Diver Down (studio album)
by Van Halen

Diver Down is my favorite Van Halen album, all of the songs are memorable but the songs that specifically stick out are Big Bad Bill and Happy Trails because they are different and that's something I think makes this album so great. Solid 6/10 from me.

From adnielsen 04/12/2018 19:13

I'm surprised to see this rated so poorly. There's a handful of throwaway songs like Big Bad Bill and Happy Trails, but there's also some amazing classics on this like Secrets, Little Guitars, and Cathedral. Pretty Woman is an excellent cover version that really reintroduced the song to a new generation. Not a lot of bands can match the original artist's version of a song, but DLR and the bros do great here! A fun album with some hits and misses, but overall, one of my favourites of the VH catalogue. At the current moment, this is my most listened to VH album over the past decade.

Humorous album that's fun to listen to but ultimately worth less than most albums I've rated from an artistic standpoint.

Other than a couple gems, this album suffers from way too much filler. But really you can't blame the band, this was originally an EP, but the label forced it into an album with too much filler and covers.

Gems: Where Have All the Good Times Gone, Secrets, Pretty Woman, Little Guitars

Easily the worst Van Halen album with David Lee Roth at the helm. Diver down, sees the band totally uninspired and short on original material, at least good original material, hence the cover versions. It's not un-enjoyable, just extremely disappointing considering how brilliant, inventive and witty their first four albums were.

I like this one a lot. Very fun originals like Little Guitars and some classic covers like Pretty Woman and Where Have All The Good Times Gone.

"Little Guitars" with its "Intro" is one of the greatest rock songs.

No other band could get away with covering "Happy Trails" and "Big Bad Bill" and still make them fit.

It feels weird to call Van Halen's "Diver Down" (1982) a great album - it's slight, and a hodgepodge (like The Rolling Stones' "Flowers;") however, what it lacks in weight, it makes up for in pure fun.

Theoretically, a twelve-song album featuring five (bizarrely disparate) covers and three short instrumentals is a train-wreck; however, this isn't. To Van Halen's credit, there's a singular attitude - summery, humorous, and as carnivalesque as Venice Beach - unifying the diversity of "Diver Down."

Although it's generally conceded to be the least essential of Van Halen's six-classics-in-a-row - now seven, including 2012's "A Different Kind of Truth" - "Diver Down" showcases the Roth/Van Halen creative team as the gloriously odd entity it is. The brilliant original "Little Guitars" sits between the goof music hall rave-up "Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)" and a virtuoso flamenco guitar introduction. "Secrets" is an understated major statement, among the band's greatest songs.

As much as the band's previous album, "Fair Warning," (1981,) is cast in the image of guitarist/songwriter Eddie Van Halen, "Diver Down" is cast in the image of vocalist/songwriter David Lee Roth.

Although "Diver Down" features VH Mach 1's lowest classic song ratio, very few rock bands ("hard" or otherwise) release albums in the same league as this 'odds and sods' collection. To think, all Van Halen set out to do here was let Warner Bros. pad its cover of "(Oh) Pretty Woman..."

One of my group favs.

I saw the band on this tour and they were on top of their game live. "Intruder" has to be one of my favorite instrumentals of all time. I used to listen to it and imagine a video in my head of a mad scientist creating a Frankenstein monster named "Larry" because at times it sounds as if Van Halen's guitar is saying "Larry? Larry? Larry??"

I did a lot of drugs back then. :)