm, the riffery and melody is rarely equalled by any band, and the guitar work remains as some of the most passionate of Eddie Van Halen's to date. Lyrically, the album is typically Sammy Hagar, they are sometimes crass and licentious. These are the type of lyrics that would make people assume that Van Halen are a 'Cock Rock' band, making meaningless, superficial music, the music however proves that they are so mch more than this. Songs like "Cabo Wabo" and "Black and Blue" reveal what genuine genius the band are, it is simply passionate, solid, honest and unpretentious rock music for the people who open-minded enough to listen to them, despite their irrelevance in British music of today. An understated masterpiece of modern rock and roll.