Van Halen - Diver Down

180-gram vinyl

Own the 2015 remaster of Van Halen’s 4x platinum fifth album!

Mastering engineer Chris Bellman, who remastered the original albums at Bernie Grundman Mastering Studios, was enlisted for this new version. In order to produce the original sound the band intended, Bellman cut straight from the quarter-inch tapes.

With a shocking five cover tunes, Diver Down is the oddest album in the Van Halen collection. It’s a heads-up on the future solo career of their lead singer David Lee Roth and it’s Roth that shines throughout. His spirited interjections during the Kinks’ “Where Have All The Good Times Gone!,” Roy Orbison’s “(Oh) Pretty Woman” and the vaudevillian “Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)” are pure fun and tease the DLR way. Eddie Van Halen’s guitars are muted here, given their spots more on the instrumentals than in the actual songs.

“Intruder” is the menacing air-raid siren at its best. “Little Guitars” is the intricate acoustic piece. Of the originals, “Hang ‘Em High” is pure Van Halen and “Little Guitars (Intro)” picks up a frenetic groove. “Secrets” is mellow. “Dancing In the Street” is goofy and surprisingly tame. “The Full Bug” is playful and “Happy Trails” is hilarious. This is the most light-hearted album in the Van Halen catalog.