Fair Warning
by Van Halen
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Van Halen bestography
Fair Warning is ranked 3rd best out of 17 albums by Van Halen on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Van Halen is Van Halen which is ranked number 385 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 4,297.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Fair Warning on YouTube
Fair Warning track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 78 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Fair Warning rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 3 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  ExTeaSea | Top 79 Music Albums of 1981 | 58/79 | 1 |
| 2026 | juanr1096 | Top 57 Music Albums of 1981 | 32/57 | 2 |
| 2026 |  paladisiac | top albums, #2701-2800* | 33/77 | - |
| 2026 | fabm0 | List 1981 | 25/100 | - |
| 2026 |  MetalMan67 | Top 99 Music Albums of the 1980s | 21/99 | 16 |
| 2026 |  jeremy9 | Top 41 Music Albums of 1981 | 15/41 | 3 |
| 2026 | steve397 | Top 94 Music Albums of the 1980s | 24/94 | 15 |
| 2026 | joathome | Top 41 Music Albums of 1981 | 33/41 | 1 |
| 2026 | fabm0 | Platinum year 1981 | 22/71 | - |
| 2026 |  Repo | 1981: Metal | 14/45 | - |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 158 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 644 | |||
Fair Warning collection
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Fair Warning ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 270 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 09/12/2026 00:07 |  Brandon8 | 1,055 | 88/100 |
| ! | 09/03/2026 22:09 | culwin | 1,614 | 75/100 |
| ! | 07/23/2026 23:18 | xhitmanx | 1,604 | 75/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 7% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 75.1/100, a mean average of 74.2/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 75.2/100. The standard deviation for this album is 19.6.
Fair Warning favourites
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Fair Warning forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 12/01/2022 17:02 in Monthly overall chart movements - November 2022View latest topic →
Repo 12/16/2021 03:18 in Rank 'Em: The Beach BoysView all forum mentions
Fair Warning comments
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Check out this album with an open mind, whether you think you may like Van Halen or not.
"Fair Warning" isn't a party like "Van Halen" and doesn't have something for everyone like "1984." It has a cynical, streetwise, skateboard punk attitude, and funk grooves in almost every song.
It's been only a few months since I got the 12 VH albums from iTunes... When I was growing up in the late '90s, I thought of Van Halen as a hard rockin' Bon Jovi... This is much closer to punk.
Every song's either very good or great. (Edited)
A musician's album considered by many - generally musicians rather than the album-buying public - to be Van Halen's greatest achievement, "Fair Warning" (1981) gave birth to the sub-genre of funk metal, (later popularized by Jane's Addiction, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and others.) Few popular rock albums contain more compelling contradictions: punk attitude igniting (ironically) virtuoso musicianship; a party band's descent into dark cynicism; a weird, borderline inaccessible album recorded during a hugely popular and influential band's Zeppelin-esque streak of six classic, mega-sellers in-a-row. This is the first Van Halen album that a garage, punk, or indie rocker should investigate.
Bork TOP 100 COMMENTER 07/14/2010 23:50 | #13528 | TOP COMMENT
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An intermediate album in the Diamond Dave-era. Everything both before it and after it was vastly better.
Van Halen's masterpiece. Nothing before or after could match this album, including "Van Halen" and "1984".
maxperenchio 04/23/2010 11:10 | #10907 | TOP COMMENT
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this album rules woolwasa is a goon
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