Who likes VH II better than VH I?

[Bono Nettencourt]

Paul Gilbert, for one -

https://www.vhnd.com/2023/11/05/paul-gi ... -changing/

[whiteowl yesterday]

both great albums but i went with 1.

[Newsted's FU Money]

Fuck...this is like choosing between children. Both are perfect, but I'll go for the debut as it came first.

[daveg]

Out of the first 6 albums, II would probably be my least favorite. Love it, but if I ranked them, it would be last.

[zz666]

VHII is my fave Van Halen album.

[Anthrax442]

Just like how Wish You Were Here is better than Dark Side.

It's incredibly close, I've got them both as 5 Star records. But probably due to radio burnout, I'd much rather hear DOA or LIght Up the Sky than anything on VHI.

[Zabooka]

Just like how Wish You Were Here is better than Dark Side.

It's incredibly close, I've got them both as 5 Star records. But probably due to radio burnout, I'd much rather hear DOA or LIght Up the Sky than anything on VHI.

Burnout is really the only reason why anyone would choose II over I. VH I is clearly the dominate one.

[El Vampiro Blanco]

This might sound crazy, but to me VHII is the perfect summer album, while VHI is more of a winter album. Dunno why, but that is how I always felt.
Same for Diver Down : summer album.
So my favorite changes with the seasons.

[Nate S Axel]

I love them both, and "Dance The Night Away" is my favorite VH song of all-time, but the first album is perfect.

[Metal Judge]

I also like VHII better over VHI

[Gibsonite]

The debut was the album that changed how rock guitar was played, but II still has more good songs than I. VHII for me

[LAglamrocker]

I don’t like either just same amount of boredom
Worshipping Van Halen dodged that bullet in life thank God
Van Halen super fans are mostly miserable people with Al Bundy life

Saigon Kick 1 vs Saigon Kick 2
Just started SK1 on beach walk this morning
Clear skies and fun

[DonJuanDeMarco]

The famous saying is that you have your entire life to write your first album and six months to write your next one. I feel like that happened with all of the VH records... the Dave ones at least.

They all have moments of greatness but lots of filler. VHII has the least amount of filler but just doesn't have the urgency of the debut. I'm sticking with the debut.

[tooth]

Alex' work on II makes it the best VH record, for me

[diablomozart]

light up the sky is my favorite vh tune ever...d.m.

[kanister]

Dance the Night Away and Beautiful Girls are the worst tunes of the Roth era VH
VH II is the worst album of Roth era VH, maybe even if ADKOT is included.

Have I answered the question here?

[Tenacious_Dio]

Van Halen II was the first VH album I ever owned, so there's a sentimental attachment.

And half of the debut album has been played to death by classic rock radio. So, II for me.

[Mister Freeze]

I always loved "D.O.A." One of their most overlooked songs.

[dmbrocker]

I always loved "D.O.A." One of their most overlooked songs.

Agreed. Great chugging guitar riff on that one.

[Psychobolia.com]

Objectively, VH I is the better album, but I'm also burned out on the overexposure I suffered from hearing those tunes on the radio constantly.

VH I also packs way way more energy than VH II, I mean the album starts out quietly with You're No Good, whereas Running with the Devil is a loud and proud "The party is starting!!!!"

[Bono Nettencourt]

Yeah I remember Templeman telling a story about their version of You're No Good - he heard them playing it and said, "what is that?"
"It's You're No Good - the Linda Ronstadt song."
"Doesn't sound like it to me."
Then he said, "We put it on the record anyway."

[Hellbound]

The original House of Pain with the Running with The Devil horns should have been on the first album. Kicks the fuck out of the 1984 version.

Thread answer: its gotta be VH1. Even though II has Somebody Get me a doctor and D.O.A.

[aznsquirt]

The famous saying is that you have your entire life to write your first album and six months to write your next one. I feel like that happened with all of the VH records... the Dave ones at least.

The only problem with this wrt Van Halen is that they basically had the first 4-5 albums written in 1976.

[BernieTaupson]

Yeah I remember Templeman telling a story about their version of You're No Good - he heard them playing it and said, "what is that?"
"It's You're No Good - the Linda Ronstadt song."
"Doesn't sound like it to me."
Then he said, "We put it on the record anyway."

Not sure how accurate that is. WB demanded they do another cover song after the success of YRGM. So they turned their original song Down In Flames into a cover of You’re No Good.

And later reworked the original song into Tattoo.

[DangerZone]

Just like how Wish You Were Here is better than Dark Side.

It's incredibly close, I've got them both as 5 Star records. But probably due to radio burnout, I'd much rather hear DOA or LIght Up the Sky than anything on VHI.

wish u were here stomps the shit outta dark side

[Bono Nettencourt]

The famous saying is that you have your entire life to write your first album and six months to write your next one. I feel like that happened with all of the VH records... the Dave ones at least.

The only problem with this wrt Van Halen is that they basically had the first 4-5 albums written in 1976.

Yep. VH I and II were basically re-recorded demos. Then they had to write a little more for WACF/FW and DD was almost all covers. 1984 was pretty much the 1st album that they did totally from scratch, and that even had House of Pain, which altho heavily rearranged still grew out of an old song. That's how they kept the year-in-year out album/tour cycle going for so long - they were sitting on 3 years worth of material from the club days.

[BernieTaupson]

The irony of doing a bunch of cover tunes for DD when there were at least a dozen quality tunes that they had demoed years before and never used for anything. House of Pain, Bullethead, Down In Flames (Tattoo), Big Trouble (Big River), Put Out The Lights (Beats Workin) …

[Love_Industry]

The famous saying is that you have your entire life to write your first album and six months to write your next one. I feel like that happened with all of the VH records... the Dave ones at least.

The only problem with this wrt Van Halen is that they basically had the first 4-5 albums written in 1976.

Yep. VH I and II were basically re-recorded demos. Then they had to write a little more for WACF/FW and DD was almost all covers. 1984 was pretty much the 1st album that they did totally from scratch, and that even had House of Pain, which altho heavily rearranged still grew out of an old song.

GGB was played live as an instrumental in 1982 and the music to Jump was also supposedly written around 1981 so not entirely from scratch. There was less recycled demo music on Fair Warning, only parts of Mean Street were frankensteined together from the demos for She's the Woman and Voodoo Queen (unless I forgot something...). WACF had 4 songs from 77 or before, and DD.. oh well. Only two proper songs "Secrets" and "Little Guitars" that weren't covers or recycled demos.

[BernieTaupson]

News to me that Full Bug and Hang Em High were demoed before 82?

[VinceVanLane]

News to me that Full Bug and Hang Em High were demoed before 82?

Hang 'Em High was Last Night on the 1977 Warner Bros demo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6RzJKtV52o

I like the people who bitched that A Different King Of Truth was just old demos when that's what Van Halen always did. They even reworked an old song on Balance in 1995, which was "Take Me Back (Deja Vu). That was called "Show No Mercy" and it was being played in 1977. They always reworked old shit. Every album had old shit that they reworked and kept going back to until they got it how they wanted it.