Released in 1988, OU812 is the eighth album by the American band Van Halen , and the second from the period featuring Sammy Hagar on vocals. With a black and white cover and partial lighting, the band's inspiration from The Beatles .
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With a keyboard-heavy intro, the track responsible for kicking off the album is "Mine All Mine." It's a song that features a distinctive groove, largely due to Alex Van Halen . The solo, performed by his brother and guitar legend Eddie Van Halen , adds another dimension to the track, sounding both technical and melodic.
Another point worth highlighting is the sections where the instrumental music reduces its intensity, allowing Hagar's voice to take center stage with a softer background sound.
The album's most successful ballad, "When It's Love," follows. The guitar riff is essential to the song's structure, and when combined with the vocals, it becomes even more melodic.
Perhaps its highest point is the chorus, when Hagar hits quite high notes, with a slight hoarseness in her voice.
A drum line, soon joined by the guitar, kicks off the third song on OU812 , “AFU (Naturally Wired)”. It's noticeable that the album has a connection between the songs; it's not as if they were thrown together randomly or in a way that doesn't make sense. Rather, it's clear that the band wanted to create differences between the tracks, precisely to avoid becoming tiresome and repetitive.
One example of this is Van Halen's excellent guitar solos, where each song offers something different, following a somewhat global idea, but not an exact formula.
“Cabo Wabo” is the longest song on the album, and also one of its highlights. The instruments are aligned and interact well with each other, creating something quite harmonious.
Another detail that makes a difference is when the backing vocals complement the main vocals during the chorus, in a melodic way.
The opening drum lines of “Source Of Infection” resemble those of “Hot For Teacher”, released on the album 1984 (1984) and which, in general, has elements that resemble the music from the time David Lee Roth in the band – the vocalist left the group in 1985 and returned in 1996, but not in terms of vocals, but rather, instrumentally.
The keyboards, very present in "Feels So Good," are responsible for creating a distinct atmosphere in the track, especially in its first part. When the other instruments become more prominent, it's possible to perceive the essence of Van Halen.
The album's feel shifts in "Finish What Ya Started," as it incorporates elements much more aligned with a southern rock style, featuring prominent string instruments and Hagar's vocals, previously associated with melodic hard rock, now more restrained and deeper, though still including some moments of higher notes.
“Black And Blue” and “Sucker in a 3 Piece”, which features the album's best guitar solo, precede the album's final track, “A Apolitical Blues”, which, as the name suggests, is a blues song.
Although good, the track isn't one of those essential for understanding the complete album, but it's also not entirely unnecessary or disconnected.
OU812 experiences standout moments and doesn't let the bar drop. The excellent and technically proficient instrumentation, combined with powerful and precise vocals, creates an atmosphere that allows the album to flow smoothly.
The sonic variety is also something to highlight. Even though it has a similar idea of what the work should be, it is not repetitive, having very welcome breaks in expectation.
This work also makes it possible to perceive how much higher the sound quality of the band is during Sammy Hagar's time in Van Halen. Although it doesn't produce as many hits as the David Lee Roth era, the songs are much better composed and performed, and Hagar possesses a much more melodic voice, greater control over it, and a beautiful vocal range.
When talking about Van Halen, it's impossible not to mention the solos of one of the greatest guitarists in history, but it's also important to highlight the other band members, who deliver high-quality work.
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